A customer shipped me this speaker kit for assembly. There are definitely some tricks to be learned as this can be a time consuming assembly. Hopefully this assembly log assists anyone looking to complete this task themselves. Here’s a link to GR-Research who is selling the cable kits.

Product details:

GR research offers 24-strand and 16-strand versions of this cable. The included photos and description apply to the 24-strand version. 16-strand would differ only in its overall gauge.

This cable consists of 12-white and 12-clear individually sleeved conductors. Each color is braided in opposing directions. Each conductor is 19.5 gauge and consists of 7 strands of varying sizes (0.5mm x1, 0.4mm x1, 0.3mm x2, 0.25mm x2, 0.2mm x1)

Assembly log:

1st step is to separate the white strands from the clear strands.
2nd, start twisting each color together at its base and strip each end. I found that using a quality 20 gauge wire stripper with about 90% squeezing pressure gave me good clean stripping with no cut wires.
Tube connectors are the most work to install but also give the best performance. After stripping all the wires and loosely combining them into one bunch I separated out about 25% of the strands, intentionally leaving the thicker strands in the middle and pulling the thinner strands out to the sides making the larger “Y” shape. Then I gave the main central bunch just enough twist to keep the strands tightly together without gaps. Then I started pulling out a couple strand at a time until I was able to get the tube connector post to slide over the bare wires. There is a shallow internal lip within the post that has a reduced diameter from its open base. I kept removing or adding individual strands until I fully maxed out that reduced internal diameter and I was confident that I was inserting every bit of wire that could possibly fit.

Next I squared off the very end with cutters, barely trimming off any longer ends, again with the goal of filling all of the available internal space. Then I started adding those few wires I had pulled out while fine tuning the diameter and twisted them only around the lower base portion up until reaching that internal reduction inside the tube connector post. The result in the photo above shows the squared end with maximum diameter through the internal reduction and the maximum diameter up to that reduction. It does create a stepped appearance and while sliding the post over the bare wire that small internal lip will force those few extra wires around the base downward and they will automatically settle in their final resting spot against the internal lip. The above photo shows the end-result ready to have the tube connector post slid back on and soldered internally.

It’s certainly reasonable that you could skip some of that extra effort fine tuning the interior volume, and just push in whatever fits but my default position is typically to always put in the extra effort whenever possible. I wanted to make sure the customer had every advantage possible towards the best performance of his product. I don’t get paid for any of that extra time but I sleep well knowing I gave the best possible outcome, plus I never have to deal with re-doing or fixing a rushed job.

Above photo is the final dry-fit as the free wire stands get grouped together and are ready to wrap around the base.

with the internal wires soldered to the inside base of the tube connector post, the remaining free wires get wrapped around the outside base of the post. The loose wires need to be spread out and flattened to avoid too much of a bulge but also to make sure that all of the available contact surface of the post’s base is directly contacting the wrapped wire.

With the internal portion soldered and the remaining wires wrapped around the base, the exterior base gets soldered next. With the internal space filled and the base wrapped, maximum surface contact is obtained with the copper tube connector post. This is necessary with the 24-strand version, since 8 gauge is too much to fit inside the post but none of that extra wire is wasted since full contact is made on the outside base. If building the 16-strand version of this cable, the entire 8-strand bunch should fit inside the tube connector post.
Admittedly, the soldering job on these tube connector posts does take some effort and needs a capable soldering iron. Part of the challenge is the mass of the 8-gauge wire and the mass of the tube connector posts. The higher wire mass is such a good conductor it efficiently sucks up the heat and pulls it away from the area you are heating. The wire may even start to get hot where you are holding it. Just keep heating until the solder melts on the wire, not on the iron. Quality solder is also worthwhile, especially one with a slightly lower melt point.
After terminating each pair of posts I applied heat shrink tubing over the wire and the posts. White over the white, red over the clear, each of which were tightly twisted together. I played with a couple variants. On this first pair of posts you can see that both sides got white heat shrink covering the half of the wires closest to the “Y” junction. I ended up removing those pieces of heat shrink, leaving that portion of wire its original uncovered clear/white colors. Leaving the base uncovered allows the wire to be more flexible.
EFR cloth is taped around the portion where the two wire colors are separated from the main cable. A final application of heat shrink gets placed over that.
Final product.
On this particular pair, the customer specifically specified no rope through the middle of the cable braid. The speaker end received tube connector posts, the receiver end was terminated with a bare wire loop. On the customer’s set up, that loop goes over a brass post and is compressed between two brass nuts, together with another bare wire loop that goes straight into the amplifier. It’s a very clean setup providing wire to wire connection at the amplifier outputs. Of course any type of connectors can be used to terminate this wire. The remaining photos are just for illustration purposes. Let me know if there is a portion of this assembly you want clarified or further explained and I can update the page accordingly. At bottom of photos I’ll give a few final thoughts on this wire kit which is offered for sale by GR-Research.
These wire loop wraps did get soldered before the heat shrink was applied. Some of the wire was separated from the final loop to allow the loop to stay tight and compact. A loop with the full 8 gauge was going to be a little bit large for the customer’s use.
My total assembly time for this speaker cable set was more than 8 hours. It is a lot of wire stripping. 24-conductors for each end = 96 strands. 2 stripping operations for each conductor because of the longer length get stripped = 192 stripping operations. Some conductors may end up getting stripped a 3rd time just so they end up all the same lengths.

Final thoughts on this kit:

Cables do matter. Connectors do matter. Each can have an affect on your sound characteristics. This is at least one of the best options available for speaker cables anywhere, and quite possible the best option in its price bracket. At the high level of performance offered with this cable, any differences in comparison with another truly top-tier cable would be preferential, and spending more beyond the price of this assembly would not necessarily get you better performance.

Pricing thoughts. Many commentators on various forums have compared this to the Kimber 12TC cable. It is a reasonable comparison since both utilize the same basic format of Counterbraided conductors of 19.5 gauge each, consisting of varying strand diameters within each conductor. The Kimber 12TC is a highly-praised cable even at its $695 price for a 6.5 ft pair. To price compare