Speaker wires or RCA

[brotj7]

I have seen mention of RCA cables for speakers, what are those used for? Just for Subs? Next weekend our contractor will be sheetrocking our basement, and I need to get a monoprice order in before then. Right now I have Polk TSI400 floorstanding speakers which would probably go to the basement to start. Would I be better off installing in wall 12guage speaker wire, or long lengths of RCA cable to the speaker locations, or both for future proofing???

 

[fralexandr]

RCA is just for subwoofers (audio wise anyway)
for future subwoofer placement you'll probably want to install an RCA cable reaching to the closest corner
if you plan on running 2 subwoofers you might want RCA cables going to opposite (diagonal) ends of the room

i'm guessing you're going to run cables for surrounds as well?
http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-gauge
12 gauge wire should be fine for distances <60ft since the TSI 400 is 8 ohm and any acoustically matched speakers should be 8 ohms as well.

 

[brotj7]

Thank you. That was what I was looking for.

From the same site:
http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-length-differences-do-they-matter

I know there is virtually no sound difference if fronts cable length are off (by say a foot), but what about 7.1? The rears will be ~6 ft behind my sides, but the cable legth will be closer to 10 ft longer by the time I turn the corner for back wall placement. Do the side speakers cable length need to have the same length at the rears? So far I have only used a center, fronts, and a sub.

 

[fralexandr]

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-7770.html
speaker signal travels at ~0.7C (70&#37; the speed of light, or 209,854,721 m/s)
thus it isn't normally noticeable if cables are of different lengths (you might notice it if you're working with cables that are more than a mile long 😉 although that would require really low resistance/low gauge wiring).

speaker placement relative to the audience is much more important.

just be sure that you're using the right gauge wire for the job.
as per the distance vs gauge chart, for longer distances use lower gauge wire.
note: lower gauge wire tends to be thicker, so don't use ridiculously low gauge wires as they will be harder to work with (less flexible).

good luck on your new home theater setup!