Best/Affordable Speaker Wire

[Fredhizzle]

you can also go to your local homedepot and get bulk speaker wire for sheap too.

 

[rnatalli]

NASA is getting into the speaker wire business. They're selling some for $100,000 per foot which will make you system sound Out-of-this-World.

Joking... Monoprice, BJC, Home Depot, Audioholics, Home Depot, Radio Shack are all fine.

 

[Alex2507]

Oh yeah, I got a 250' spool of 14/2 CL rated speaker wire and a cable slicer from Parts Express for my sister's install. I think everything was around $100 and that's enough wire for her, her neighbors, her kids, me and some of my friends. Anyways, lots of wire, not a lot of money.

 

[Sheep]

I can only think of one system that might be able to make use of 10AWG wire and that was a $40K 2ch system 12 is already overkill, but if you were looking to be future proof, 12 would be sufficient. 14 is good to about 80ft with a typical 8 Ohm speaker.

I bought my in-wall wire from Monoprice as well.

No it's not. The impedance isn't a fixed value, and will drop below 8 ohms, regardless if it is rated for 8.

12ga is good for 50 foot runs on 4 Ohm loads. This is where I would start.

SheepStar

 

[j_garcia]

No it's not. The impedance isn't a fixed value, and will drop below 8 ohms, regardless if it is rated for 8.

12ga is good for 50 foot runs on 4 Ohm loads. This is where I would start.

SheepStar

Thanks Sheep, we all know that impedance varies with frequency, but that isn't what the recommendation was for. Just because a given speaker might drop below 8 on it's curve doesn't mean it will be a problem, since the frequencies being played back are constantly changing, thus the 8 Ohm *nominal* rating.

 

[alphaiii]

HTD has some nice in-wall wire - if you're ok with 14 awg (2 or 4 conductor).

 

[alphaiii]

Link to HTD speaker wire:

http://www.htd.com/speaker-cables-accessories/Speaker-and-Subwoofer-Cables

 

[greggp2]

I bought bi-wires from these guys and am waiting for them to come in. Best deal I could find in 12 gauge with banana terminations that were professionally done. Saw a picture of them in PDawg's system. They look nice. Hoping they will be in today!!!

www.bestdealcables.com is another great site great cable great prices

 

[mperfct]

I had some longer in wall runs using the Monoprice cable that CraigV recommended. Works well from what I can tell, and my house hasn't burned down.

 

[DaleAV]

I had Canare 4S11 made up with terminations by BJC for my mains and center. (Bi-amped/bi-wired respetively).

http://bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/index.htm

I use flat 16ga for my surrounds.

 

[cl35m]

None of mine is in-wall but I use nothing but 10 ga solid core romex electrical wire. You could probably get away with 12 or 14 ga. If you are picky about SQ (sound quality), it would be best to buy some short lengths and do some side by side (left vs right) comparisons before routing your final choice in the wall.

If you like the romex then there is a commercial brand called anticables which I've never heard but they use single strand solid core of 12 ga I believe and is supposed to be much easier to work with than romex.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Can you "really" tell a difference from 12 or 14 AGW?

YES. Much stiffer to work with

 

[santeini]

http://www.belden.com/07Markets/07_Enterprise/07_Enterprise_Enterprise_AV_Applications/Overview.cfm#speaker

Try them good and cheap.

 

[DaleAV]

Nice simple & sensible advice!

How refereshing not hearing one 'intelligent adult' telling another to use brand X cable, because he will hear something better.
Totally disregarding the fact they have different electronic components thrown together in acoustically different environments, and listening with a different pair of ears.
I wonder what there will be to argue about if everything in the future goes wireless? Maybe air quality?