One nice tweak to the 8TC is to ’puff it open*’ and then insert a one inch thick cotton rope inside the woven tube, Then pull the weave back down over the rope. The openess and changed angles of the weave.. has the result in the wires of the opened up woven cable improving the sound a bit.
This puffing can be done with no inner core, but the results can be difficult to accomplish evenly, and the cable may be easily crushed and damaged with a missstep!!! (the solution is to pull it back down to the original shape, then redo the puff, a complicated process)
The rope also makes the cable nearly impossible to damage if stepped on. (I have had the rope tweak for years and have stepped on my speaker cables many times!)
* to puff 8TC or VS you just push together the weave, it will ’pop’ open, do this along the cable, it WILL BE UNEVEN, that is not a problem if you plan to add the rope. (The rope I used I also trimmed the ends to a taper and wrapped the ends a bit with Teflon plumbers tape to keep it from unraveling as I fiddled with getting it into the cable.To tighten the cable back up, simply pull on it, best twisting a little back and forth to really get the wires right down flat on the rope. One thing this activity is TOUGH ON HANDS as the Teflon of the cable is very hard, and it will cause friction burns and blisters on your hands if you go at it too aggressively. (gloves may help)
Even an already terminated 8C can have this done. Jut at the point the cable is split, you can temporarily enlarge a spot to the side between the wires, to get the rope in, And when you pull it tight, the spot will go back to normal (with a bit of assistance)
This puffing can be done with no inner core, but the results can be difficult to accomplish evenly, and the cable may be easily crushed and damaged with a missstep!!! (the solution is to pull it back down to the original shape, then redo the puff, a complicated process)
The rope also makes the cable nearly impossible to damage if stepped on. (I have had the rope tweak for years and have stepped on my speaker cables many times!)
* to puff 8TC or VS you just push together the weave, it will ’pop’ open, do this along the cable, it WILL BE UNEVEN, that is not a problem if you plan to add the rope. (The rope I used I also trimmed the ends to a taper and wrapped the ends a bit with Teflon plumbers tape to keep it from unraveling as I fiddled with getting it into the cable.To tighten the cable back up, simply pull on it, best twisting a little back and forth to really get the wires right down flat on the rope. One thing this activity is TOUGH ON HANDS as the Teflon of the cable is very hard, and it will cause friction burns and blisters on your hands if you go at it too aggressively. (gloves may help)
Even an already terminated 8C can have this done. Jut at the point the cable is split, you can temporarily enlarge a spot to the side between the wires, to get the rope in, And when you pull it tight, the spot will go back to normal (with a bit of assistance)