What guage of speaker cable do I need?

[Jaxidian]

I just got an awesome deal on a Sony receiver, CD player, and a couple Yamaha speakers ($20) at a garage sale, now I need some cable. Was looking at monoprice and I see 12-24 AWG. What do I want for a decent but nothing special home theater setup? I later plan to add a center, sub, and a couple rear satellites so assume I need something for all of the above.

Thanks!
-Jax

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Here's some info
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

For an active sub and a receiver that has a subwoofer/LFE output, you'll be looking to get an RCA ended cable rather than speaker wire.

 

[Rio Rebel]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
I just got an awesome deal on a Sony receiver, CD player, and a couple Yamaha speakers ($20) at a garage sale, now I need some cable. Was looking at monoprice and I see 12-24 AWG. What do I want for a decent but nothing special home theater setup? I later plan to add a center, sub, and a couple rear satellites so assume I need something for all of the above.

Thanks!
-Jax

Depending on the length of the run, and how much overkill you want, I've seen anything from 18 to 10 gauge.

IMO, I think most people would use 16 or 14. I personally use 14 all the way around, which is probably one step larger than I think I needed, just to be safe (since I was running inside walls).

 

[Jaxidian]

I ended up just buying some 12 guage. I was going to go with 14 guage for the exact reasons you did (just to be conservative) but then I saw that 12 guage was almost the same price and it'd allow me more distance for rear satellites, so I figured what the heck.

Thanks for the help!

-Jax

 

[Jaxidian]

Okay, one last question? What cable do I need for my sub? Could somebody link me one at monoprice?

Thanks!
-Jax

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Okay, one last question? What cable do I need for my sub? Could somebody link me one at monoprice?

Thanks!
-Jax

These are what you want

http://tinyurl.com/jdld9

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Okay, one last question? What cable do I need for my sub? Could somebody link me one at monoprice?

Thanks!
-Jax

If your receiver has a subwoofer out and can manage all the LFE information, all you need is a mono RCA audio cable. I couldn't find one at monoprice, so I just bought a pair of standard RCA audio cables.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: fanerman91

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Okay, one last question? What cable do I need for my sub? Could somebody link me one at monoprice?

Thanks!
-Jax

If your receiver has a subwoofer out and can manage all the LFE information, all you need is a mono RCA audio cable. I couldn't find one at monoprice, so I just bought a pair of standard RCA audio cables.

Looks like this is the output type on my receiver, so it sounds like that makes this cable easy to find. Thanks!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian

Originally posted by: fanerman91

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Okay, one last question? What cable do I need for my sub? Could somebody link me one at monoprice?

Thanks!
-Jax

If your receiver has a subwoofer out and can manage all the LFE information, all you need is a mono RCA audio cable. I couldn't find one at monoprice, so I just bought a pair of standard RCA audio cables.

Looks like this is the output type on my receiver, so it sounds like that makes this cable easy to find. Thanks!

If you have a yellow ended RCA cable around, that would work fine too.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you have a yellow ended RCA cable around, that would work fine too.

But won't that only let the yellow sound waves through? I thought I wanted either the red or the white sound waves?

 

[Rio Rebel]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you have a yellow ended RCA cable around, that would work fine too.

But won't that only let the yellow sound waves through? I thought I wanted either the red or the white sound waves?

I'm only going to tell you this once: STAY out of Best Buy.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: Rio Rebel

Originally posted by: Jaxidian

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you have a yellow ended RCA cable around, that would work fine too.

But won't that only let the yellow sound waves through? I thought I wanted either the red or the white sound waves?

I'm only going to tell you this once: STAY out of Best Buy.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Okay, one last question? What cable do I need for my sub? Could somebody link me one at monoprice?

Thanks!
-Jax

These are what you want

http://tinyurl.com/jdld9

Why did you make a tiny url for that?