balanced speaker cables

[bloosquare]

There is probably a really good answer to this so I am posting this here. My understanding is that speaker cable is generally unshielded and two wire because it is high current and as such RFI does not really play that much of a role.

However, there are all sorts of expensive speaker cables that reduce RFI in various ways and the general view is to keep the speaker cable run the shortest w/ the balanced line outs carrying most of the signal to the amps which are ideally located near the speakers. Since home theatre setups generally have the longest signal run the amp->speaker runs, wouldn't the cheapest real solution be one that uses the equivalent of balanced outputs that are used for line outs i.e. high gauge mike cables w/ maybe a phase inverter or some equivalent on the other side? Or is this impossible?
-avi

 

[Nick250]

I think you are over complicating or have be misinformed about speaker cables. They have no effect on the sound of your system and do not need to balanced or anything else. I personally use Radio Shack 14 gauge cables and 12 gauge from Home Depot is another good choice. If your cable run is going to be over about 40 feet use the 12 gauge.

 

[j_garcia]

Speaker wire is + and -, no ground. There is nothing to balance, and as you already noted, no real need to shield unless you are running the wires parallel and within a few inches of power lines for long runs.

For long distance runs for amps, balanced is the way to go because of the greater noise rejection, but for speakers it's really a non-issue.

 

[bloosquare]

Thanks for the responses guys. That makes sense.

-avi