First real HT Setup, Wire and Interconnects!?!

[jmanlp]

So I'm getting ready to get my frist realy HT setup going. So far this forum has helped me choose and decide on a lot of hard things. So I know this is a great place to find advice on my next dilema. I need to order my interconnects to wire up everything. I will be needing...

2 - Fiber cables for xbox and dvd player
1 - Digital coax for HTPC
1 - Pair RCA for cd player (which is also the dvd player)
1 - Subwolfer cable
4 - component video cables, from xbox, dvd player, HTPC, and one to plasma

So far I have priced this out and here is what I have come up with. I can get all of this from a local retailer in the form of Monster Cable THX V100 (Monster's lowest series) for $210. I can get everything from bluejeanscable.com for $280 (with shipping and 2 fiber cables from somewhere else). Finally I can get all Accoustic Research locally for $185.

These are just the cables I've heard good things about. Previously I just bought no-name cables from local department stores when needed. I don't want my cables to be my "weak link" so to speak, but I'd rather put more money toward speakers and such. What do you guys recommend. Also I was looking at the Monster HTS 1000 MKII for a surge protection. I would like input on this as well.

For speaker wiring I was going to get a spool of that Sound King and the twist down banana plugs and do it myself (from the article on DIY speake wire here)

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Duffinator]

Looks like you have it pretty well covered. I've recently started buying my interconnects from Bluejeans. A couple of weeks ago I placed an order for a sub cable on Saturday afternoon. By 5 PM that day I received notification that my order was shipped. It arrived on Monday, less than two days later. Needless to say I've been happy with their service and the quality of the cables is fine. After reading many of the inteconnect/speaker cable articles on this site I decided to switch from buying Monster Cables to Bluejeans. You can also DIY on the interconnects the exact same way Bluejeans does it by doing a little research and buying the correct crimper for the Canare RCA connectors for RG6/59.

 

[jaxvon]

I'd say you've got a darn good plan already. Personally, I'd go with Blue Jeans because of a few reasons:

• Their money-back guarantee
• Completely customizable length, so you get only what you need
• Utmost assurance of a quality product

And yeah, Sound King should do you right as well. As long as you go 10ga or 12ga (12 should really be sufficient), you'll be fine.

You're definitely right, the majority of your money should be spent on speakers, quality electronics, and room treament, not cables.

Also, I don't know where you plan on getting your optical cable from, but you may also want to compare prices from Impact Acoustics and Ram Electronics are both great places to look.


As far as power protection, make sure that the power rating is sufficient. If you're running 900watts of RMS power, then you should go for a 1.5kVA protector. The 1000 would probably suffice, since you'll most likely never draw 900 watts, but having headroom is good so you aren't running your power protection at near capcity. I know monster makes quality stuff, but you might also look into Panamax stuff as well as a favorite around here, the TrippLite Isobar.

 

[Leprkon]

sure. head down to walmart and pick up these:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/prod...3A163399:4537

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/prod...3A163399:4537

or any of the Philips gold series of cables. they are extraordinary values and a major upgrade over the in-box cables. (yes these are the cables hanging on my system right now)

and the neat part is you can get an entire system set for the price of just one mid-line monster(tm) cable. note- tm stands for touchy mother...)

you could go to the nearest radio shack for this:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...5Fid=278-1273

you can also get good values at www.partsexpress.com and www.accessories4less.com.

just get 14 gage, fine-strand oxygen free 99.99 or better for runs less than 50 feet and 12 gage for more than 50 feet. I used 12 gage speaker wire from www.axiomaudio.com at $ .85 per foot, with just bare wire connections.

 

[jmanlp]

Thanks for all the info guys, the Monster surge protector has something they call clean power I think. What does this do exactly, does it condition the power? Does the Triplite have something like that? So do you think its worth it to spend I think I will spend the extra $100 on better speakers and go with the acoustic research cables or something around that price. Any other recomendations on speaker wire would be nice. I'm looking for the best bang for the buck, is Sound King good enough or should I look at something else? Thanks again!

 

[B3Nut]

Sound King or AR would be fine...I've used AR's 16-guage and it's nice to work with, has the flexibility of well-cooked spaghetti, makes it really easy to work with in a tight spot. Don't spend too much on speaker wire, put that into your speakers. BTW Home Depot has good bulk speaker wire.

Don't let a sales weasel talk you into Monster (tm), you can do just as well for a good bit less. It's marketing.

TP

 

[jaxvon]

I'd have to recommend that you go with at least 14ga speaker wire. The Axiom wire mentioned earlier is 12ga, even more heavy duty. You don't want to run into resistance problems, thus I recommend that you go 14 or higher. Indeed, Monster is a lot of marketing. The TrippLite IsoBar has EMI/RMI filtering, which is the same thing as Monster's Clean Power, only it doesn't have a fancy trade marked name costing you money.