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Originally Posted by
WilliamZX11 
I was talking about speaker wire, and yes, Romex would work just as well. I wouldn't use it, too stiff, making it a pain to route. Of course the same thing applies to coax.
Agreed on Romex stiffness as speaker wire, but maybe not on RG-8 coax stiffness as speaker wire.
I mean, 20 years ago I fab'ed small amounts of interconnect wire using RG-11 coax.
Believe or not, I even sold one pair; and I'm not much of a salesman.

I don't plan to do that again for interconnects (for either selling it or for using really thick coax for interconnects), but my memory is that the cable was way more workable than my self fab'ed twin 18 gage solid that I briefly tried for speaker wire.
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I would use speaker wire, you know, a product actually meant for what you are using it for.
You keep tallking about the "hot" connector. You do realise that the output from your amp is A/C right? The signal flows both ways on both wires,
That's a valid point.
I bite my tongue, as I'm unsure on hot connector.
Anyone care to add in on this?
Anyway, I still like solid center *coax* as both speaker wire and as interconnect wire.
That's what I'm doing/exploring in this thread.
My hope is that when I get done I'll have wire as good as one can get, for any amount of money for both speaker wire and interconnect wire.
I got sucked into buying a 1.5m AudioQuest Sidewinder cable at $70.
So at maybe an average of $90/AQ Sidewinder cable, if I redo a minimum estimate of 30 interconnect cables (I use a lot of interconnects), that's a target of $2,700.
And AQ Sidewinder cable is at best a mid cable, of more than quite a few on the current market.
In other word, so far I've spent about $400 on speaker/interconnect cable, tools, and RCA connectors.
My comparison for speaker wire is 14 zip.
My comparison for interconnects is low-level: both AudioQuest (both Sidewinder and G-Snake), and 75 ohm interconnect bought from
www.omniprice.comQuote:
it would seem logical to use the same type and gauge for both leads.
AFAIK, few if any commercial interconnect cables do that.
True balanced interconnect cables being the one possible exception.
But, of course, you clearly meant speaker cable. Right?
Build your case.
I'm all ears.

To my mind speaker wire, and interconnect wire, are systems that present a resistance/impedance/capacitance/inductance load.
So to me, using the same type and gauge for both leads isn't necessary.
BTW, I get the serious sense that few who've responded in this thread, have actually bothered to read Aczel's part 2 & 3 on cables in issues 16/17 of
www.theaudiocritic.com
That is basic reading for anyone interested in any kind of audio wire.
Both issues were done more than a decade ago, so the RG-8 idea (as speaker wire) has been out there a very long time. If it were a hoax, it would have gotten blasted by now.
The two key things I got out of issue 17 was that excellence of the RCA connectors is important (which is why I'm going with Canare RCAs at $3/connector)
And that there was no mention of 50 ohm coax vs 75 ohm coax, and that tone control type effects only happen under very rare conditions.
Which is why I decided to go with Canare RG-6 coax (solid center), and the matching Canare RCA connectors, and the Carane tools to strip wire and do the crimping.
Cheers