Using CAT5 for speaker wire is the dumbest idea ever

[skeptic]

I needed some hookup wire for a recent project to wire some additional tweeters up. Not much current, short runs of a foot or two each, and since there was plenty of CAT 5 around I figured I'd use it. I knew that some people use it for DIY speaker projects so I thought what the hell, how bad could it be. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. It is very very bad stuff. It's OK for installing telephones where 2700 twisted pairs are jacketed in a 3.3 inch thick PVC outer jacket and there is a kevlar runner inside to relieve the strain. It is OK for wiring telephone jacks in a house or office building where it is terminated once with a push tool on a punchdown block (even on the back of a screw type telephone jack it's not so great if you don't have crimp connectors. But where it has to flex, it breaks after only a few bends in the same spot. It is weak and not intended to be flexed at all. As speaker wire it stinks. Now I have to rewire both entire arrays. IMO, don't ever waste your time with CAT5 telephone wire. The guy who thought this one up was a *(^*%#(^.

[N. Abstentia]

Yeah I've read something somewhere about someone for some reason using CAT-5 for speaker wire.

One question....why? As you've found out, anyone who uses CAT-5 for speaker wire should be either shot, or forced to own a Fisher stereo with Bose speakers. That would be pure torture!