2. cables
  3. 128414-84541

Please assure me I'm not going to burn my house down.

I recently bought some new mono class D amps to replace a stereo class D. I had a pair of identical diy power cords connected to the stereo amp and my preamp.

Well, with monos I was obviously going to use the identical power cords. So I needed a new PC for my pre, as the older diy version I had laying around just used thhn wire from Lowe’s and didn’t sound great. So, after some thought and research, I decided to make a PC out of cat 5 plenum cable. I kept it in its blue sleeve (containing 4 twisted pairs) and then I braided 3 lengths together for each conductor. I then took those three braids and braided them. What I have sounds incredible and I’m fairly confident that it is safe electrically.

Please reassure me. Or tell me I forgot about x, and that I should cease and desist. Or laugh at how cheap I am...

But really, I’m not going to start a fire here, am I? 8 conductors per length x 3 lengths for each conductor equals 24 strands of 24awg. Which equals 10awg for each conductor...
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Showing 1 response by mr_hosehead

mr_hosehead
200 posts
 
Do you live alone?  And alone in a single-family house, not an apartment/condo/duplex where others live in the same building?  If you'd answer "no" to any of that then please just get a commercially acceptable power cord.  And please get it now - you just cannot do that to others...

There are some very good reasons there are regulations, etc. about stuff like power cords.  And it does matter - I still have vivid memories of a couple of guys scrambling down a stairway yelling "Fire!" many, many years ago and what caused that is probably not much different than your creation.  It's really, really just not worth that.


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