Speaker wiring help

rfrenzke60

Hello Forum-I have a Sony AV 830 Reciever and here are the speakers i have R50's and Monitor 40II's along with Polk SubWoofer-My Dilemma is what is the best and safest way to wire my R50's and Monitor 40II's to my reciever..any input to this question would greatly appreciatted

EricFromMich

STR-DH830 Is this the reciever you have?

rfrenzke60

Yes it is-my biggest concern is making sure i stay within the ohm rating of my reciever when i wire the speakers

EricFromMich

Also what kind of set up are you going for ? room size, theater, music?

rfrenzke60

room size is 20X25---i will use with both theater and music...

EricFromMich

From what I can tell it looks like all your speakers are 8ohm. They should be a pretty good match, the 50's to the front chans, the 40's to the surrond back . Trying to figure out what would be better surround rear/ front high or just the surround can only get a Spanish manual

EricFromMich

lFrom what i'm reading go to the back surround . then in set up let it your using it as rear surround.

EricFromMich

sorry let it know your using it as rear surround.

rfrenzke60

I will try this-would you recommend 14 gauge wire-i am looking at the Monoprice website-looks very reasonable

EricFromMich

Never used it. Whats on paper looks okay. I'm always carefull with buying wire on line that is no name. You can get more plastic then wire. The reviews are great and the price is very good. 14 -g should be fine. If anything go a little bigger in the front. Just my option

EricFromMich

Are you running in wall,floor, or ceiling?

rfrenzke60

Under the floor

John K.

RF, welcome to Club Polk. You didn't say how many Monitor 40IIs you have. Assuming you have two of them, they have to be wired to the surround(not rear surround)terminals in your receiver. If you actually have four of the 40IIs rather than two, then two of them can be wired as rear surrounds, but the side surrounds("surrounds")have to come first.

The 14ga wire from MonoPrice should be fine unless your run to the surrounds would be longer than about 40 feet. The wire to the front R50s can be smaller than 14ga because the distance to them is shorter, but simply for convenience you can use the same wire for all speakers.

The impedance of the speakers is set by their internal wiring and how you wire them externally doesn't change that. There's no reason for you to have a concern in your situation about the impedance of your speakers. Your receiver can handle them well.

F1nut

I will try this-would you recommend 14 gauge wire-i am looking at the Monoprice website-looks very reasonable

If you don't mind the copper turning green, by all means buy those.

hosedagain

F1nut wrote: »

If you don't mind the copper turning green, by all means buy those.

Might turn green if exposed to the air, humidity, salt?? explain please
TU

Habanero Monk

F1nut wrote: »

If you don't mind the copper turning green, by all means buy those.

I have some 3 year old Monoprice 14AWG. Purchased 1/10/2010 to be exact. Just thought an OP would like some honesty.

hosedagain

Thanks for the tutorial, appreciated, now I know why I was suggested to use shrink tube, but not heard of soldering the tips, will do both. a noob-geek trying to find his way

Habanero Monk

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Maybe you should try doing some searches both here and on Google before claiming someone is misleading someone else...

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?146889-Monoprice-or-NOT&p=1899272&viewfull=1#post1899272
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?144992-inexpensive-speaker-wire-insulation-changing-color-over-time.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-134739.html?
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/just-ordered-new-interconnects-from-monoprice.252354/page-5
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-337285.html
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=108306.0

And those were just quick searches here and Google.

Fact is, ANY copper cable can oxidize or corrode if it is exposed to the right type of environment.
Does that mean that if the OP goes with Monoprice it will *definitely* corrode? Not at all. Nor does it mean that any other cable product wouldn't corrode if in the right conditions for it to do so.
But *fact* is, you hear more about Monoprice cable corroding or turning green than you do higher quality options such as Audioquest, Canare or Belden.

Calling someone a liar out of hand without anything to back up your claim is petty and childish.

All I know is I have 3+ year old Mono Price and I just posted a pic of copper that is non-oxidized. I would urge the OP to go with the CL Rated In-wall. It's affordable and as everyone can see still in perfect condition.

So may be that you have to get a particular type.

As to the liar portion: Find out where I called anyone a liar. I said I thought the OP would like some honesty.

Not only did I post a few pics. They now know the exact cable that they cantget, that is WAY past 2 years old, and still in pristine shape.

It's called not painting everything with the same brush (green this time).

F1nut

I don't use a brush, I use a spray gun. A very expensive one at that.

Habanero Monk

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Honesty suggests that someone,

I'll fix this for you: Not say all cables from brand x/y/z are going to turn green. You have a link for the CL2 rated turning green?

Habanero Monk

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Are you incapable of googling for more examples?
And there are at least 2 examples linked above if you take the time to actually read through the posts.

Look, it is obvious that you can't admit that you were blatantly wrong and were simply looking for an opportunity to attempt to impune Jesse's comment. The burden of proof lies with the challenger. I challenged your assertion. I provided proof as well as a means to find even more proof. You are now trying to find a way to make yourself look right when anyone reading this thread can see that you are not.

With that said, I wash my hands of this pointless drivel. You are more than capable of finding the information yourself. I even handed you all of the correct tools to do so.
I responded to the OPs concerns with fact and evidence.
You responded to the OP with "Jesse is a liar, *I* haven't had any problems".
I rebutted with more fact and evidence.
You rebutted with "Nuh uh!"
You, sir, are a child. Moreover, a vindictive child with nary the sense to see when you have been proven wrong time and time again and should simply bow out, or more appropriately, admit when you are wrong.

Or post pics of pristine 3+ year old MonoPrice cable. Anybody can take any brand and go on the internet find problems. People never report the stuff that goes right.

None of your links I could find directly talk about the in-wall stuff. Some of those threads actually say the MonoPrice In-wall is THE speaker cable to go with from them (not the clear jacketed stuff however).

The closest is http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-337285.html where a member had the CL2 rated cable that is still shiny after 2.5 + years.

So thanks for helping make my point for me even though you didn't mean to.

F1nut

The fact remains, it is well known and documented that Monoprice speaker cable turns green and their HDMI cables have an extremely high rate of failure. With those indisputable facts in mind, it should give pause to any reasonable person considering the purchase of any of their products.

There's your honesty and you would be well advised not to call me a liar again. I hope I make myself clear on that.

Habanero Monk

F1nut wrote: »

The fact remains, it is well known and documented that Monoprice speaker cable turns green and their HDMI cables have an extremely high rate of failure. With those indisputable facts in mind, it should give pause to any reasonable person considering the purchase of any of their products.

There's your honesty and you would be well advised not to call me a liar again. I hope I make myself clear on that.

Isn't that dependant on how many HDMI cables they sell? I mean Toyota is going to have more repairs then Volvo if you don't want to take into consideration the relative #'s sold.

Habanero Monk

ZLTFUL wrote: »

According to JD Power, no. Toyota will have far fewer repairs versus Volvo.
112 problems per 100 vehicles for Toyota compared to 149 problems per 100 vehicles for Volvo.

http://autos.jdpower.com/ratings/dependability-press-release.htm

You missed the entire point. Toyota probably has more cars in recall in a given year then Volvo sells. The more product you move the larger your total pool of defects.

I would expect more complaints publicly of a Chevy/Toyota etc than a Volvo or Subaru.

Again I am posting pics of cable that is still in great shape after 3 years. The OP can go with MonoPrice, Belden, whatever. You and I do not know in the light of how much cable they sell vs what has a legit problem.

If I as a company sell 100K HDMI cables and have 200 go bad and another company has sold 10K cables and has 20 go bad you are going to see the public # of complaints follow accordingly.

Habanero Monk

ZLTFUL wrote: »

As an educated consumer, I prefer to go off of percentages.
Which is why a static set of numbers was used in my example.

100% with you there. But while for automobiles you have concrete data for cables you don't. You don't have any idea of the %'s of defect involved with MonoPrice, Monster, AQ, etc...

What you can not say with any authority or any factual backing is the percentages.

Can one still get Monster Cable pretty cheap on closeout or is the stuff you see at Accessories for Less/ Ebay etc the real deal or counterfeit? Then by all means get that.

I think Monoprice moves a lot of cable. I believe that volume is going to generate more overall negative reviews. Just like you reasonably linked to. But it doesn't mean that everything MonoPrice ships is junk.

hosedagain

hi jacked from another audio forum

A few years ago I found that the speaker cable runs to my main speakers had severely corroded. To the point where when I sectionned them there was very little copper showing in cross-section. For fun I replace one run with brand new 12 gauge oxygen-free cable, and left the other intact. We''re talking about 16-20 foot runs. Then I A-B''d the two. Swapped the cables and did it again. Not exactly a proper experiment, but the result was a bit surprising: I couldn''t tell the two apart.

and the following, not sure if the statement below is from a wire-cable supplier-manufacture? so take it for what it is worth,

Green speaker wire shows a sign, showing the speaker wire is turning bad and it needs replacing. If you see a green color inside the insulation of the speaker wire, it shows that the wire is damaged from copper oxide. Once the speaker wire turns green, the wire is no longer a decent electrical conductor. This is because the copper oxide is not a conductive substance as pure copper and it makes the signal sent to the speaker degraded. Although you can still use the green speaker wire for your audio needs, but you will have a decrease in sound quality.

more info

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

hosedagain

Something else to think about. I've got an old Philco tube radio, made in 1941. The wire in it is made of good old regular copper, nothing "oxygen free" about it. In fact it's probably less pure than ordinary lamp cord made today. Yet if you cut into a strand of wire, the copper is still...copper. No oxidation from within, no green tarnish.

And copper artifacts have been unearthed that are thousands of years old. No oxidation from within, and the copper refining techniques back then were hardly even up to 1940's refining technologies.

Here's one article discussing how undercured Teflon wire insulation caused release of fluoride inside the wire, corroding the wire underneath. http://www.residues.com/pdfs/foresite_teflon.pdf

PVC insulation is the common clear speaker wire insulation, and it is well known to outgas chlorine if improperly cured or used in certain conditions (like in a vacuum). PVC insulation is no longer allowed on aircraft. Audioholics measured electrical data of various speaker cables here and the end of the article also notes the PVC outgassing in their samples. http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/cables/speaker-cable-face-off-1

cstmar01

Habanero Monk wrote: »

Or post pics of pristine 3+ year old MonoPrice cable. Anybody can take any brand and go on the internet find problems. People never report the stuff that goes right..

Wrong. See several people here do use better cables they have no problems with and then post their findings. However those findings are often then disputed by others claiming that they are hearing things and wasting money.

See, we do like to report things that go right. Others always try to tell someone their wrong.

I agree that you were just trying to point a finger at Jesse again (like you always have to try and prove him wrong) when its been shown several times mono price doesn't have the best cables etc.

I have yet to see a thread about the others that have issues with their cables from Blue Jeans or Signal etc turning green.

Also I had a mono price HDMI, failed about 3 months after I got it, wouldn't pass the signal anymore. Upgraded to a different one and worked like a charm.

Habanero Monk

cstmar01 wrote: »

Wrong. See several people here do use better cables they have no problems with and then post their findings. However those findings are often then disputed by others claiming that they are hearing things and wasting money.

See, we do like to report things that go right. Others always try to tell someone their wrong.

I agree that you were just trying to point a finger at Jesse again (like you always have to try and prove him wrong) when its been shown several times mono price doesn't have the best cables etc.

I have yet to see a thread about the others that have issues with their cables from Blue Jeans or Signal etc turning green.

Also I had a mono price HDMI, failed about 3 months after I got it, wouldn't pass the signal anymore. Upgraded to a different one and worked like a charm.

You are 100% correct that yes people do report the stuff that goes well. I shouldn't have said that. I'm not saying MP has the best. What I can tell any party is my first hand experience (like the others). Sometimes that is good experience, other times not so much.

samreddevilz

Just connect the wires carefully and according to the colors. Then hope it will work well.

leftwinger57

As a former alarm installer I can tell you that even contacts do turn green and tarnish so bad that it will caause a false alrm or just go open.Now w/ wire the same can happen but I think it depends more on where one lives like near the coast or what type of heating one has .It does happen but it takes along time. Me I'm not calling anyone out here but I have seen tarnished wire for myself.