I am converting a spare bedroom into an AV room and will be running speaker wire in the walls across the room (about 40ft). The speaker wire will run near but not directly next to some electrical Romex. I do not have any of the speakers or receiver yet. A couple of questions:

1. What kind of speaker wire would you recommend? I have read that shielded could blow my receiver if cut improperly and the shielding of two wires touches.

2. I was planning getting 12 AWG wire since my speakers won't be that high end. Will that be enough?

3. I would like to put my sub at the back of the room (opposite the side the receiver will be on). I noticed the sub out on some of the Denon receivers I was looking at is just a regular RCA cable. What would you recommend using for that run?

4. Are the more expensive cables really worth it?

FWIW, my budget on the cables is no more than $200.

Thanks!

Just get some 14 gauge 2 conductor in wall rated (CL2 or CL3) speaker wire. You can get it by the spool from Parts Express or even from Home Depot/Lowes etc.

For the sub, you can run RG 6 (I think quad shielded w/ a solid copper center is the preferred) and put your own RCA connectors on the end. Or you can order a pre-made cable online from someplace like Blue Jeans cables etc.

I ran that Carlon flexible conduit to where I *thought* my sub was going to go, and bought a premade cable from Blue Jeans. I then ran quad shielded RG6 to each corner of my room, and each side... and then to the front/center of the room for potential sub locations. This will give me the flexibility to position the sub in the best spot, as well as add more subs further down the road.

I just ordered 12 gauge Belden inwall from Blue Jeans. There were a couple of places that were more than a bit cheaper, but only if you bought a 500' spool. For my amount of 250', there were only a couple places that even came close. It was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the 12 AWG at Home Depot. There, the 12-gauge was something like .80-some cents a foot in cut lengths. Interestingly, a 500-foot spool was around $200 - .40/foot. So, they charge TWICE as much for a cut length as for a 500' spool.... so, it was almost the the same price to buy a 500-foot spool as buying 250' cut. :eek:

I didn't need 500 feet and didn't want to mess around with selling some. I ended up paying paying less for 250 feet from Blue Jeans than I would have for 125 feet at Home Depot! Lowes was .60-some, I believe - still about half-again more expensive than the Belden from Blue Jeans.

I went ahead and ordered from Blue Jeans... Ordered Monday, they shipped right away, and I got it via USPS Thursday. Excellent experience.

SC

Are the more expensive cables really worth it?
Thanks!

NO

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

Great thanks for the info. I found a local supplier that had some CL2 rated 10AWG cable for a great price (100' for about $50). I went down and purchased it because hey it can't hurt to have a higher gauge right?

Well, now I am trying to find a wall plate for the rears (wire mentioned above) and sub (RCA digital coax) and found some Keystone modular plates but am worried that the modules I bought won't fit with 10AWG wire.

Does anyone know if it will fit and/or does anyone know of a better modular wall plate brand?

Just take your stranded 10 AWG wire and remove a few strands at the end until it fits your plug/plate. After all once it get's inside the speaker it's probably using 12-14ga or smaller from the terminal to the crossovers and speakers.

I went down and purchased it because hey it can't hurt to have a higher gauge right?

Does anyone know if it will fit and/or does anyone know of a better modular wall plate brand?

Well, it doesn't hurt until you find out that it doesn't fit in something ;-)

Do what Bigmouth said, or go look on Parts Express. They have all sorts of wall plates and connectors. You could just feed the bare wire through a hole in the wall plate and connect it direct to the speaker.

I used 10 gage for my audio set up in my listening room. But, for an average HT I recommend 14/4 plenum speaker wire for bi-wire connections. Screw the home centers, call an installer or HT store and see if you buy a length of wire. Mine was .80 cents/foot (from friends), but, it's more likely that you'll spend $1.00-1.50 for 14/4 plenum wire.