what? useing extension cordes for your speakers???

M

mocwilson

Junior Audioholic
in the artical "break in" science or psychological, it says.

"Interestingly, the New Scientists recently commented on the London Heathrow Hi Fi Show, saying that among the cables selling for up to £30,000 for 6 metres, they found Quad demonstrating their latest speakers to great enthusiasm. The orange cable to the speakers looked oddly familiar. When asked about it, Tony Faulkner, the recording engineer demonstrating them (who'd used the speakers as monitors while recording Saint-Saen's complete works for piano & orchestra, Gramophone's Record of the Year), said of the cables:"

"Yes, they would look familiar if you have a garden. Before the show opened we went over the road to the DIY superstore and bought one of those £20 extension leads that Black & Decker sells for electric hedge-cutters. They are made from good, thick copper wire, look nice and sound good to me. The show's been running for three days and no one in the audience has noticed..."* - New Scientist Magazine


so i was wondering if anybody has had experiance with useing them as speaker wire because it kinda makes sense to me, although i dont know a great deal about this, and it would be cheaper then buying monster cable or something were you can get 50 feet of 10 awg extension cord for $60 cnd at homedepot, so if anyone knows of any reasons for or against this i would be intrested in hearing them
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
They are made from good, thick copper wire, look nice and sound good to me

That's the key to it all. As long as the cable is the correct gauge for the length of run, it will be sonically indistinguishable from the megabucks speaker cables.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
mocwilson said:
in the artical "break in" science or psychological, it says.

"Interestingly, the New Scientists recently commented on the London Heathrow Hi Fi Show, saying that among the cables selling for up to £30,000 for 6 metres, they found Quad demonstrating their latest speakers to great enthusiasm. The orange cable to the speakers looked oddly familiar. When asked about it, Tony Faulkner, the recording engineer demonstrating them (who'd used the speakers as monitors while recording Saint-Saen's complete works for piano & orchestra, Gramophone's Record of the Year), said of the cables:"

"Yes, they would look familiar if you have a garden. Before the show opened we went over the road to the DIY superstore and bought one of those £20 extension leads that Black & Decker sells for electric hedge-cutters. They are made from good, thick copper wire, look nice and sound good to me. The show's been running for three days and no one in the audience has noticed..."* - New Scientist Magazine


so i was wondering if anybody has had experiance with useing them as speaker wire because it kinda makes sense to me, although i dont know a great deal about this, and it would be cheaper then buying monster cable or something were you can get 50 feet of 10 awg extension cord for $60 cnd at homedepot, so if anyone knows of any reasons for or against this i would be intrested in hearing them
Not too long ago there was a review in a audiophile rag of power cord used for just such use and had high praise for it. Not that that make is great, but in reality there is nothing in its physical characteristics that it would make it inappropriate as a speaker wire. So, go for it. Or, as an alternative, you can also use low voltage landscape wire :D
 
M

mocwilson

Junior Audioholic
lets hope so

ok so i guess i have nothing to really loose from trying but i think ill see if i can get a nice short 10 or 12 gauge cord first so i dont go and blow 50 bucks. oh and what do you mean about proper run length how long should it be.

thanks
 
L

Leprkon

Audioholic General
mocwilson said:
ok so i guess i have nothing to really loose from trying but i think ill see if i can get a nice short 10 or 12 gauge cord first so i dont go and blow 50 bucks. oh and what do you mean about proper run length how long should it be.

thanks
anything over 50 feet should be no smaller than 12 gage. most people also use 12 gage or larger for runs to the main and front center speaker.

if you don't use alot of current, you can probably get by with something like this for twenty bucks from the local Walmart

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2181629
 
N

Nick250

Audioholic Samurai
My personal favorite is Radio Shack 14 guage. You can buy it in rolls of 25 or 50 feet or some such for short money. My second favorite is 12 guage from Home Depot which you can have cut to any length to any you like. As long as your run is not over 50 feet the 14 guage is easier to work with.
 
M

mocwilson

Junior Audioholic
thanks

thanks for the advice im deffinitly going to check it all out, i guess i was just looking for an alternative to buying into all the big bisneuss companys that make speaker wire like monster and over charge.

[ at least to me it seems this way}.

thanks
 
W

warnerwh

Full Audioholic
[ at least to me it seems this way}.

You are on the right track. It more than seems that way, it is that way. Just be sure that if you use bare wire instead of some type of termination you either tin the ends or twist them well and make sure you do not get a short from one strand sticking out. The difference in sound between Monster cable or any other companies 12 or 14 gauge wire is nil. Far more importantly are speaker position and room acoustics. You want to hear your system sound better work on those.
 
M

mocwilson

Junior Audioholic
well i did it

i went out today and got 70ft of 12 awg for 30 bucks at homedepot and it deffinitly dosnt sound any worse then the 30 feet of monster 16 awg that also cost 30 bucks, ill have to keep listening but i think its evan better not alot better but maybe just slightly.

thanks for the advice

matt
 
G

guess88

Junior Audioholic
if anything it should sound better considering you're going from 16awg to 12.
 
M

mocwilson

Junior Audioholic
day 2

ok so after listening for awhile i at at first thought that this wire was a bit bright but then i realized that it was just bucause the 16 awg was a bit muddy in the mid and uper range probably in the bass as well. 12 gage is deffintly an inprovment, now i just have to get used to it. i have already noticed that it is more dynamic i scared myself while watching LOTR FOTR when it switched from a quite scene to the fireworks scene, man did i jump, i guess its all good then.

matt
 

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