Speaker wire suggestions?

[Gilletter]

Ok new home audio system comes in tomorrow, wondering if anyone has any input on wire brands to use. I was planning on possibly just picking up some in-wall use red and black wires to run my rear channels (will be going through attic) that or just heading up to wal-mart and hitting the car audio section and picking up a roll of 16 gauge speaker wire for like $10... Any input on which would be a better bet for the setup.... thanks in advance

 

[majestic12]

Having used high-end wires in equipment before, I honestly cannot hear a difference between a $100 Monster Cable and a cheap generic, permitted the guage is decent. What kind of speakers are you hooking up?

 

[pantherx12]

El-cheapo is fine as long as you get thick gauge copper!

I go for see through wire for this reason, as I can see how thick the copper wire is myself.

 

[newmodder]

how many watts is the system? Majestic is right the high end wires dont show or sound any different, i use cheap radio shack wires on my 600watt home theatre system and they work just dandy. and the right gauge like pantherx12 just said.

 

[department76]

you will be able to find cheap 16ga wire (which is plenty, even 18ga would probably be ok for short distances) at walmart, OFC even. others are correct; cheap brands will perform identical to expensive ones.

in terms of speaker wire the only two things warranting the price difference between a $100 roll and a $10 roll is the feel of the insulation and the namebrand on the label (assuming both are OFC and the same gauge).

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

 

[AsRock]

Well i don't like real cheap wire but yes like the rest there is no need for monster cable and such. In fact there was a moster RCA cable that cost me some way back and seemed to make the sound worse( cut base off ).

EDIT:
I like some thing like this but it's better got of ebay
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...067&cm_re=speaker_wire-_-12-155-067-_-Product

 

[TIGR]

I am not recommending you get this but wondering what people's take is on this. It's scary cheap.

Also, from the same seller, this. I chose to link that one because one of this seller's feedbacks said that the 10ga wire he purchased was more like 14-16 gauge, so it might be about right for you.

 

[Kenshai]

This is what I use, cheap and same quality you get elsewhere. Also if you want a lower gauge Monoprice has them for cheap as well.

 

[TIGR]

This is what I use, cheap and same quality you get elsewhere. Also if you want a lower gauge Monoprice has them for cheap as well.

That looks good, and the reviews are helpful, plus great price.

 

[RejZoR]

I'm using 1.0 square cable (not sure how you guys call it in US) for my Altec Lansing system. The cable is pretty thick, full copper with transparent insulation. It looks nicer on the wall and i think the sound was kinda softer with it, but it could just be a placebo effect, i don't know.

 

[pantherx12]

All about buying speaker wire from Lidls

£3.99

 

[Steve-007UK]

If you have a high end stereo or amp then speaker wire can make a diffrence to the sound but its hard to tell the diffrence.

I use Q.E.D silver speaker wire and it defo make the high's and mid sound much better but i also have it running thru some nice equipment.

On the other hand i use basic red and black wire for my other speakers that run of a crappy amp and changing the speaker wires for the Q.E.D makes no diffrence at all.

this is the Q.E.D wire
http://www.stoneaudio.co.uk/ i splt mine into 2 runs as my speakers are not bi wire

 

[Chris_Ramseyer]

You guys are killing me here, I have to chime in.

The first thing you need to understand is that the sound starts at the source. If you are using a Walmart CD player then you are not going to get the sound quality that would make nice speaker cables sound good.

When it come to copper wire there are several kinds. For audio/video you want O2 free copper. The O2 really has nothing to do with it but it is the processes of removing the O2 is what takes out all of the impurities. With that in mind....

Acoustic Research makes some really good bang for the buck interconnect wires (RCA to RCA). You can get them all over the place and they are pretty good for bang for the buck.

The next step up is quite a leap but you will get deeper lows and crisper highs with Tara Labs interconnects. The Prism Series wires show up on EBay all of the time for really good prices.

If you have the option to go TOSLINK or SPDIF then you can find a guy on EBay that sells glass fiber SPDIF. The difference between plastic and glass is out of this world as long as you have the other parts to go with it. GLASS FIBER IS THE SHIT yet not really that expensive.

For speaker wire you really only need to go nice on three speakers. The center channel and the two front speakers. You can use tinfoil for the rear, they only give you 10% of the sound and usually it is suppose to be ambient background stuff anyhow. OK, not really tinfoil but you get the idea.

For the front speakers The Tera Labs Prism Series is a good choice for not a lot of money.


Here are glass TosLink Cables. It really doesn't get much better than those unless you want to spend 1K on a 3 foot piece of glass. Just don't make tight 90 degree bends

 

[Easy Rhino]

You guys are killing me here, I have to chime in.

The first thing you need to understand is that the sound starts at the source. If you are using a Walmart CD player then you are not going to get the sound quality that would make nice speaker cables sound good.

When it come to copper wire there are several kinds. For audio/video you want O2 free copper. The O2 really has nothing to do with it but it is the processes of removing the O2 is what takes out all of the impurities. With that in mind....

Acoustic Research makes some really good bang for the buck interconnect wires (RCA to RCA). You can get them all over the place and they are pretty good for bang for the buck.

The next step up is quite a leap but you will get deeper lows and crisper highs with Tara Labs interconnects. The Prism Series wires show up on EBay all of the time for really good prices.

If you have the option to go TOSLINK or SPDIF then you can find a guy on EBay that sells glass fiber SPDIF. The difference between plastic and glass is out of this world as long as you have the other parts to go with it. GLASS FIBER IS THE SHIT yet not really that expensive.

For speaker wire you really only need to go nice on three speakers. The center channel and the two front speakers. You can use tinfoil for the rear, they only give you 10% of the sound and usually it is suppose to be ambient background stuff anyhow. OK, not really tinfoil but you get the idea.

For the front speakers The Tera Labs Prism Series is a good choice for not a lot of money.


Here are glass TosLink Cables. It really doesn't get much better than those unless you want to spend 1K on a 3 foot piece of glass. Just don't make tight 90 degree bends

how do you connect toslink and rca cables to speakers ?

 

[MohawkAngel]

I can drive 200 watts RMS per channel on an old 70's and and speakers on small 1 dollar store wire..i pushed it to the limit and no problems so dont worry they will hold up the heat.

 

[Jetster]

how do you connect toslink and rca cables to speakers ?

toslink is only to your amp.....

Same with (RCA to RCA) not to your speakers

 

[Chris_Ramseyer]

I am just saying that unless you start from the source with good wire you don't need good speaker cable.

 

[cadaveca]

I can drive 200 watts RMS per channel on an old 70's and and speakers on small 1 dollar store wire..i pushed it to the limit and no problems so dont worry they will hold up the heat.

This is actually the only place where you will hear a difference in wires..at the max that the stereo can put out. Thin wire will heat up and affect the sound, if not melt and burn.

Electricity flow through the path of least resistance, so for larger-guage wires, the quality of the wire is far more important.

Brand doesn't matter, really.

That said, I use 12 GA. Acoustic Research stuff, and yes, I have "high-end" big-box gear. But I'm a musician with a trained ear, so I tend to notice stuff that others won't.

 

[AsRock]

I am just saying that unless you start from the source with good wire you don't need good speaker cable.

True. although you can find these high end cables actually can take away sound to make sound clearer.

A lot of CD's are just 128KBs which is were a lot of bad sound quality comes from but i guess that depends on your definition of quality and any thing below 192kbs imo is low quality.

Speaker wire to me has to be oxygen free as this can help is quality like in less broken wires in the cable and only reason i will not buy the cheapest is due to bad quality over time were the wire casing decays.

really high end cables the only thing that can tell a difference is a computer that they tested it with and is not even noticeable to the human ear. Even in bi wire setups the difference is not even noticeable.

 

[cadaveca]

You should come to my house...the difference is VERY noticable, specifically bi-amped. The bass is clearer and tighter.

 

[Easy Rhino]

toslink is only to your amp.....

Same with (RCA to RCA) not to your speakers

i know...

 

[Frederik S]

Just buy something that has a reasonable gauge and quality. Termination is just as important as the wire so for interconnects try and get some with half decent connectors. Unless you have some really high end equipment basically anything labeled as speaker wire will do the trick.

 

[Pickles24]

Blue Jeans Cable is the best for the money. It comes out to a little over .65 a foot /12 AWG.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

 

[Gilletter]

Thanks for the replies... for my setup i have klipsche hd500 speakers and a sony 700 series 7.1 receiver. only need like 2 25 ft lengths of wire to go through attic and into back wall for rear surround. was thinking of using 16 gauge radio shack brand. wasnt planning on monster cable. but do need something that can go in wall

 

[MKmods]

Ive been doing stereo since the late 70's and with quality gear you can definitely hear the difference in sound between junk and quality speaker wire/interconnects.
I used to use Kimber Cable for speakers but now I use the generic monster cable twisted stuff.(especially handy in cars)
There are many companies that sell oxygen free cables now so I suppose you could save a few bucks by buying a no-name brand.

If you are using 25' lengths I would go with a heaver ga than 16 (the longer a wire is the heavier ga it should be)