Need help with speaker wire

[Dazed_and_confused]

What do I need to consider in choosing speaker wire? Material, gauge, length, connectors? The speakers have 5 way binding posts. Is it okay if the wire to the surrounds is longer than the other speaker wire or should they all be the same length? Any wire that comes highly recommended?

 

[lsiberian]

What do I need to consider in choosing speaker wire? Material, gauge, length, connectors? The speakers have 5 way binding posts. Is it okay if the wire to the surrounds is longer than the other speaker wire or should they all be the same length? Any wire that comes highly recommended?

For most application 16 awg is plenty 14 awg is preferred for longer runs, but for surrounds 16 awg is plenty. You don't need to spend a lot of money on speaker cable I use home depot silver and copper colored speaker wire because it's a lot easy to see. I strongly recommend getting some good banana plugs for convenience. They don't need to be expensive. Monoprice.com is a great place for all your cabling needs they ship very quickly too. Of course you can use lamp cord on a 2-wire extension cord if you cut the ends off.

 

[Adam]

Also, for speaker wire size recommendations, check out this Roger Russell page or the Audioholics guide.

 

[Toseef]

For most application 16 awg is plenty 14 awg is preferred for longer runs, but for surrounds 16 awg is plenty. You don't need to spend a lot of money on speaker cable I use home depot silver and copper colored speaker wire because it's a lot easy to see. I strongly recommend getting some good banana plugs for convenience. They don't need to be expensive. Monoprice.com is a great place for all your cabling needs they ship very quickly too. Of course you can use lamp cord on a 2-wire extension cord if you cut the ends off.

I agree, monoprice.com is the place to go for all your cabling needs.

 

[Topken]

Here you go a link to the speaker wire page over on Monoprice http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=120&cp_id=12003&cs_id=1023903

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

Here you go a link to the speaker wire page over on Monoprice http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=120&cp_id=12003&cs_id=1023903

Thanks! That's actually exactly what I ordered...100 feet of 16 gauge oxygen-free pure bare copper wire

 

[Topken]

That should work perfectly.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

OFC wire will do the trick and you dont even need to use any plugs with it, you can use bare wire connections in both ends as long as your speakers and receiver supports that, and usually they do.

 

[lsiberian]

OFC wire will do the trick and you dont even need to use any plugs with it, you can use bare wire connections in both ends as long as your speakers and receiver supports that, and usually they do.

You don't need them, but they do make hookup easier on the receiver end. Instead of trying to feed wire into the little holes you just plug in the end of the wire and it locks in place.

 

[Topken]

You don't need them, but they do make hookup easier on the receiver end. Instead of trying to feed wire into the little holes you just plug in the end of the wire and it locks in place.

That and it makes it easier to move things around when you need to.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

You don't need them, but they do make hookup easier on the receiver end. Instead of trying to feed wire into the little holes you just plug in the end of the wire and it locks in place.

That is true. But I would only see myself using plugs if I needed to take wires off often, and I don't need to do so. I set them up and they will be in place until I will move to another place. 16 gauge wire should be easy enough to set up as bare wire too, I myself have 10 gauge (I know it is much more than enough, but I like how thicker wire looks) and that was little tricky on receiver end until I figured out how to do it easily. I myself like bare wire better for multiple reasons, but of course there are pros and cons in both sides and it is for everyone to choose which way to go.

 

[Armandhammer]

So what you're saying is that buying proprietary hybrid geometry ultra low electrical reactance fully annealed 99.999% pure oxygen free cryogenicly frozen Copper wire coated in unicorn tears is overkill for my bookshelf speakers?

 

[JohnnieB]

Well yes... if it weren't for the unicorn tears.

 

[Ty Wayne]

Question:
Why is it twice as cheap at Amazon? Like for a 100 ft., Amazon has it for 9.82 (free shipping with Prime). Monoprice's 100 ft. roll is 19.55 (not sure about shipping). Both are 16 AWG, so why is Amazon half the price?

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-AH16100SR-16-Gauge-Speaker-Wire/dp/B0029HHIDY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420330834&sr=8-2&keywords=speaker+wire

 

[markw]

Question:
Why is it twice as cheap at Amazon? Like for a 100 ft., Amazon has it for 9.82 (free shipping with Prime). Monoprice's 100 ft. roll is 19.55 (not sure about shipping). Both are 16 AWG, so why is Amazon half the price?

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-AH16100SR-16-Gauge-Speaker-Wire/dp/B0029HHIDY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420330834&sr=8-2&keywords=speaker wire

Personally, I'd go for the Amazon wire. I strongly doubt you'll ever near a difference. I use that generic stuff myself, only I get it from Home Depot or Lowes.

 

[Ty Wayne]

Okay, thanks markw. Im leaning towards the cheaper stuff myself. I admit that I don't understand the science behind the oxygen free thing, but I don't think Im going to notice a difference personally.