Z560's and Speaker Wire...would new wire make a difference?

[dpk777]

I was thinking about getting some 16g wire.

some people say it'll make a difference over the cheap stuff the speakers come with.

any other suggestions/comments?

thx.

 

[Pilsnerpete]

I use 18ga and I don't think I'd go any thicker; seems like the terminals are a bit small. I don't have any 16ga to try it out, but it might work. Monster's a great choice though. The only wire bigger than 18 that I have is car stereo 8ga and that definitely won't fit.

You should go 16ga even if you have to clip a couple strands to make it fit! Hope ya figger it out

Pete

 

[tronester1]

Originally posted by: dpk777
I was thinking about getting some Monster THX 16g wire.

Is that any good?

any other suggestions/comments?

thx.

If by any good, you mean better sound, then no. The only possibility the Monster wire would allow for is make the speakers get a little bit louder, as they would allow for less of a voltage drop. Thats about it though. Most likely, you will not hear a difference.

 

[InsaneMorphius]

Using 18g here as well.

Depends really on how much you want to hurt the wallet? Monster is a great brand, but... man their stuff is expensive. I have their cables on my HT setup. Also, do you really think that there will be that much difference between the 16g and 18g?

Anyhow, good luck and good listening

 

[jarsoffart]

I have no personal experience but I've read at ardforum from one of their people that the better speaker wire doesn't improve sound quality.

 

[tronester1]

Originally posted by: jarsoffart
I have no personal experience but I've read at ardforum from one of their people that the better speaker wire doesn't improve sound quality.

Precisely. As long as it is of low resistance, it really doesnt matter what you use. My cousin unfortunatly fell for the Monster Cable thing and bought a 100 dollar pair of speaker cables! Obviously they make no difference over cheap 20 cents a foot stuff. Hell, you could use aluminum wire if you wanted too....

 

[Piano Man]

I would definately get some better speaker wire. I've read on some audio places that CAT5 cable is a good speaker cable? I'm curious about this. ANyone know anything?

 

[tronester1]

Originally posted by: Piano Man
I would definately get some better speaker wire. I've read on some audio places that CAT5 cable is a good speaker cable? I'm curious about this. ANyone know anything?

Yes, you can use Cat5 as speaker wire, or interconnects, they work fine in either situation, but the question is, WHY? Braiding all that cat5 cable for use in speaker wire will take you a long time, and wont make any improvement over the standard zipcord. Noise rejection at speaker level is a moot issue, so the braiding wont reject any more noise. The only advantage the cat5 could have over normal wire is that it COULD be overly inductive or capacitive changing the response of your speakers. That too could be either good or bad depending on your speakers, but if you ask me, the cables connecting your system should be as low loss as possible, and that inductance or capacitance is POOR IMHO, assuming it exists in audible amounts.

When used as line level interconnects, the Cat5's twisted pair is good for noise rejection in the audio range (or so I am told) and I personally have used them in several car audio installations and picked up no noise - I even ran the signal cable alongside the power cable! So their benifits for this purpose would be more appriciated than as speaker wire.

Keep in mind though, if you can use a 1 dollar cable and you pick up NO NOISE, there is not going to be a difference in upgrading.