got great system, but I'm overwhelmed--help?

[alias4cat]

Hi,

This is my first time posting, although I've read a lot on this forum. Like all of you I love music and HT. I've been putting together my system for a few years now and am ready to replace my old 2-channel Nakamichi, running 4 speakers, with a Denon AVR-3805. I am equally interested in music and HT sound quality.

I know just enough technically to get myself in trouble. This is my first attempt at trying to setup a 7.1 system and frankly, I'm not sure where to start. Here's what I have:

Receiver: Denon AVR-3805 (still in the box)
I have the calibrating microphone for the Denon.
Front: 2 Mirage OM-7 towers
Back: 2 Mirage Satellites MBS (crossed with BPS-150 subwoofer)
Middle: Mirage MC-si (not connected)
Middle sats: 2 Mirage Satellites MBS-2 (not connected)
TV is a non-HD 36" JVC. (aiming at upgrading in another year...or two )
Other components are JVC DVD player, Denon CD player (older model DCM-320), older Yamaha cassette player/recorder, JVC VHS HR-D970U and ADC equalizer Sound Shaper II (really old!).

Room size guesstimate will sound kinda weird as the room is an open floor plan, continuing into another area: 36 feet x 20 feet with vaulted 20+ foot ceiling.

So now that I've got all the equipment ready, I'm stimied about what type of speaker wire to use. Because I will be running the wire under the house crawlspace and as the room is large, cost is a major consideration. Think hundreds of feet of wire. Right now my back subs are run with 12 gauge copper speaker wire. Front towers are connected with 16 guage wire and all components are regular RCA. What's the best bang-for-buck on connections? I'd like to buy and replace connections for all.

I know this is a long note and I really appreciate any suggestions or questions or help you can offer. I have all this gear and I want to begin putting it all together into an awesome system. But here's my personal "catch": as a woman, I find that when I go into local stores to ask advice, I get salesguys telling me stuff just to sell me. I do my research beforehand and more often than not, I can tell when someone knows what they're talking about. When I shopped for the Denon, I knew more about the unit than any salesperson I spoke with. So--you know what??--I just don't trust some of the crap I hear about buying this wire or that wire and only buy "Monster" or gold-plated ends or a certain guage. If I'm going to be crawling under the house (again) and connecting all these components, I want to do it once and do it right. Can you guys help start me out on this journey?

Thanks for letting me vent

Cat

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Hi,

This is my first time posting, although I've read a lot on this forum. Like all of you I love music and HT. I've been putting together my system for a few years now and am ready to replace my old 2-channel Nakamichi, running 4 speakers, with a Denon AVR-3805. I am equally interested in music and HT sound quality.

I know just enough technically to get myself in trouble. This is my first attempt at trying to setup a 7.1 system and frankly, I'm not sure where to start. Here's what I have:

Receiver: Denon AVR-3805 (still in the box)
I have the calibrating microphone for the Denon.
Front: 2 Mirage OM-7 towers
Back: 2 Mirage Satellites MBS (crossed with BPS-150 subwoofer)
Middle: Mirage MC-si (not connected)
Middle sats: 2 Mirage Satellites MBS-2 (not connected)
TV is a non-HD 36" JVC. (aiming at upgrading in another year...or two )
Other components are JVC DVD player, Denon CD player (older model DCM-320), older Yamaha cassette player/recorder, JVC VHS HR-D970U and ADC equalizer Sound Shaper II (really old!).

Room size guesstimate will sound kinda weird as the room is an open floor plan, continuing into another area: 36 feet x 20 feet with vaulted 20+ foot ceiling.

So now that I've got all the equipment ready, I'm stimied about what type of speaker wire to use. Because I will be running the wire under the house crawlspace and as the room is large, cost is a major consideration. Think hundreds of feet of wire. Right now my back subs are run with 12 gauge copper speaker wire. Front towers are connected with 16 guage wire and all components are regular RCA. What's the best bang-for-buck on connections? I'd like to buy and replace connections for all.

I know this is a long note and I really appreciate any suggestions or questions or help you can offer. I have all this gear and I want to begin putting it all together into an awesome system. But here's my personal "catch": as a woman, I find that when I go into local stores to ask advice, I get salesguys telling me stuff just to sell me. I do my research beforehand and more often than not, I can tell when someone knows what they're talking about. When I shopped for the Denon, I knew more about the unit than any salesperson I spoke with. So--you know what??--I just don't trust some of the crap I hear about buying this wire or that wire and only buy "Monster" or gold-plated ends or a certain guage. If I'm going to be crawling under the house (again) and connecting all these components, I want to do it once and do it right. Can you guys help start me out on this journey?

Thanks for letting me vent

Cat

Great timing. I just posted two minutes ago on the same topic. Either go with Home Depot 12/2, or Walmart 14/2. Click on the thread below.
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=71951#post71951

 

[alias4cat]

...and great timing back at'cha as I was reading your post on the subject of speaker cables. So what I have in the back 12/2 is okay? What about OFC--oxygen free copper, whatever that is. And I had some sales guy tell me about batteries attached to the speaker cable creating a polarity correction factor (or protection, can't remember which)...he was recommending that. What the heck is that? Better still, is it bs or something I should look into?

Thanks again, and guess I better get back to work.

Cat

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

...and great timing back at'cha as I was reading your post on the subject of speaker cables. So what I have in the back 12/2 is okay? What about OFC--oxygen free copper, whatever that is. And I had some sales guy tell me about batteries attached to the speaker cable creating a polarity correction factor (or protection, can't remember which)...he was recommending that. What the heck is that? Better still, is it bs or something I should look into?

Thanks again, and guess I better get back to work.

Cat

12/2 is perfect. Those wires from Walmart are oxygen free copper. $9.99 for 14/2 and 50 feet. The only thing a battery will do attached to a speaker cable will tell you if the speaker is blown. It does nothing for polarity correction. What an ***. The best protection for your speakers are your ears. If the speakers sound distorted, turn it down.

 

[jaxvon]

HAHAHAA, the battery thing. Oh yeah, that's an Audioquest gimmick, check out the article here and the other one here.

Yes, that was a bunch of BS. Just some plain ol' heavy guage speaker wire is sufficient. If you want to go overkill, then you might go for some 10ga Belden cable from Westlake Electronic. It's inwall rated, so it shouldn't have any problems passing electrical code if you ever find yourself having to deal with an inspection.

Regarding Oxygen Free Copper (OFC), it's just a higher purity copper than normal. Most every speaker cable you can find now is made with OFC (like 99.9999% pure, as opposed to 99.99%). If you were cooling it to liquid nitrogen levels and trying to superconduct with it and such, then the purity difference might matter (lower purity = more resistance) but for your application, it's a moot point.

If you're just running speaker cable, then what you have is fine, as Buckeye stated.

As for the other cables, just some high-quality ones like Phillips Gold from Walmart will work dandy. If you wanna go more "high-end", then Impact Acoustics is a great option (you get a 20% discount for being an Audioholics reader) as is Blue Jeans Cable. Blue Jeans is broadcast quality and they can make completely customized cables for you. High-quality, but just not as cheap as Impact Acoustics or Phillips Gold. If the price is right, Acoustic Research is another good option.

Regarding gold plating, it's a nice feature that you can find on basically any cable that 1. Helps eliminate corrosion on your connections (this is important) and 2. Looks pretty. Since basically every decent cable has gold plating, it's worth the the little bit of extra money to get it if you have the option of gold or not.

For other cables, just get some properly made interconnects. For analog audio, then any analog audio connection will do. How nice of cables you want is up to you. For video, then it's good to get a high-quality, 75-Ohm cable to prevent loss and interference (unless you end up with HDMI, DVI, etc, in which case you should just get a high-quality cable that meets those specs). Any of the brands listed will perform admirably. With the video cable, especially if you go component, it would be worth your money to go for Impact Acoustics or Blue Jeans. Unlike analog audio (or digital coaxial audio), video is more susceptible to cable length and poor construction.

Finally, the Monster Question. Monster is a ripoff, if you haven't already guessed. It's good quality, but way expensive, although nothing compared to the other "esoteric" cables like Transparent, MIT, Cardas, JPS Labs, Audioquest, Stealth, Nordost, etc. Some people actually shell out >$20k for a set of speaker cables. Yes, really.

So in conclusion, stick with what I mentioned above and you should be fine and dandy. If you feel like putting some nice terminations on your speaker cable, Parts Express sells some nice ones. If you wanna go super-fancy high-end locking, then check out the locking banana plugs at Cobalt Cable. Are they worth it? Prolly not, but if you have some cables that will be exposed and you want them to be *BLING BLING*, then it might be a good option (along with some TechFlex).

By the way, Cobalt Cables are made with Canare and Belden materials, (as are River Cables (RiverCable is basically all Canare), and you can get the exact same thing from Blue Jeans for way less money, it just won't look as pretty.

Whew! That was a long post. I hope this helps out.

 

[alias4cat]

Buckeye and Jaxvon--thanks!

I've read your posts and have followed the links, reading more and learning (or so I hope) more about cables, prices, and so forth. I'm leaning towards either the 12/2 Home Depot/Walmart variety with locking bananas or ordering 10 ga from Westlake, as they are selling Belden at what appears to be a fair cost.

Now I have to do some measuring to figure out overall length I'll need. Wow, at least I have a sense of what to do first. It's a bit** when you have this new stuff languishing around in boxes, want it all hooked up and running NOW, but at the same time want to do the job right the first time AND are way overwhelmed with unknown terms and slick salespeople.

Another question, tho'...

I'll be running this cable under the house. The last cable I ran I just tacked it to the sidewall with industiral staples. Now I'm considering running it in pvc pipe or something similar (depending on what I find at Home Depot that does the job) to protect it from elements/mice/time. This is a retrofit, so I'm not running in walls, just under the floorboards. Any thoughts on this? Good/bad, pros/cons...way too anal?

Thanks again,

Cat

 

[jaxvon]

Yeah, that's a great idea. When you put wire in pipe, the pipe gets the special name "conduit". Conduit is your friend. Ask anyone on this board that has done custom installs. Conduit is your best friend. Just made sure you select a size that will allow enough space for all the cables running through it. Also, when you run the cable, make sure to keep it away from AC lines and if needed, only cross your speaker wires at 90 degree angles with the power lines. Otherwise you'll get a 60Hz hum in your system that will make you a sad panda.