Speaker cables/wire upgrade

JPC

I have the Onkyo 501, RTI 70's, CSI 50 center, FXI 30 surrounds and am looking to upgrade my connections. I think I will use the Monster XP for the surrounds and have auditioned the Monster MCX1s biwire and MCX2s cables. Both provide significant improvements over the radio shack 16 gauge wire I was using with the MCX2's appearing to sound the best overall as it appears to be a higher quality cable, although the MCX1's biwire did appear to have a little bit more range.

Any suggestions on reasonably priced cables? I am open to other brands other than Monster and would have tried others out, but the local stores don't seem to carry anything else. Any suggestions on bi-wiring v. normal wiring?

Also, I would like to upgrade my receiver, need more power. Any suggestions? Should I stick with cheaper speaker wire (like the XP I'm using for the surrounds and use the $'s for a new receiver?

Thanks for the input.

jkratzer

Originally posted by JPC
I have the Onkyo 501, RTI 70's, CSI 50 center, FXI 30 surrounds and am looking to upgrade my connections. I think I will use the Monster XP for the surrounds and have auditioned the Monster MCX1s biwire and MCX2s cables. Both provide significant improvements over the radio shack 16 gauge wire I was using with the MCX2's appearing to sound the best overall as it appears to be a higher quality cable, although the MCX1's biwire did appear to have a little bit more range.

Any suggestions on reasonably priced cables? I am open to other brands other than Monster and would have tried others out, but the local stores don't seem to carry anything else. Any suggestions on bi-wiring v. normal wiring?

Also, I would like to upgrade my receiver, need more power. Any suggestions? Should I stick with cheaper speaker wire (like the XP I'm using for the surrounds and use the $'s for a new receiver?

Thanks for the input.

I don't care for Monster speaker wire because of the cost. I'm using these from Parts Express and I am very pleased.

For fronts and center
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=100-155&DID=7

Surrounds in-wall
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=100-764&DID=7

For a receiver I would recommend something like the Denon 2803 or the Denon 3803.

Nice speakers by the way.

faster100

Monster works great, cost new is high.. consider used on e-bay.. i bought a sub cable, Y adapter and digital coax all for 30 bucks shipped.. check out the prices.. that's over $60-70 off retail new

Tour2ma

Good point on the used market...

www.signalcable.com is fairly popular here for IC's, JPC. Mention you're in Club Polk and you even get a 5% discount. I'm using signals balanced IC's and like them quit a bit.

As for speaker wire, my only thought is that 16 ga may be a bit light depending on your run lengths and speaker impedances. Check the table to see if you might benefit from just getting some heavier gauge Home Depot wire...
http://home.earthlink.net/~rogerr7/wire.htm#wiretable