I have moved to new home with some existing audio wiring in place and want to utilize it if I can. I have 4 wall plates ( 2 on front wall and 2 on rear wall) with left and right speaker jacks. The 2 in front are connected with interconnect cables to the 2 in the rear (about 20 feet running under the floor in the basement).

There are some existing speaker cables [(high end I presume, a red and white wire connected to an insertion plug plus a green and black wire connected to an insertion plug; all enclosed in white sheath - accusound 16 AWG)] hanging from the wall plates. Problem is they are not long enough to reach either my receiver or speakers (at least not all).

What I would like to know is if I can make my own speaker cables with 14 AWG Home Depot wire, put banana plugs on each end and plug into existing plates on either end of the interconnect cables?

Also, wondering if you can mix and match i.e use the existing cables say for the L/R fronts and or center and make my own for rears?

I only have modest Def Tech Mythos speakers and mid level receiver.

Thanks for helping a newbie.

Dennis

Dennis, what you describe sounds fine. You can certainly make some speaker cables with some 14ga wire from Home Depot, and you can put banana plugs on it if you want, but a lot of times, that's not necessary (although it is convenient). If I'm understanding the existing cables correctly, they should be fine too--and you can use them however you'd like, whether as patch cables between the receiver and the plates, between the plates and rears, or between the receiver and your fronts--generally speaking, a wire is a wire. And there's no harm if you want to use those cables for your fronts and make another cable for your center--if you can hear a difference, it would be miracle...so don't worry about it. So, it sounds like you have a good handle on what you need to do, so get it wired up and start enjoying it! Have fun--hope that helps.

drrick:

Wow, thanks that would be great. Just to make sure....This large amount of Straightwire interconnect cable can be use as speaker wire, i.e. just connect to speakers and my receiver?

Dennis

I'm not 100% sure what straightwire is (is it a name brand?). Basically anything that has 2 conductors will probably be fine. So, anyway, I think what you're describing is probably fine. Speaker wire doesn't have to be really complicated or fancy. For the most part, you just want to make sure your cable is big enough for the run you have--and your run shouldn't be a big problem.

drrick:

Yes, Straightwire is the brand on the interconnects (both the wire and connectors). Now that you've straightend me out on the wire I was mainly concerned about mixing wire types or would it be best to start from scratch.

My needs are not sophisticated but I do not want to introduce some obvious sound issues. Thanks for your help.

I don't think you need to worry about mixing wire types. Assuming they're not something weird, it should be fine. I would assume that both are copper cables, so don't worry about it. Even if they weren't, I'm still not sure you'd have a problem. I think you're good to go--so enjoy your system!