Speaker wire

Heck, I used to use lamp chord back in the day.. For the most part copper is copper, God didn't make different variations. Basically, if it is flexible enough for you to use, and you can twist the ends to make your connections, your probably good to go. The main thing is you select the proper gauge for the distance and speakers your using.

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

Probably "MTW" vice "MIW" but it sounds like what you have there is 12 guage wire intended for home wiring of appliances and such. It is oil resistant and the THHN means it has a heat resistant coating. Not needed for speaker wire but likely it would work fine. Likely that spool of wire was not cheap and it probably wasn't just 'laying around' so to speak...

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/2W406


You can find great deals on speaker wire at monoprice.com.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...02&cp_id=10239

I know you wish to save money, but even with your spool of single conductor wire you will need another to make up 2 conductor cables for your speakers. I also assume some of your wiring will be in-wall and in-ceiling, so it really makes more sense to use the proper 2 conductor wire made for in-wall installation.

two good online sources are:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...09&cp_id=10239
and
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=100-740
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=100-734

depending on your installation, 14 ga. wire may work very well. Please read thru this site and you will have a much better understanding of speaker wire requirements
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm the "wire table" page sets out the wire gauge for different length runs

Expensive! The idea is that the grains of copper have spaces between them, filled with "impurities" like oxygen. So some cable companies sell very expensive copper wire that is manufactured in ways to reduce/eliminate these impurities. Some people insist all this stuff is snake oil, and some audiophiles swear they can hear a difference. When in a pinch, I have used regular electrical cable (it's usually called "Romex," after a common brand name) as speaker wire, and honestly, it sounded just fine. To each his own, eh?

Do be clear, though, that speaker cable to each speaker requires two separate conductors, a positive and negative. Virtually all "speaker cable" has both of these conductors, separately insulated, running together within a bigger sleeve. This is both for convenience and the notion that, when the two insulated conductors are wound together, they reduce the electromagnetic field around the cable. (That's a potential benefit only when the speaker wire runs close to interconnect cable. Not generally a big concern in any case.)

If you really need come cheap speaker cable, and your individual runs don't exceed 20-30 feet, you can pick up a 50' or 100' roll of 14-2 Romex at your local Home Depot, or a roll of the stock speaker cable that stores like that carry. It's very basic stuff, but it DOES work, and it would be much easier to work with that having to do double runs of that 12 gauge wire you have now. If you're installing permanent runs that will be enclosed in walls, you should really get speaker cable rated for that purpose. A good source, I think, is Blue Jeans Cable, but it's widely available in stores and on the net.

Some terminology, to help you get your footing:

wire = an individual electrical conductor
cable = a set of wires, individually insulated to keep them separate, running together within a common sleeve
AWG = wire gauge; the bigger the number, the thinner the wire; speaker cable is typically in the range of about 10AWG to 16AWG. Bigger cables aren't inherently better-sounding, but are used to prevent signal loss over longer runs.
"14-2" = this cable designation refers to the size of the wires (in this case 14AWG) and the number of wires in the cable (in this case 2). So, a 12-3 cable has three 12-gauge wires, a 10-2 has two 10-gauge wires, and so on.

Hope this is helpful.

Thanks m_vanmeter, Roger Russell was a great read. A must for all TR installers. Just what I needed.

Hi Chris,
If you get the chance, go to Mr. Russell's main site, www.roger-russell.com
He is an interesting gentleman with a life time of experience in high-end audio, most with McIntosh Labs. It is also a "good read"