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Is Monster-brand speaker cable worth it?

5871 Views 45 Replies 28 Participants Last post by PULLIAMM, Oct 16, 2006

WebEffect

Discussion Starter · Oct 6, 2006

I'll be buying speaker wire soon and I need to be careful with the little that's left of my budget. My longest run will be 22' to the surrounds and maybe 6' to the fronts. Also, how many gauge thick should the cable be for great sound, Monster or otherwise? (I'll be using a Yamaha RXV1600 receiver with JBL Studio L speakers, which I guess is somewhat on the high-end side...)

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1 - 20 of 46 Posts

garretwp

· #2 · Oct 6, 2006

Your best bet is to get 12awg or 14awg from monoprice and save yourself a good amount of money! I would not waste my money on monster cable. Here is cable that I made from monoproce and parts exress and cost me around 7 dollars for each 10 foot cable.

http://garrettwp.net/garretwp/pictur...speakcable.jpg

- Garrett

Ross E

· #3 · Oct 6, 2006

14 Gauge will be fine. Monster is decent wire but no better than many other quality wires that are a fraction of the price. If you like paying for advertising, buy the Monster. Check the BlueJeansCable link at the top of the main forum page.

garretwp

· #4 · Oct 6, 2006

If you do not want to deal with making your own, then bluejeancable is a good way to go!

- Garrett

axs

· #5 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by WebEffect
I'll be buying speaker wire soon and I need to be careful with the little that's left of my budget. My longest run will be 22' to the surrounds and maybe 6' to the fronts. Also, how many gauge thick should the cable be for great sound, Monster or otherwise? (I'll be using a Yamaha RXV1600 receiver with JBL Studio L speakers, which I guess is somewhat on the high-end side...)

For the lengths of cable you need, even 16 gauge of speaker wire will be good enough. You can get a 100' spool for about $20 from Radioshack or try monoprice.com

ChrisWiggles

· #6 · Oct 6, 2006

Just get a spool or 12 gauge, it's cheap and effective. Monster is not held in that high regards around here in terms of value.

PULLIAMM

· #7 · Oct 6, 2006

14ga will be fine for that distance, maybe even 16ga. Banana plugs or other terminators look nice, but aren't needed for a good connection, bare wire is fine.

esaleris

· #8 · Oct 6, 2006

The best thing to do is just to divide the price by the feet to get $ per feet. For 14-gauge, you're getting a deal if it is less than 30 cents; for 12-gauge, less than 40 cents.

In some online stores, you can get Monster THX 16-gauge (the clear-tubed kind) for around 25 cents. At buy.com, you can get CL-rated 14-gauge wire for 23 cents, but you'll have to buy 500 feet.

As for gauge, I read that famous speaker-wire-myth-debunking page and it had a table; I think up to 50 feet, you can still use 16-gauge.

kal

· #9 · Oct 6, 2006

I recommend Home Depot 12ga in-wall (CL2) rated wiring (the green stuff). Used by many here where price is not that much of a consideration.

It's about a 50 cents or so a foot (IIRC).

I have approximately 500 feet of it in my HT since I bi-wire all 5 speakers to bring the gauge down from 12ga to 8-9ga and the amps are 40-50 feet from the speakers.

Kal

eric.exe

· #10 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by garretwp
Your best bet is to get 12awg or 14awg from monoprice and save yourself a good amount of money! I would not waste my money on monster cable. Here is cable that I made from monoproce and parts exress and cost me around 7 dollars for each 10 foot cable.

- Garrett

Man that cable looks great! Can you provide a link to the mesh used?

BigMikeATL

· #11 · Oct 6, 2006

I picked up a 100ft spool of 14AWG RCA-brand speaker wire from Home Depot for $32. No complaints thus far.

Luis Gabriel Gerena

· #12 · Oct 6, 2006

Monster cable is actually a very good cable but very overpriced. So yes , value is not there and I know cause I can get 60% of retail so that tells you something about it. I buy Monster because it looks really good and since I get it cheap then why not?

psgcdn

· #13 · Oct 6, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by kal
I bi-wire all 5 speakers to bring the gauge down from 12ga to 8-9ga and the amps are 40-50 feet from the speakers.

It's a log scale, doubing the area drops the AWG by 3, so from 12 AWG to equivalent to 9 AWG. There's no approximation to be done here.

WestCoastD

· #14 · Oct 7, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by WebEffect
Is Monster-brand speaker cable worth it?

I've used Monster wire/cable products since their inception, I believe the product quality is worth the price. Don't feel pressured to purchase something else if Monster brand is what you really prefer, or because you're made to feel "guilty". However, if you're especially tight on money, then some of the other choices, mentioned here, will work just fine. Moreover, you can also consider some of the other commercial brands, like Acoustic Research (AR), etc.,..., which are sold at BestBuy stores, etc.,...

Quote:

Originally Posted by WebEffect
Also, how many gauge thick should the cable be for great sound, Monster or otherwise?

16AWG minimum, in general. I like to use 14AWG or 12AWG (preferably 12AWG) for the front main and center speakers myself, and like 16AWG for the surrounds. Monster "Ultra-High Performance" works just fine for all-around. Monster "Original", or "New Monster" type, is especially great for front mains and center (what I use). The popular "XP" types are fine for running around room for surrounds as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WebEffect
I'll be using a Yamaha RXV1600 receiver with JBL Studio L speakers

excellent receiver, you'll be happy with the sound quality.

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psgcdn

· #15 · Oct 7, 2006

Why do you treat surrounds differently?

WestCoastD

· #16 · Oct 7, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by psgcdn
Why do you treat surrounds differently?

what I'm implying is that you can get away just fine using the more popular, but more "pliable", sizes (or models) for running along the walls and corners for the more awkwardly placed surrounds. Otherwise, I would prefer to use like 14AWG or larger myself.

garretwp

· #17 · Oct 7, 2006

I used 3/8 carbon techflex from partsexpress.

- Garrett

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric.exe
Man that cable looks great! Can you provide a link to the mesh used?

billybob_jcv

· #18 · Oct 7, 2006

It makes absolutely no sense to use the smallest wire for the longest runs.

penngray

· #19 · Oct 7, 2006

Quote:

believe the product quality is worth the price. Don't feel pressured to purchase something else if Monster brand is what you really prefer, or because you're made to feel "guilty".

Yikes...that might get the 1000th thread on speaker wire going

I would pressure the OP to simply dont believe in the Monster hype. Just find a Marketing guy from Monster, take him golfing, have a couple of drinks with him and you will realize that the monster price tag is 80% marketing. They learned it all from how Bose makes money

mobster lobster

· #20 · Oct 7, 2006

I actually like the Audioquest (available in white or grey) better. It's 14 gauge but with fewer strands. Tweeter carries it in 50 ft spools.

1 - 20 of 46 Posts

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