Wiring help for audio beginner - Bose Acoustimass Need More Cable Length?

N

Niemand262

Audiophyte
TL;DR: How best to extend (or replace with longer) Bose Acoustimass speaker and subwoofer/reciever cables?


Longer Version/Details:

We inherited a Bose Acoustimass 10 (5.1 surround), and purchased an Onkyo TX-NR509 network ready reciever (cheapest one I could find to do the job). The setup is super basic, and is only meant to take advantage of the speakers we inherited.

The Bose speakers came with cables that appear to be standard RCA cables (but of course they are proprietary look/design, Bose brand).

1x - RCA Male to Naked Braided Cable - 5 line 20 foot cable for connecting the receiver to the bass unit
1x - RCA Male to RCA Male - 2 line 50 foot cable for connecting the 2 rear speakers to the bass unit.
1x - RCA Male to RCA Male - 3 line 20 foot cable for connecting the 3 front speakers to the bass unit.

The problem is that we want to put the bass unit in the rear of the room due to decorating and space concerns. To accomplish this, we plan to use the longer 'rear' cables for the front speakers and the shorter 'front' cables for the rear speakers.

However, we are still lacking the length we need. For lengthening the rca/rca cables, can we just buy barrel couplers and rca cables to do this? Will we lose sound quality if we use couplers? Should we shell out for longer cables? If so do they need to be Bose Brand? If not what other brand do folks recommend?

For lengthening the RCA/Braided Line cables, can we just buy braided cable of equal gauge and solder or wire nut them together?

Thank you all for any help you might offer!!

Greg and Nicole
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Welcome to the forum, Greg and Nicole!

When I was younger, I used to use speaker wires with RCA connectors, and I used RCA extension cables to make them longer. Worked just fine. You could always give it a try and see if you notice a difference in the sound (connect the speakers up before you place them too far away to use the included cables, and swap the extension cables in and out and check if you can hear a difference). You won't need barrel couplers (unless you already own some) because you can buy RCA cables with a female jack on one end and a male jack on the other.

Also, like Alex said, you can extend the wire on the other end, too. You'd just buy some speaker wire, connect the two wires together, and wrap them to prevent shorts. You can solder them, twist them together, use wire nuts...anything that gets good contact between the cables.
 
Hi Ho

Hi Ho

Audioholic Samurai
I would go to Home Depot (or similar) and get some 18AWG zip cord (lamp cord) and some butt splice crimp connectors. The problem with using a standard RCA cable is that the wire inside is very thin and not designed to carry amplified signals. Splicing into the cable with crimp connectors and thicker wire will give you a more solid connection. Will you hear a difference? I don't know but that's what I would do because it is cheap and easy enough to do it the right way.
 

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