carol cable from home depot, any good?

[raypasote]

Hi, I thought I read in these forums to buy the "carol" cable from Home depot. I bought some 14ga but it doesn't inspire any confidence in me once I got it home. I compared it to the monster cable 16 ga and the monster cable looks better. Also, the home depot cable guy said it was pure copper but one strand is white. I just read a post where some home depot wire turned bright green after several months at someone's home. Should I use this or stick with 16 ga monster cable? My run to the surrounds is about 30 ft. and the only 14ga I could find locally was at home depot but it was a little expensive. I guess I should lick my wounds and take my lumps since I bought this.

 

[lsiberian]

Hi, I thought I read in these forums to buy the "carol" cable from Home depot. I bought some 14ga but it doesn't inspire any confidence in me once I got it home. I compared it to the monster cable 16 ga and the monster cable looks better. Also, the home depot cable guy said it was pure copper but one strand is white. I just read a post where some home depot wire turned bright green after several months at someone's home. Should I use this or stick with 16 ga monster cable? My run to the surrounds is about 30 ft. and the only 14ga I could find locally was at home depot but it was a little expensive. I guess I should lick my wounds and take my lumps since I bought this.

just go to monoprice.com.

 

[mtrycrafts]

...I compared it to the monster cable 16 ga and the monster cable looks better.

Oh, you are after looks? That is in the eye of the beholder, only.

...
Also, the home depot cable guy said it was pure copper but one strand is white. I just read a post where some home depot wire turned bright green after several months at someone's home. Should I use this or stick with 16 ga monster cable? My run to the surrounds is about 30 ft. and the only 14ga I could find locally was at home depot but it was a little expensive. I guess I should lick my wounds and take my lumps since I bought this.

Solder the ends where you have the connection. It should not oxidize and your problem is solved.
The oxidation is from the chemical interaction of the insulation type.
You can always get the 12v landscape wire they sell.

 

[Alex2507]

From what I understand the Home Depot cable that turned green was a batch from way back. I'm not sure it would affect sound. I'm fairly certain that you could use the green stuff to fry yourself with but that's untested. Anyway I seriously doubt that you could tell the difference between 16 and 14 gauge on that distance. I would honestly use the one that I couldn't return.

lsiberian,
Why in the world would you buy a third when you have two and only need one?

 

[raypasote]

thanks everyone

I returned the cable to home depot and I will go to monoprice.com to see what they have. I looked at blue jeans cable but they only have the 10ga and the 12 ga which I think would be too hard to work with. Due to the spouse approval form factor, my cable run to the surrounds is around 38 feet and I cannot shorten it. I will use the 14ga for my surrounds and my monster 16ga for my mains. Thanks for your help!

 

[lsiberian]

From what I understand the Home Depot cable that turned green was a batch from way back. I'm not sure it would affect sound. I'm fairly certain that you could use the green stuff to fry yourself with but that's untested. Anyway I seriously doubt that you could tell the difference between 16 and 14 gauge on that distance. I would honestly use the one that I couldn't return.

lsiberian,
Why in the world would you buy a third when you have two and only need one?

Means you get to buy more stuff.

He's worried about his cables turning green. So I offered him a solution.

 

[Alex2507]

He's worried about his cables turning green. So I offered him a solution.

Oh, sorry then.

The green cable thing I thought to be a non issue and in my very wildest dreams never would have thought to return 14 gauge locally to buy 14 gauge on line ... but that's what makes this a great place and a great hobby. I'm just happy to be a part of it.

 

[highfigh]

Hi, I thought I read in these forums to buy the "carol" cable from Home depot. I bought some 14ga but it doesn't inspire any confidence in me once I got it home. I compared it to the monster cable 16 ga and the monster cable looks better. Also, the home depot cable guy said it was pure copper but one strand is white. I just read a post where some home depot wire turned bright green after several months at someone's home. Should I use this or stick with 16 ga monster cable? My run to the surrounds is about 30 ft. and the only 14ga I could find locally was at home depot but it was a little expensive. I guess I should lick my wounds and take my lumps since I bought this.

Parts Express sells Carol, too but anything on a small diameter spool (like Carol) is a royal PITA. Just buy zip cord, but I would shop around. Home Depot isn't known for their low, low prices on wire.

This kind of thread makes me want to buy cable in bulk and sell it here, just so people won't go to hardware stores for it. Munster Cable and many others are just overpriced wire. Nothing special.

 

[raypasote]

I guess I need to explain

Hi Guys. I guess I need to explain why I returned the carol cable to home depot. When I cut off the plastic and tried to braid the bare wire to put it on the binding posts of my speaker, the strands broke off in my hand and would not form a tight braid. That was what did not inspire confidence. I am an old out of touch audiophile from the 70s (my two sets of speakers were JBL L-100s and Bose 901s running off of a Pioneer 165 watts rms/channel receiver) and I am trying to jog my memory bank back in tune with what is going on today, but I never had speaker cable do that to me in the 70s. I am still looking around for good 14 ga cable here but I will buy it on line if I can't find it here. All I can find here is Monster cable 16ga at Best Buy for $69.00/100 ft.

 

[Alex2507]

This table gets used a lot:

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

About 5 years ago I bought a 250' spool og 16 gauge speaker wire at Home Depot for < $40. It worked fine. A couple of years ago I reused that wire to get a friends system hooked up. It's still fine to this day.

Now for extreme audiophelia there is a different table that can be used :

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-gauge

My last wire purchase was from PE for some 14 gauge and I got the speaker wire jacket stripper. That is a must have toy.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=101-209

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=360-720

Another place to get all the wire info you ever wanted and then some is at BJC. I can't imagine what is causing your wire to break. Maybe it's the big Texas fingers.

 

[Rickster71]

Hi Guys. I guess I need to explain why I returned the carol cable to home depot. When I cut off the plastic and tried to braid the bare wire to put it on the binding posts of my speaker, the strands broke off in my hand and would not form a tight braid.

The outer strands broke off because you scored them when they were stripped.
What tool did you use? There are two different types of wire strippers, one for solid, and one for stranded core wire.

 

[highfigh]

Hi Guys. I guess I need to explain why I returned the carol cable to home depot. When I cut off the plastic and tried to braid the bare wire to put it on the binding posts of my speaker, the strands broke off in my hand and would not form a tight braid. That was what did not inspire confidence. I am an old out of touch audiophile from the 70s (my two sets of speakers were JBL L-100s and Bose 901s running off of a Pioneer 165 watts rms/channel receiver) and I am trying to jog my memory bank back in tune with what is going on today, but I never had speaker cable do that to me in the 70s. I am still looking around for good 14 ga cable here but I will buy it on line if I can't find it here. All I can find here is Monster cable 16ga at Best Buy for $69.00/100 ft.

What did you use to strip the insulation? If you used a stripper with holes for each gauge, the only time I have seen strands come off is when the smaller size die was used.

Are you running this in the walls or laying on the floor?

Here's one-
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=100-774

 

[raypasote]

further explanation

I suppose my first clue not to buy the cable was the amount of dust the salesman had to blow off the cable reel just to sell it to me. I should have headed for the door. I don't think he could remember the last time he sold some. Big Texas Fingers are a maybe if you add "clumsy" to that

 

[Rickster71]

I suppose my first clue not to buy the cable was the amount of dust the salesman had to blow off the cable reel just to sell it to me. I should have headed for the door. I don't think he could remember the last time he sold some. Big Texas Fingers are a maybe if you add "clumsy" to that

See what happens when you don't check the freshness date.

 

[sawzalot]

See what happens when you don't check the freshness date.

Did you just imply ,stale speaker wire,Ha, I like that,a sell by and a use by date, nice.

Hey Rickster its getting close to that brew time.

 

[Rickster71]

Hey Rickster its getting close to that brew time.

I'll be back from FL on the 21st. Don't start without me.