Good quality speaker cable Recommendation?

Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
If you want your bass to go deep, use jumper cables.

If you want your treble to scream, use pure copper alloy.

If you want to ward off vampires, make sure you use silver plated connections.

If you want no BS, custom cables cut to length, made to order, use BJC for all your cable needs.

Man, I miss a couple of days, and things get weird.
 
J

jamie2112

Banned
I use super alloy silver injected platinum covered oxygenated non copper solid gold titanium crusted supersilent helium stuffed floating cables. They are the best I have ever designed and only cost $38,763 a foot...per pair of course..
 
Z

zumbo

Audioholic Spartan
Do you have a link where I can order?:confused: I need my system to kick.
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
Yup-- we girls only do things that are easy...
Oh wait, now I remember... I'm CHEAP, but NOT easy! oops, wrong use of easy... this is so confusing for my estrogen-soaked brain...
I think I'm going to cry now...
"I'm cheap but I'm not free" is how I heard it when I asked to speak to a
woman when she was 'free'.

I was thinking of you when I typed that. Now I feel like I been caught. :)

"estrogen-soaked brain": Now there's a line that could get me in real trouble.
It's an instant classic but I don't think I'll be using it myself. I actually had
to think that through.
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I didn't really think there was a website named that so I made it up. Low and behold it actually goes somewhere.....:eek:
Apparently, they're the Al Gore of cabling. They must have invented all of them and working backward, they developed the need for them, too.
 
C

cutter

Audioholic
"I'm cheap but I'm not free" is how I heard it when I asked to speak to a
woman when she was 'free'.

silly silly boy-- haven't you learned by now that women are NEVER "free"-- in whatever context you want to use the word! you will ALWAYS pay, one way or the other! ;)
 
ChrisJam

ChrisJam

Full Audioholic
I'm in the process of setting up a 2 channel system and had a question about speaker cable. I wanted some good quality 12 gauge cable without breaking the bank. I have about a 20 foot run from my receiver to the furtherest speaker. I am going to run a pair of Ascend Sierra-1's and an Outlaw RR2150 receiver. So far I've looked at bettercables.com, realitycables.com, blue jeans cable, and ultralink matrix-2 cable. I've heard some good things about each, but the bettercables and realitycables are a little pricey at the moment.

Can anyone give me some recommendations?

Also which do most prefer, banana plugs or spade connectors?

Thanks!
MrHand
I echo that Monoprice is great. I just bought 5 interconnects from there. I use 12-guage wire for my surrounds--runs of over 40-feet--and 14-gauge for my mains and center, which have much shorter runs.

Thanks to all the knowledgeable people at the forum, I learned early not to buy into the hype of expensive wires and cables.

Right now I use bare wire to connect my speakers and amp (I stripped the last 3/4-inch or so from the inexpensive 12- and 14-gauge wire and twisted the wires tight). I'm tempted to switch to banana plugs, though. If so, I'd get them from Monoprice. I'm not going to lose any sleep over this issue, though. Maybe I'll get around to it next year...

G'luck,
Chris
 
MidnightSensi

MidnightSensi

Audioholic Samurai
I'm in the process of setting up a 2 channel system and had a question about speaker cable. I wanted some good quality 12 gauge cable without breaking the bank. I have about a 20 foot run from my receiver to the furtherest speaker. I am going to run a pair of Ascend Sierra-1's and an Outlaw RR2150 receiver. So far I've looked at bettercables.com, realitycables.com, blue jeans cable, and ultralink matrix-2 cable. I've heard some good things about each, but the bettercables and realitycables are a little pricey at the moment.

Can anyone give me some recommendations?

Also which do most prefer, banana plugs or spade connectors?

Thanks!
MrHand
If the cables are exposed, try Best Deal Cables:

http://www.bestdealcables.com/

They look really nice without spending crazy money on cabling. The speaker wires are super thick (I mean really really thick) and look tops coming off the back of a nice pair of speakers.

As far as the connectors, I like spades for the speakers and bananas into the amps.

Cost you 130 bucks or so for what you want from them. They won't sound better or worse, but, they look really snazzy. Very thick shielding too.

I think spending a few grand on speakers and then using tiny speaker wire looks kinda cheap if you can see it.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
I base it on personal experience and personal testing. ...
Based on that premise, my personal testing shows that when you place a steel pipe in 5 gallons of water, the water bends the pipe. Not to worry, the air will straighten it out when you pull it out of that bucket.
Oh, many personal tests conclude that homeopathic medicines do work, so do psychics can predict and see.

Or, could it be that not all personal experiences are created equal?
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Shielding doesn't matter for speaker wire.
Go to the LDS Stake Center in Naperville and turn the volume control past 8 and tell me that. It's a 70V system and suffered from capacitive coupling between the speaker cables and input cabling.
 
ChrisJam

ChrisJam

Full Audioholic
Based on that premise, my personal testing shows that when you place a steel pipe in 5 gallons of water, the water bends the pipe. Not to worry, the air will straighten it out when you pull it out of that bucket.

LOL--I love it! :p

Chris
 
J

jamie2112

Banned
Based on that premise, my personal testing shows that when you place a steel pipe in 5 gallons of water, the water bends the pipe. Not to worry, the air will straighten it out when you pull it out of that bucket.
Oh, many personal tests conclude that homeopathic medicines do work, so do psychics can predict and see.

Or, could it be that not all personal experiences are created equal?
Tooo funny......
 
MidnightSensi

MidnightSensi

Audioholic Samurai
I thought we bought this stuff to listen to.:D
Yeah, but I admit I like looking at it too. There is something about detail oriented setups that has a synergistic visual impact. I admittedly have an interest in design and art though, and especially like the way modern stuff interacts with old stuff.

Blue Jeans is more than sufficient, and is a great way to go. Just trying to give some different options to keep things interesting. Since most of us agree it doesn't make a sonic difference as long as its a reasonable choice, it all really comes down to logistics and visual appeal.
 
ChrisJam

ChrisJam

Full Audioholic
I thought we bought this stuff to listen to.:D
I agree. We replaced our living room flooring last year, moving from wall-to-wall carpet to hardwood floors. I had the floor installers run the speaker wires behind baseboards for the right main, and both surrounds (coming out in far different places, of course). For the left main, I had them run the wire under a transition hardwood piece that was at the junction of the hardwood floor of the living room and the tile of our foyer. Then they ran that wire under another short run of baseboard. Except fore the center channel, our speaker wiring isn't obvious unless you look at the back of the main speakers and see it coming out of its hiding places and into the speakers' binding posts.

You can see the upper part of the center channel's wire, if you know where to look. But I got dark wire for that, so it's not too obvious, even though the back of the speaker and its binding posts are visible if you stand in the right spot before entering the living room.

Ugh--I'd never buy show-off speaker wire. I agree that some of it is attractive, though.

Chris
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Yeah, but I admit I like looking at it too. There is something about detail oriented setups that has a synergistic visual impact. I admittedly have an interest in design and art though, and especially like the way modern stuff interacts with old stuff.

Blue Jeans is more than sufficient, and is a great way to go. Just trying to give some different options to keep things interesting. Since most of us agree it doesn't make a sonic difference as long as its a reasonable choice, it all really comes down to logistics and visual appeal.
As I posted before, engineers use cabling because it meets spec and it's the people who listen to the equipment who drive the markets for accessories that are supposed to make it sound just a little better, usually for a lot more money. FWIW, the wire in my system is a couple of scraps of Munster I had left over and some Jamo wire, also left over from a job.

What has made the most significant difference in the sound, considering that I haven't changed the room, is the difference in the tubes vs SS amp and the interconnects. The Conrad Johnson amp has always sounded really good but the cables used to connect the pre-out to the power amp in made the Sony sound shrill and I put up with it for as long as I could until I just had to get the CJ running again (one tube poofed on me and I saw a puff of what I thought was smoke, but it was the getter shedding due to a vacuum leak). I switched to a spare Stinger cable for pre-out/power amp in and the Sony has been in action for a few months now. The tone controls are inactive (other than video switching and send, all of the controls and switching are completely passive, the tweeter controls are at Normal and this system images like a mofo. Staging is amazing for a relatively inexpensive system. Interconnects from Pre-out to Power amp in are Stinger shielded cable with 18AWG center and braided shield, soldered to Stinger RCA plugs (from AAMP of America). The A/V cabling for all other sources is Planet Waves, again left over from a job. I originally used the cables for my VCR on the DVD player and after about 4 minutes, I wanted to return the player because it sounded so bad. They were the cheap, bulk packaged cables, sold by just about everyone and I got mine from one of my distributors. I will never use them for anything that runs through a stereo or AV system again. Through a TV, yes but any time the difference can be heard, not a chance. I switched to the AAMP cable I had been using with my CD player and it was a night and day difference. There's very little cable showing in my place.

I have used Monster, Liberty, Planet Waves, Stinger, AudioQuest (I hate terminating their stuff, too), Phoenix Gold, Honeywell's Genesis, and other brands that I can't remember. None of them really stood out as being head and shoulders above the rest. IIRC from reading the Blue Jeans site, he sells a lot of Belden and Canare. These are really good brands, so there's no reason for anyone to even look at them as anything close to inferior. Having been in the business for 30+ years, the one thing I hate most is manufacturers who BS their way to success.
 
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