School me on cables and component hookup.

[bacchus99]

I have a new receiver on the way(yamaha 663) and was wondering what cables are recommended.

1. What gauge speaker wire? All speakers 8ohms.

2. Subwoofer cable? Does the cable requirements change with the length it is going to be? Probably need about 20 or 25 feet at first to find placement and if placement ends up behind listening area I plan on running thru attic and terminate at the wall. Could be up to 50 feet or so.

3. RCA cables for component hook up. Are plain old RCA cables fine for CD player to receiver hookup.

4. DVD player to receiver: My DVD player has coaxial out(i'm guessing this is for digital sound). No HDMI or optical out. Plain RCA cable fine here? Or is there a special coaxial cable i need. I don't have a HD tv yet so i'll be using s-video video out for now.

5. Where is the best place to buy cables(quality and price in mind?)

6. I just have a basic surge protector for components. Do i need something better?

Thanks!

 

[Adam]

Congrats on the new receiver! To answer some questions:

1. The gauge depends on the speaker impedance and the length of wire. I recommend checking out: http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

2. You will want to get a cable that is rated for in wall use if you are going to be running it through walls (or through your attic).

3. Well, any plain old RCA cables to a point. The hair-thin cables that come with a lot of players may not be the best, but I've used them in the past. I'll let others put in links to their favorites. I use some from Radio Shack and they work just fine.

4. I tend to go with cables that are at least rated for video because they have better shielding. Now, that said, I have in the past used the "digital coax" cable that came with some PC speakers back in 1999 that was probably the thinnest cable I've seen - and it worked great.

5. Depends on the cable. Others will have good lists for you.

6. Surge protectors are a great idea. Which one do you have? You certainly don't need to go out and buy a "line conditioner." I bought one, but mostly because I wanted a power console that would fit in my rack (I got a Belkin PureAV unit) - I knew that the conditioning wouldn't make any difference.

 

[mnnc]

I would use 14ga or 12ga all around. This will handle whatever you throw at it. More than enough. Remember small number =fatter. And the best termination is always bare wire ends...connectors/tips are convenience only. But I'll let you decide. Regardless of termination or not, never let pos/neg touch. Never.

Impact Acoustics Sonic Wave series (commonly called interconnects or ic's) are very well built high quality cables. Don't purchase through Impact site though...Parts express sell them for less! trust me. Confused about cd/dvd player or players? Seperate components? Regardless. I'm sure you dvd plays cd's as well. If you do have seperate components for dvd/cd listen and determine which sounds better. If dvd is better cd player...trash the standalone cd player. Makes setup/life more enjoyable. Believe me, been doing this 30+ yrs. Otherwise as follows.

Purchase list: For DVD player

1 digital coax cable (this will carry all the multi channel audio whether it be a movie, concert, and 2ch music when Yammy is in 2 ch stereo mode playing cd's)

1 subwoofer cable...consider running it around baseboard edge if possible. Then again, I don't know your setup.

1 s-vid cable. Is this your highest/best possible vid output of player? If so, use it. Strongly consider an Oppo for all your dvd/cd needs. One little machine to do it all...nicely.

Carefully plan your rig setup...buying the length you need so you don't have all this extra cables laying on floor in a jumbled mess. If memory serves me well their cables are available in 1, 1.5, 2, 3, etc ft long. This is great because most often your cd/dvd player is near preamp/recv'r and you don't need 3ft...just 1.5 or 2ft.

Post back with your results...nice to help someone get up and running. I have to warn you though. You will be hooked if not already.

 

[bacchus99]

Thanks for the help. Yes I feel myself getting hooked. Love the sound of a good movie cranked up in 5.1 or 7.1. It can make an awful movie still pretty good.