Is there speaker wire better than others? I've heard just purchasing 16/2 guage (which I think is just 2 16 guage wires right?) from Home Depot will work. I won't be pushing more than 75W, at least for now, if that matters at all. Is it really worth $1 a foot or more??

Thanks,
Jason

I recommend you read as much of this as you can: http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

You can get a 100 foot roll of 14 gauge speaker wire at Lowes for like $24. It's cheap and all you'll need.

You can get a 100 foot roll of 14 gauge speaker wire at Lowes for like $24. It's cheap and all you'll need.

you can get 25 feet of 24 gauge speaker wire at the Dollar tree. (I just had to) :D

Thanks.

Is there speaker wire better than others? I've heard just purchasing 16/2 guage (which I think is just 2 16 guage wires right?) from Home Depot will work. I won't be pushing more than 75W, at least for now, if that matters at all. Is it really worth $1 a foot or more??

Thanks,
Jason

Go to Home Depot and get the 2 12 awg wires for 0.50 a foot. If you want something that "looks better" then you will have to pay more. Even at short distances you can be assured that you will never have a wire that is too thin for your application.

I hope you take the 24 awg wire as a joke. I once had 22 awg wiring that came with my receiver and that receiver ran very hot!!! It ran much cooler when switched to 18 awg wire.

Got any old lamps? Just cut the lamp chords off and use them. :)

aside from the funny remarks, 14 ga. or 12 ga. "lamp cord" or "zip cord" (two conductor cable with brown, white, or clear outer covering - can be pulled apart - unzipped). Polarity is marked either by nickel plating on one conductor or a small "ridge" formed in the insulation of one conductor. Lowes and Home Depot have this in their wiring dept. If it is sold as "speaker cable" it usually means it just costs more for the marketing hype.

Please, do not use any wire less than 16 gauge. The smaller the wire (large gauge number) the more internal resistance per foot and the greater signal loss.

I just found some 14gauge stuff at Walmart for $.25/foot in the car audio section (lamp cord there cost more!). 16 gauge is even less. The actual wire, as long as you are using the right gauge, wont make any noticeable difference in sound, so there is no point in spending more then $13 on it.

aside from the funny remarks, 14 ga. or 12 ga. "lamp cord" or "zip cord" (two conductor cable with brown, white, or clear outer covering - can be pulled apart - unzipped). Polarity is marked either by nickel plating on one conductor or a small "ridge" formed in the insulation of one conductor. Lowes and Home Depot have this in their wiring dept. If it is sold as "speaker cable" it usually means it just costs more for the marketing hype.

Please, do not use any wire less than 16 gauge. The smaller the wire (large gauge number) the more internal resistance per foot and the greater signal loss.

I cant hear the signal loss with my 24 gauge wire! :(

"leggs" - if your wire runs are short, you probably wouldn't. If they are longer, how would you know what you are missing ?

Wow, a whole column of people who who don't hear different things through different cables. Near and dear to my heart. I do overkill a little just to be conservative. About 90 cents per foot for 10 gauge speaker wire on ebay, and $20 for a set of 8 gold connectors with lots of surface contact between wires and connector. It's a peace of mind thing. But I have used 12 gauge "lamp cord" before with $3000 speakers and been perfectly happy. It was not difficult to pick out surprisingly small differences among speakers in that price class without any fancy cable in the system.

eugovector - thanks very much for the link. I had lost all the references I had that explain why it's orders of magnitude easier to move electrons around accurately than it is to move speaker drivers and air accurately. Not that any dyed-in-the-wool cable guys will pay attention to it.

90 Cents a Foot? thats probably almost half of what the roll of wire cost to make!

90 Cents a Foot? thats probably almost half of what the roll of wire cost to make!

lol

LOL thats what I get from watching the discovery channel! copper wire only cost a few dollars per roll to make EG monster Cable. My ears have changed! I never used a monster cable in my life. And I'm not crazy enough to start

Manufacturing cost $3.o0 a roll! (small) lol lol

It still really blows me away that people recommend going in to a home depot and buying 100ft of wire costing 25 cents a foot. Do you honestly think that wire costing 25 cents a foot is going to be high quality..lasting the sands of time and fit for a home theater system? I mean, come on, even 50-75 cents a foot isn't all that bad.

LOL thats what I get from watching the discovery channel! copper wire only cost a few dollars per roll to make EG monster Cable. My ears have changed! I never used a monster cable in my life. And I'm not crazy enough to start

Manufacturing cost $3.o0 a roll! (small) lol lol


Hey if they'll sell it to me for $3 I'll take it. :) I'm not going to say how old I am, but I have certainly been through all the buying modes - from scraping up $80 for a pair of speakers to (later in life) spending 50 times that. I think it's very cool in any price range to try to get the best there is. My first pair of "good" speakers was a $130 pair made by Acoustic Research. Ok, I'm 50 years old. But I never, never, worried about speaker cable other than to make sure that that the gauge was adequate for the length of the cable run. As much as I was only a B- student in electrical engineering, I know that electrons only care about material and cross section. 10 gauge copper is like Niagara Falls to audio-related electricity. 12 gauge is like the Mississippi. IMO Home Depot is not the problem, it's only a matter of what gauge you are actually getting.

As a personal theory, I would say that the least number of interfaces, the better. That's one reason I don't pay much attention to expensive cable. Every transition form gold to brass to copper to whatever is a potential for an impedance change that isn't good for your output. Bare wire connections (no spades or bannanas) are probably the best in a pure sense. The only issue is whether you will leave them in the circuit so long that they will experience some corrosion. I have gone to gold plated connectors only because I'm lazy and I may not change my cable/speaker connections for 10 years. But if you're not experiencing corrosion. by all means, have at it with 12 or 14 lamp cord (with no connectors) from whoever sells it (cheap).

I recommend you read as much of this as you can: http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

One of the best articles on speaker wire.

I recently borrowed a set of DIY CAT5 cables that a friend of mine made from instructions on the Internet. This guy used to work in a high end audio store that sold the likes of Naim intereconnects.

He claimed that by using the CAT5 braided cables in place of the Radio Shack 14 ga flat cables I was using, I would hear a greater width and depth to the soundstage, a smoother mid and high frequency range, and a more solid low end.

Since I have banana plugs on the ends, I can switch cables fairly quickly. Certainly not as fast or reliable as a double blind A/B, but quick enough using material I am extremely familiar with.

I connected them after first listening to a short piece of music using the RS cables.

I tried listening REAL hard to find a difference. Not a thing. So, either:

a) I don't have "golden ears"
or
b) There really isn't any difference

I go with b) There really isn't any difference.

It still really blows me away that people recommend going in to a home depot and buying 100ft of wire costing 25 cents a foot. Do you honestly think that wire costing 25 cents a foot is going to be high quality..lasting the sands of time and fit for a home theater system? I mean, come on, even 50-75 cents a foot isn't all that bad.I still can't believe people suggest wasting money on 10 gauge (for runs where 14 gauge is fine) when that money would be so much better spent on speakers.

Hey if they'll sell it to me for $3 I'll take it. :) I'm not going to say how old I am, but I have certainly been through all the buying modes - from scraping up $80 for a pair of speakers to (later in life) spending 50 times that. I think it's very cool in any price range to try to get the best there is. My first pair of "good" speakers was a $130 pair made by Acoustic Research. Ok, I'm 50 years old. But I never, never, worried about speaker cable other than to make sure that that the gauge was adequate for the length of the cable run. As much as I was only a B- student in electrical engineering, I know that electrons only care about material and cross section. 10 gauge copper is like Niagara Falls to audio-related electricity. 12 gauge is like the Mississippi. IMO Home Depot is not the problem, it's only a matter of what gauge you are actually getting.

As a personal theory, I would say that the least number of interfaces, the better. That's one reason I don't pay much attention to expensive cable. Every transition form gold to brass to copper to whatever is a potential for an impedance change that isn't good for your output. Bare wire connections (no spades or bannanas) are probably the best in a pure sense. The only issue is whether you will leave them in the circuit so long that they will experience some corrosion. I have gone to gold plated connectors only because I'm lazy and I may not change my cable/speaker connections for 10 years. But if you're not experiencing corrosion. by all means, have at it with 12 or 14 lamp cord (with no connectors) from whoever sells it (cheap).

12 gauge reminds me of a shotgun! :D

I don't have any type of electronics schooling but I'm only 18 annd I only use the wire for my small soundesign receiver! at least for now until i ugrade the speakers for my other soundesign receiver which has a turntable!

<noob>So, how is it that some people buy $500 speaker cables? What's the deal there? </noob>

<noob>So, how is it that some people buy $500 speaker cables? What's the deal there? </noob>

A combination of ignorance and marketing. There are even more expensive cables than that.

Saw a link to $12,000 speaker cables here once (that were all of 8 feet long).

It still really blows me away that people recommend going in to a home depot and buying 100ft of wire costing 25 cents a foot. Do you honestly think that wire costing 25 cents a foot is going to be high quality..lasting the sands of time and fit for a home theater system? I mean, come on, even 50-75 cents a foot isn't all that bad.

x 2

People are allowed to use whatever they want; but I hate it when they pass on their bad advice to others.

Got any old lamps? Just cut the lamp chords off and use them.

So, we are expected to use old, brown wire on our $12K-a-pair piano-finish B&M 800 series speakers???

If I spend $12K on speakers (and the same on tube gear/seperates), I'm not gonna be cheap on the connections...

I'm enjoying this thread....

I have read that speaker wire can make a difference in the sound. It would seem at least from readidng this thread that is not really true.

I've read that Monster Cable speaker wires are one of the few thinsg they make that is worth the money. Is that not the case?

Any wire with the right gauge (lower for longer distances) will get your electrons from here to there.

Monster speaker wire has a nice "hang" to it, but I don't think it actually "sounds" better.

Any wire with the right gauge (lower for longer distances) will get your electrons from here to there.

Monster speaker wire has a nice "hang" to it, but I don't think it actually "sounds" better.
what do you mean by "nice hang"?

The covering is very flexible. It hangs straight from its own weight.

I've read that Monster Cable speaker wires are one of the few thinsg they make that is worth the money. Is that not the case?Most people here would say that that is not the case. Monster speaker wire is not really any different than any other wire that can be had for less money. But there is nothing wrong with Monster speaker wire if the price is right.

Most people here would say that that is not the case. Monster speaker wire is not really any different than any other wire that can be had for less money. But there is nothing wrong with Monster speaker wire if the price is right.

You should still boycott Monster because of their actions...

...yes, other companies are no better at ethics; but, in this case it's warranted.

I've ordered nice Belden speaker cable from the BlueJeansCable website. The 5000UE 12-gauge cable is thick, twisted, and 100% copper. They also sell it in a nice white jacket for $0.40/ft.

I recommend you read as much of this as you can: http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable


Awesome post!

That is going to save me A LOT of mulla with my new home theater room :D

You should still boycott Monster because of their actions...

...yes, other companies are no better at ethics; but, in this case it's warranted.
You still singin' that song? :rolleyes: The only reason you have a problem with Monster is because you read on the web that you should. Don't be such a "tool". How old are you, anyway? In what way has Monster's purported but unsubstantiated bad business practices affected you, personally?

My advice would be to boycott something much more worthwhile. There is a lot of stuff wrong with the world today that totally eclipses whatever gripe you may have with Monster.

You still singin' that song? :rolleyes: The only reason you have a problem with Monster is because you read on the web that you should. Don't be such a "tool". How old are you, anyway? In what way has Monster's purported but unsubstantiated bad business practices affected you, personally?

You expect me to like a company that's being a bully in order to monolopize a common word?

Back in the day, I used to buy their speaker wire (mainly because there was no other choice); Monster had already taken over the retail stores. I had bought several rolls over the years and I can tell you this: their wire sucks.
1. The strands break when you strip it for use
2. The strands become nasty after a while
3. It's a pain to strip it for use
4. No awg size on the package like they are trying to hide something

I was a fan of:
1. Monster Garage
2. Monsters Inc.
3. Cookie Monster

I used:
1. Monster (online resume)

No one told me to boycott them; I made that decision myself.

My advice would be to boycott something much more worthwhile. There is a lot of stuff wrong with the world today that totally eclipses whatever gripe you may have with Monster.

"...yes, other companies are no better at ethics"

:rolleyes:

It's hard to boycott the gas companies; but, we can boycott Monster...

...since this IS an audio forum.

:confused:

OldSchool I'm sorry but that post does not seem to make a lot of sense. Monster cable makes good speaker wire, they're just over priced.

I wired my grandparents stereo system with monster cable 7 years ago. Have not had a lick of trouble...

If you know how to strip wire the monster cable doesn't break...if you dont know how to strip wire anything will break.


Having said all that, I'm not a monster fan. I dislike their products because they're horribly over priced.

How are gas companies even close to monster audio? Gas companies do not set the price of their product monster does, that analogy makes zero sense.

You expect me to like a company that's being a bully in order to monolopize a common word?

I was a fan of:
1. Monster Garage
2. Monsters Inc.
3. Cookie Monster

I used:
1. Monster (online resume)

And..............?????

Monster Garage (http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monstergarage/monstergarage.html)
Monsters, Inc. (http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/monstersinc/)
Cookie Monster (http://pbskids.org/sesame/letter/index.html)
Monster.com (http://www.monster.com/)

You're an idiot. :D




I can tell you this: their wire sucks.That is a very informative assessment. I'm sure that convinced someone.



1. The strands break when you strip it for use
2. The strands become nasty after a while
3. It's a pain to strip it for useSounds like a problem with the user, to me.


4. No awg size on the package like they are trying to hide somethingAnd what are they hiding, exactly?




No one told me to boycott them; I made that decision myself.Sure you did, you "tool". :D All you've got is that amateurish link in your sig.



It's hard to boycott the gas companies; but, we can boycott Monster...

...since this IS an audio forum.Circuit City recently laid-off thousands of their higher paid employees who had worked loyally for them for many, many years, and replaced them with new hires who are being paid considerably less. Why don't you bitch about that?

OldSchool I'm sorry but that post does not seem to make a lot of sense. Monster cable makes good speaker wire, they're just over priced.

I wired my grandparents stereo system with monster cable 7 years ago. Have not had a lick of trouble...

If you know how to strip wire the monster cable doesn't break...if you dont know how to strip wire anything will break.


Having said all that, I'm not a monster fan. I dislike their products because they're horribly over priced.

How are gas companies even close to monster audio? Gas companies do not set the price of their product monster does, that analogy makes zero sense.

I stated many times before about the wire quality:
I used everything from cheap auto crimpers to quality strippers; the strands broke every time. No other wire does this (from cheap auto stuff to better speakers wire). Not saying I used it all; but, I used enough.

And..............?????

Monster Garage (http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monstergarage/monstergarage.html)
Monsters, Inc. (http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/monstersinc/)
Cookie Monster (http://pbskids.org/sesame/letter/index.html)
Monster.com (http://www.monster.com/)

You're an idiot. :D

I'm not the idiot who doesn't know what companies Monster went after; there was a list of 200+ lawsuits including Discovery, Disney, PBS, & Monster.com.

Sounds like a problem with the user, to me.

I stated many times before about the wire quality:
I used everything from cheap auto crimpers to quality strippers; the strands broke every time. No other wire does this (from cheap auto stuff to better speakers wire). Not saying I used it all; but, I used enough.

And what are they hiding, exactly?

Not sure; but, if food companies weren't required to disclose the ingredients, you think they would?

Sure you did, you "tool". :D All you've got is that amateurish link in your sig.

That link is to let people know about their actions...

Circuit City recently laid-off thousands of their higher paid employees who had worked loyally for them for many, many years, and replaced them with new hires who are being paid considerably less. Why don't you bitch about that?

I don't normally shop at C.C. or Worst Buy; especially, since they have stupid kids pushing P.S.P.'s in your face.

I buy mid-fi gear; no MTX for me.

The one thing that I've noticed about the people on these forums who always write pages about how you could use lamp wire are really doing it just because they are weird. Speaker wire might not make much of a difference, but most people have their wire not entirely hidden, they use the wire for many years, and generally shouldn't mind spending $75-100 for a 100ft roll as opposed to $25. Just because you can buy really cheap wire doesn't mean you have to. Frankly, it kinda disturbs me how many times I'll see people get all hot and angry about wire..sure, $1,000 wire might be kinda crazy, but spending $.75 to a $1 a foot isn't that wild especially since you might be using this wire for up to 10+ years. It's like everyone on this forum takes pride in buying cheap wire.

The one thing that I've noticed about the people on these forums who always write pages about how you could use lamp wire are really doing it just because they are weird. Speaker wire might not make much of a difference, but most people have their wire not entirely hidden, they use the wire for many years, and generally shouldn't mind spending $75-100 for a 100ft roll as opposed to $25. Just because you can buy really cheap wire doesn't mean you have to. Frankly, it kinda disturbs me how many times I'll see people get all hot and angry about wire..sure, $1,000 wire might be kinda crazy, but spending $.75 to a $1 a foot isn't that wild especially since you might be using this wire for up to 10+ years. It's like everyone on this forum takes pride in buying cheap wire.

I'm not so sure it is so much taking pride in cheap wire as to point out that buying overpriced or exotic wire is really not necessary.

I agree with you that buying the cheapest you can find is not necessarily the best thing, unless it happens to be a good quality wire at a bargain price.

So what is it I'm getting if I pay $120 for 2 10 ft wires with the plugs on the ends?

"Overtone" -
as this thread slowly degenerates into the 30 year old battle between "my $200 cables are better than your $20 cables or else they wouldn't have cost 10 times more !"........ paying $60 apiece for 10' of speaker wire means you have purchased about $5 to $8 worth of components, $2 worth of labor, and $50 worth of marketing and profit. Good copper multistrand conductor, whether its $.25 a foot or $5.00 a foot for the same gauge diameter, is still "copper conductor". It does no good to denigrate "two conductor, parallel, 12 gauge copper wire, with elastomeric insulation" as crap just because it has the trade name of "lamp cord" or "zip cord" 8-}

Before this whole thread dives to the lowest level that all threads of this type seem to do, try this experiment: buy some 14 ga. or 12 ga. "lamp cord" from Lowes or HD and TRY IT. Later, if you really want to spend $100 more, go ahead.....at least you will have the materials on hand to run a really good listening test of your own.

So what is it I'm getting if I pay $120 for 2 10 ft wires with the plugs on the ends?

Ripped off. Even if you went overkill and spent $1 a foot on wire ($20 total), plus $15 worth of wire sleeving to make it look cool, then soilder type plugs at mono price for $1.75 a pare ($7 total), then the same cables could cost you $42 (conservatively). Say if you even want to take the cost of your labor (let's say you make $35/hour at your job, so place that value on your time), then if it takes you less then two hours to do (it should), then you are still better off doing it your self.

A combination of ignorance and marketing. There are even more expensive cables than that.

Saw a link to $12,000 speaker cables here once (that were all of 8 feet long).

:eek: that much for 8 feet of copper wire! :eek:

I think I'll be running away from anyone who offers me those cables! :)

:eek: that much for 8 feet of copper wire! :eek:

I think I'll be running away from anyone who offers me those cables! :)
I forget what they were called -- had some mountain name. They looked good and I'm sure there is someone in Beverly Hills bragging about how much he paid for them.

Although the CAT5 cables my friend lent me didn't do anything to improve or degrade the sound as far as I can tell, the certainly do look rather cool. So, if you want "high tech" cables the recipe is pretty simple:

Buy enough CAT5 cable (went to Lowe's and got 100 feet for $40) for the length desired. For example, if you wanted 2 12 foot cables:

1. Cut 6 12 1/2 lengths of CAT5 cable.
2. About 6 inches from the end, tape the end of three of them and make a loose braid.
3. Leave about 6 inches from the end of the braid, and tape.
4. Strip the casing of each of the ends of the cables, and separate the wires into solid and striped.
5. Strip about 2 inches of insulation off each wire.
6. Twist all solid colors together and all striped together
7. Double and triple check that you haven't accidentally mixed solids with stripes (shorts are bad)
8. Either tin the ends, or terminate with your favorite connectors (spade lugs, banana, whatever)
9. Repeat for the other cable

When someone asks about why your system sounds so incredible, point to the DIY cables you made say something along the lines of "the inductance of the capacitance of the resistance causes the electrons to flow more harmoniously, thus producing the ethereal qualities" (or make up something else that is nonsensical and sounds impressive).

I know that is tongue in cheek, but some people believe they can actually hear a difference in sound quality with such cables. As I mentioned previously, I don't.

Why do so many people complain about Monster! Why not bitch about Audio Quest, Mit, Nordost, Shunyata. They are the ones that are shoving their product down are throats by advertising on every single page of the audio magazines, claiming to do the same thing that Monster claims. I don't hear any thing bad about the mit oracle V2.2. People say not to spend 300$ on some Z3 wires and that a lamp chord will work fine for a 50k system . Well people should be raising holly hell about a company charging 13k$ for speaker wire then.

An article on speaker wire:

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

BlueJeansCable's Belden 10 AWG speaker wire is phenomenal. If you want to spruce it up, get some shrink wrap, quality gold plated terminators of your choice, and some plastic meshing tubes to cover the plain jane PVC jacket.

You'll still come out ahead with these small flourishes--far, far ahead in most cases--of most of these over-priced, over-hyped snake oil companies. The performance will be nearly identical... perhaps even better!

BlueJeansCable's Belden 10 AWG speaker wire is phenomenal. If you want to spruce it up, get some shrink wrap, quality gold plated terminators of your choice, and some plastic meshing tubes to cover the plain jane PVC jacket.

You'll still come out ahead with these small flourishes--far, far ahead in most cases--of most of these over-priced, over-hyped snake oil companies. The performance will be nearly identical... perhaps even better!

Are you kidding me....$1 a foot!?!?! You must be mad. I just went to home depot and bought some extension cord. Chew on that ****. lol.

I'm looking at their website and it's $0.57 a foot for 10 gauge, my good man. Audioholics did an electrical sweep test and these Belden cords performed admirably. You normally use 10 gauge for long runs so the signal isn't attenuated, but for that reasonable price you can't go wrong at shorter lengths either!

I may be mad, but you're blind. :D

Dan

You still singin' that song? :rolleyes: The only reason you have a problem with Monster is because you read on the web that you should. Don't be such a "tool". How old are you, anyway? In what way has Monster's purported but unsubstantiated bad business practices affected you, personally?

My advice would be to boycott something much more worthwhile. There is a lot of stuff wrong with the world today that totally eclipses whatever gripe you may have with Monster.
My advice to you is to keep your lousy advice to yourself! :p

There are many good reasons to boycott the crappy cable products and business practices of Monster cable so what's your problem? Now we can't boycott something if there is a company more deserving? That's ridiculous just like your opinion.

Any company that sells snake oil (snake cable in this case) deserves our disdain and our unwillingness to buy their junk.

My bet is the only reason you're so upset with the boycott is that you spent your entire savings on Monster cable and now you're pissed that someone has deflated your Monster delusion. How old are you? LOL

I'm looking at their website and it's $0.57 a foot for 10 gauge, my good man. Audioholics did an electrical sweep test and these Belden cords performed admirably. You normally use 10 gauge for long runs so the signal isn't attenuated, but for that reasonable price you can't go wrong at shorter lengths either!

I may be mad, but you're blind. :D

Dan

Oh, I was thinking of the Canare. Actually, I'm thinking about buying some Canare, heard it was fantastic.

If you want some massively thick, inexpensive speaker wire, then try Acoustic Research Pro II speaker wire in 12 gauge thickness. They rate it at 12 gauge, but I couldn't strip it with the 8 gauge setting on my wire strippers without cutting off strands. I ended up manually stripping it with a utility knife. $15.99 + shipping for a 30 ft. roll at a popular vendor. Other lengths are available and even better deals can be had on Ebay.