Are these speaker cables safe to use?

[Alex C]

Never seen cables in this condition before so wanted to ask before potentially shocking myself or damaging anything. I plan to insert the banana plugs into the SP3 amp, and bare wire into the speakers.

[m-fine]

If the red wire and the black wire touch each other, or the silver ground strands touch both, you will have a short which will not do good things to your SP3. Tube amps tend to be rather intolerant of a short or no load, so make sure everything is hooked up and clean before turning the amp on.

You will definitely want to trim those ground strands back to the insulation and make sure ther is no way for them to touch anything. Make sure the black and red wires can not touch, when inserted into the amp and speaker. You can get some heat shrink tubing from a local radioshack for a couple bucks. That plus a hair dryer can cover up the exposed wire and plug bases in a few minutes.

[Alex C]

If the red wire and the black wire touch each other, or the silver ground strands touch both, you will have a short which will not do good things to your SP3. Tube amps tend to be rather intolerant of a short or no load, so make sure everything is hooked up and clean before turning the amp on.

You will definitely want to trim those ground strands back to the insulation and make sure ther is no way for them to touch anything. Make sure the black and red wires can not touch, when inserted into the amp and speaker. You can get some heat shrink tubing from a local radioshack for a couple bucks. That plus a hair dryer can cover up the exposed wire and plug bases in a few minutes.

I'm a newbie, so want to clarify some terms. Is the insulation, the white or clear stuff sticking out in pictures 3 and 4 or the maroon? Will any heat shrink work? I remember reading a cable thread where different sizes were listed. Thanks for the reply.

[corndog71]

I'm a newbie, so want to clarify some terms. Is the insulation, the white or clear stuff sticking out in pictures 3 and 4 or the maroon? Will any heat shrink work? I remember reading a cable thread where different sizes were listed. Thanks for the reply.

The white/clear stuff is just filler to help the cable appear round.

The red and black are the primary insulators. Heat shrink would be fine.

I just noticed there's a bare "drain" wire sticking out in the top pic. That should be cut where it comes out of the jacket. You don't need it. Ideally speaker cables shouldn't be shielded.

[Alex C]

The white/clear stuff is just filler to help the cable appear round.

The red and black are the primary insulators. Heat shrink would be fine.

Thanks.