PC Peripherals Extension cables for Logitech Z5300. DIY how to?

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mod-the-pc

Disciple
I'm trying to make my own extension cables for my Logitech Z5300. The supplied cables are too short. Will a normal RCA male to female cable made using audio cables work? Is there some specification to be checked while getting audio cables?
What are the things that I should be taking care of?
 
get copper cables if possible, they are good at transporting waves... anyways i dont know what kind of cables are there supplied with X5300, please post up which kind of wire end is there? like the 2 opened wires or some plug which u find on dvd player (AV Connector) connecting wires?
 
@zhopudey are the composite connectors different from stereo mini jacks?
@nVidiaBeast, the speakers is z5300 are connected to the sub by means a connector that looks like the ones on component cables, but I'm not sure though. Waiting for member to enlighten me ...
 
A pic would help.

RCA to RCA will work fine. Use polarity marked wires (with a stripe on one side) and respect the polarity. I would use the cheapest speaker cable you can find. Ask for 15-18AWG, anything thicker won't fit on RCA and anything thinner will be too flimsy. The stock wire would be 24 AWG, which is way too thin (bigger numbers are thinner).

@nvidiabeast: Most wire available today is copper. Maybe you'e talking OFC? OFC actually has higher resistance, but it's still preferred as it does not tarnish as easily as normal copper wire.

You could probably pay someone to make them for you if you're not comfortable. I use good quality connectors, pay about 100 bucks a pair. It's OK since I only buy once. But wire is cool, everything available here performs roughly the same. Just ensure the insulation isn't too thick or hard, as the cables then get tangled easily and are not flexible.
 
subrear2.jpg


Here is the pic of the sub's back. The connectors I'm speaking about are the top 5 ones. Thanks very much nvidiabeast, sangram & zhopudey
 
So went around to ritchie street this weekend. Went to a shop selling connectors & cables. This is the rate he quoted.
Gold plated male RCA connectors - Rs 80 a pair
Gold plated female RCA connectors - Rs 120 a pair
14AWG speaker cables - Rs 5000 for a 100m box.
I just needed 25m of that cable, but he was not willing to sell just 25m and I'd to walk away.

The next shop, not a fancy one with all the high end stuff, but the guys there had good presence of mind. They recommended buying an AV cable, splitting it into two and using RCA-RCA female connectors. This would mean no soldering!! everything prebuilt...so I got a 10m AV cable for the rear speakers and a 4m AV cable for the front. Plus 4 RCA female-RCA female connectors. The total cost was Rs 260 (150+60+50).

Went home, ripped the AV cable into two and tested them with my rear speakers...Great there was no noticeable loss of audio clarity. I never thought that this was going to be so easy...Maybe others who're looking for extension cables will benefit from this idea
 
Yeah, great, good you don't notice a loss in quality. Those are coaxial signal wire, not speaker wire. They are simply not meant to carry a speaker level signal which is quite high power. Plus, coax is capacitative so though you may not notice it, the amp will be more stressed under load.

Plus, all those metal-to-metal contacts aren't good for the signal. I would NOT recommend this to anyone. If you can't notice a difference in quality I'd say the speakers don't have the resolution to reveal it, and you have the danger of blowing up your amp as amps don't like capacitative load, and the components required to save the amp from such a load are probably not used in an amp like that in the Z5300.

I would recommend to not go to a hi-fi shop in the first place. I normally go to the electronics mart. Find a guy who sells MX connectors. Pick up the connectors you need (I would completely change the original wires, those are really too thin), and the required length of wire. In two hours of soldering you can make some pretty good connectors.

As long as you can solder, that is!
 
sangram said:
Yeah, great, good you don't notice a loss in quality. Those are coaxial signal wire, not speaker wire. They are simply not meant to carry a speaker level signal which is quite high power. Plus, coax is capacitative so though you may not notice it, the amp will be more stressed under load.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for this information. I knew that too many connectors would degrade signal quality ...but I never knew about that I would blow up my amp with the kind of cables I have. Back to Ritchie street again...to get some quality wires & connectors. What's MX ? is that a brand? How much do you think the whole thing will cost? I can do the soldering myself and its not a big deal for me.

Thanks once again
 
MX is an Indian brand of connectors, the only one really worth considering if you're on a budget and still want passable quality. The best are Neutrik, but those are expensive.

Each plug should be about 50 bucks and the wire should not be more than Rs 50/m, if you pay more than that you're being fooled. Don't buy it from an electrical shop - I don't remember what the place in Chennai was when I wanted to buy this stuff - Kodambakkam? Is that right? Ours is Lamington Road, Cal is Chandni Chowk,wherever you get electronics and computer stuff (not household electrical stuff, things like tape recorders and DVD players etc).

More than cost it's effort.

Pick gold-plated plugs, they really help to keep the corrosion out. I like the really long ones that say MX-Digital and have a shiny chrome jacket, very heavy barrel and heavy ground connection (AFAIK those are 75 each, but you buy only once). Don't buy the ones witha full gold barrel - it's just coated brass (these should be about 35 each and may look impressive to start with, but you soon will regret it).
 
@sangram, something which I noticed and thought of letting you know- the speaker wires bundled with z5300 look like coaxial ones too. So I'm not going to replace them immediately. Will open them after the warranty is over. Thanks very much for what you shared.
 
that is something even i want to know ?
where can i get them and which one wud be the best one....
dont know the technicalities involved with it.. so plz help :d
 
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