What Speaker Cable Should I Buy??

H

hglass

Enthusiast
Im looking for a good quality speaker cable. I will be needing it for my left, right and center speakers. They are to be bi-wired. I dont want to spend more than $600 a run. Thats $1800 total. Any ideas?? :confused:
 
J

jamie2112

Banned
The good news is you can spend that money elsewhere. www.monoprice.com is by far the best place to buy cable. A hundred and change is what you need to spend.Why are you bi-wiring your speakers? Are you bypassing the internal crossovers in the speaker? If not then you are wasting your time with the bi- wiring.It will make no difference and is a complete "audiophile"myth.......
 
T

tcarcio

Audioholic General
A good quality copper cable or wire is all you need. If you want it to look a certain way then you can buy something "pretty" but it won't be better. I use 12 guage copper lamp chord that I get at Lowe's and it works just fine. Here is some reading about the subject if your interested.http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
 
walter duque

walter duque

Audioholic Samurai
Here is a link that will fit in your budged.
http://www.verastarr.com/ca_sp_silref.html
I wouldn't waste the time or money on bi-wiring and expensive speaker wires. I went trough all this in the past and so did many people on this forum. What amps and speakers do you own?
 
F

FirstReflection

AV Rant Co-Host
You're getting the right info. Expensive speaker wire is totally unnecessary. All you need is good, copper wire of a thick enough gauge to avoid impedence high enough to affect the signal in any audible way. For any run up to 50 feet, 12 gauge copper wire is all you need. Go for 10 gauge if the run is between 50 and 100 feet.

Bluejeanscable.com has excellent speaker wire - particularly for in-wall runs.

Monoprice has already been mentioned.

I also really like Axiom's bulk speaker wire just because it's got a nice, black jacket (rather than grey, white or clear) and because it is extremely flexible and easy to bend into tight corners.

As the others have said, bi-wiring does nothing. The only reason to run two leads to each speaker is if you are bi-amplifying your speakers or bypassing the speakers' internal cross-overs. Otherwise, all bi-wiring is doing is creating a thicker cable with worse inductance characteristics than just buying a thicker gauge single cable.

Save your money and use it to purchase something worth-while! You've obviously come across magazines or ads that make all sorts of ridiculous claims about speaker wire. Otherwise, you would never consider spending so much on speaker cables! come back to common sense and reason. All your speaker wire has to do is carry a low frequency (relatively speaking - highest audio goes is 20 kHz, so we're no where close to the MHz or GHz ranges here!), high power (Watts instead of milliWatts) signal a short distance. There is no magic here. Just very basic electricity. A cable or wire cannot improve your sound. The only possible difference it can make is to screw something up! Regular copper wire of a nice thickness will carry that signal perfectly. All of that money you would have spent ($600/run?!) just disappears and you get nothing for it. Just a really expensive wire and people laughing at how they actually got you to pay such a ridiculous price for a 10 foot length of copper! :eek:
 
chris357

chris357

Senior Audioholic
i like cable solutions, they are similar to bue jeans cable in fact they use the canare stuff too. they are at www.cs1.net
 
F

FirstReflection

AV Rant Co-Host
Isn't BJC a division of Beldin cable? Or is canare the connector?
Belden produces raw cable. Canare also makes raw cable as well as various connectors.

BJC is a small, private company that assembles and sells cables. They use mostly Belden cable stock and Canare connectors. But BJC is not a division or in any way owned by either.

Three separate companies :)
 
lsiberian

lsiberian

Audioholic Overlord
For 600 dollars I got a few mystical wires to sell you. They radically improve sound and make the sun even shine brighter.

seriously I'll sell you my speaker cables for 600 bucks. :D

Ignore the other brands only my cable make a real difference in sound. They use high quality gold plated banana plugs and the finest stranded copper this side of the Mississippi river. I'll even toss in free shipping and extra connectors in case you ever have a problem. :D

Gimmicks don't make great cables. I do! Solid science and shiny insides. :D;)
 
F

FirstReflection

AV Rant Co-Host
I'm pretty sure I have a fridge magnet, a napkin, a rubber band and a Kleenex box - let me sell you some Bose quality speakers for $1000 while you're buying Isiberian's speaker cables :D
 
walter duque

walter duque

Audioholic Samurai
[
QUOTE=hglass;637038]I have a Classe amp Model CAV 180 with B&W 803 speakers.
[/QUOTE]
That is some nice gear you have. If you realy have the need for high priced cables I would buy them used. You can even call some of these companies and you might get a break. I am sure if you call Mike from Verastarr he might hook you up with $600.-- cables for $200.--. People are not spending this kind of money anymore for something that does absolutly nothing for your system. You do have some nice system.
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
That is some nice gear you have. If you realy have the need for high priced cables I would buy them used. You can even call some of these companies and you might get a break. I am sure if you call Mike from Verastarr he might hook you up with $600.-- cables for $200.--. People are not spending this kind of money anymore for something that does absolutly nothing for your system. You do have some nice system.[/QUOTE]

But they're used and we all know the electrons in the wire are only good for a certain number of cycles.
















:D
 
F

FirstReflection

AV Rant Co-Host
Yeah, I'll bet they're willing to sell "$600 wires" for $200. Especially since there's about $2 worth of actual materials in there :D
 
T

tcarcio

Audioholic General
But they're used and we all know the electrons in the wire are only good for a certain number of cycles.





Just put them in the freezer and relax the electrons, then they will have more energy and recycle themselves........:rolleyes::D










:D[/QUOTE]
 
JerryLove

JerryLove

Audioholic Ninja
I charge extra for used because they've been "broken in".
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
But they're used and we all know the electrons in the wire are only good for a certain number of cycles.





Just put them in the freezer and relax the electrons, then they will have more energy and recycle themselves........:rolleyes::D










:D
[/QUOTE]

Should I put them in a vacuum bag with some batteries?

Signed, Raymond O'Vac
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
Im looking for a good quality speaker cable. I will be needing it for my left, right and center speakers. They are to be bi-wired. I dont want to spend more than $600 a run. Thats $1800 total. Any ideas?? :confused:
I guess if that's what you want to spend you could get start with this deal from classifieds.

Should you require matched sets of a particular length and termination styles, post your requirements and send me a USPS money order for 50% of the total. That's $900 up front and I will mine the copper myself for these babies ... I mean that I'll have them out to you within 10 business days. These cables come with a 50% satisfaction guarantee. I'll refund the 2nd half of the money upon receiving the cables with a RTA# within 10 business days.

I got plenty more ideas if you're interested. Let me know. :rolleyes:
 
Q

QwikKotaTx

Enthusiast
A good quality copper cable or wire is all you need. If you want it to look a certain way then you can buy something "pretty" but it won't be better. I use 12 guage copper lamp chord that I get at Lowe's and it works just fine. Here is some reading about the subject if your interested.http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
In that article he mentions Landscaping wire.

"Here's some typical low cost wire that's available today. The wire at the left with the heavy insulation is 12-gauge low voltage cable that's used for garden lighting accessories. It's 1/2" wide and cost 28 cents/foot."

I purchased 100' of this stuff for $40 at Home Depot. Best part is its made in the USA. Its stranded and made of copper, that's all I need to worry about, right? It is returnable since its pre-packaged not cut to order, but I doubt I will need to. Thanks for any info. The HD assistant told me I needed to buy specific speaker wire since its twisted and that is the best for vocals. HAH!
 

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