Best Place to Buy Speaker Wire

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Staples
For you guys saying that there is no difference between different wires and it is just size that matters, how about subwoofer wire? I have heard that there is a relationship to how tightly the braids are are the clarity of the lows (bass). Is there any truth to that?

Braid? Are you talking about Sub interconnect? If you are talking about gettting the LFE signal to the sub's amplifier, Foil & 95% shielded RG-59 would be the cable to use.

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: oldbutdumb
Gentlemen, if you want to educate yourselves about speaker wire, I suggest you get to the numerous sites for audiophiles and do some searching for the physics of transmitting high frequencies and low over the same wire. The Size of the wire controls the energy lost per foot when direct current passes through the wire. The music frequencies are affected by capacitive impedence and the inductive impedence properties of the winding patterns of wire.
Thus, the wave front of lowest bass notes may reach the speaker in a SLIGHTLY different time than the higher frequency notes. Can most people hear this in a typical room? Not on your life! But for a purist setup where all timings and reflections have been controlled, it is one of the factors you try to control.
It certainly is not for everyone but if music reproduction is your hobby you try everything to get it right. That's why some are still using tube amplifiers instead of transisters. That's why I have a large collection of vinyl lp records that I have a washing machine to clean. And the platter alone for the turntable cost me 100 bucks.
Yes I have spent over $100 each for 3 meter pairs of interconnect cables. And a lot of cables cost nearly 1k a pair. I custom made my speaker wires of the flat parallel cables of the type used for connecting printers to computers. Now I have upgraded to flat cables with individual twisted pair wires in the bundle. They have lower base noise. This is only for golden ear hi-fi nuts. But it was fun.

As long as you understand that your wire selections would probably fail in a double blind well executed comparison, more power to you. And some people just like to discuss and debate the technical details, like a bunch of scientists. :thumbsup:

 

[sao123]

Topic Title: Best Place to Buy Speaker Wire
Topic Summary:
Created On: 05/31/2006 11:33 AM


You only need to consider your question to get your answer.

 

[TheTony]

Originally posted by: sao123
Topic Title: Best Place to Buy Speaker Wire
Topic Summary:
Created On: 05/31/2006 11:33 AM


You only need to consider your question to get your answer.

My sarcasm meter must be broken, because that's the place NOT to go for speaker-wire. Unless you don't mind overpaying, that is.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: dmw16
I know there is a lot of debate about what kind of speaker wire is best. Whether Monster really is better than other brands, etc. But my question is, what is the best place to get good quality cable (be it internet or brick and mortar)? I am hooking up an Onkyo HT-S780 7.1 surround system. So it is a decent (but far from high end) system so I dont need the most expensive stuff out there.

I figured that I will need 30ft of 20gage, 30ft of 18gage, and 120ft of 16gage. If the prices are better if I go with all 16 or just 16 and 18 then please let me know. I am pretty new to all of this stuff. It's times like these that I miss my best buy discount 🙂

Home Depot has RCA brand 12AWG cable for like C$1.40 a Metre. Works out to about 37 cent US a foot. In-Walls are a little more expensive. 120 Feet? I hope that is being cut into smaller lengths. I would say just get 12AWG. Thicker wires are needed for longer runs.