Has anyone used rg6 for speaker cable?

like the mit tmax

No, but in a pinch we have used RG-6 in place of cat 5 for a single line phone

We had a client who used RG6 coax all the time for speaker cable. He was a very discerning listener who compared all different types of cables for speaker connections. There are manufactures who use it for their speaker cables also.

While I would not use RG-6 for speaker wire for a number of reasons, I have seen it used before.

A client of mine was using all RG-6 for his speaker wire (proudly stapled on drywall) for his surround system! This was a referral from an existing client. He was a software engineer who initially seemed to be a "know it all" yet he just could not get his PIP to work. This was about 8-10 years ago. He claimed that it was better than the most esoteric speaker wire available and could not imagine using anything else for his "state of the art" system.

The funny part was that his "State of the art" system consisted of a Technics dolby surround receiver (pre pro logic) and (you'll love this) 4 BOSE 901 speakers.
When I tried to educate him at first about surround systems, wiring,etc ...he seemed offended. How could some A/V guy know more than me? I am an engineer!

Rather than argue with him I let him know where he could get the most current information about surround encoding straight from Dolby. I pointed him towards comparisons and white papers on wiring.

Through the years he has called me back to make custom cables for his computer DVD player to his home theater, and a full multiroom system for his Mother's home. He has not really questioned my recommendations since the first meeting, he has even helped me on a C++ project I had in school and we are decent friends now.

Back to the topic, I thought his system initially sounded awful, which could have been the wire, the speakers, etc... I have never seen a manufacturer use RG-6 for speaker level before.

I seem to recall an old Stereophile comparison test using everything from romex to thousand dollar per foot wire. I'll see if I can dig it up.

It would pretty much be the same as using 18 gauge speaker wire.

CJ

Yes, it would be pretty much the same as using 18 gauge speaker wire. Great for short runs, except for how hard it is to connect it to speaker and amp terminals.

Why do you ask? Do you need to put a speaker where you have an RG-6 and no speaker wire? How far is it from the amp?

I was in my neighbors house yesterday and his theater is wired with coax. Standard cable plates at each speaker with a breakout at each plate. They were 9 feet off the floor and I couldn't tell if they were MIT TMAX or not - blame it on my bad vision. I though MIT abandonend that stuff long ago. I was just wondering about the sound quality. He couldn't figure out how turn the system on so I couldn't get a listen. He just purchased the house and the developer had some out of town firm install it. I can't believe quality 14g wouldn't be better. The MIT TMAX stuff was, as I remember about $60 per speaker. Plus the RG6 silver they recommend is another $.40 a foot. Seemed a little strange to me.

I remember reading about a homemade dual-RG6 speaker cable. The center conductor of one coax (let's call it 'A'), is paralleled with (joined at the ends) the shield of the other ('B'), and the center of 'B' is paralleled with the shield of 'A'.

I can't imagine any electrical benefit, except maybe for a high capacitance, but it otherwise seemed an excuse for using up a large surplus of coax. I would still run good ol' speaker wire, and only use a coax to feed an amplified speaker.