Wiring Kit

ralphy670

Can anyone tell me if there is a full home theater wiring kit you can buy that is not too expensive and that is not Monster Cable. I was also wondering what gauge of speaker wire I should use. I have sat speakers for fronts rears and center channels. My receiver manual recommends 14 gauge and 16 for less than a 10 foot section. Is 14 overkill for these speakers and will 16 all around do fine?
Thanks for the help.

Mike682

I guess you have an H/K?

I don't know of any wiring kits other than monster. It's probably best to buy the items you need separately.

I would go with nothing thinner than 16ga if you are in a bind. The thicker 14ga wire is preferred though. Even though they are satellites, the receiver still has to send power to them. A thicker speaker wire will help with this.

Rivethead

Try these sites for wires/cables (recommended to me by other Polk Forum members):

www.monoprice.com (but I can tell you right now they are OUT of a lot of stuff...but I did order two Toslink digital audio cables and was very impressed with the quality/price/purchase process).

www.partsexpress.com

www.accessories4less.com

www.bluejeanscable.com (while many here say they have good products/price, I thought the prices were a bit pricey. But I'm on a budget building a budget system).

www.signalcable.com

John K.

Ralphy, welcome. As was said, it's a better idea to buy your wiring as separate items rather than trying to find a suitable "kit", especially at an inflated price such as the one charged by Monster. This is really pretty simple stuff. For coaxial cable for interconnections there're quite a few sources that sell at reasonable prices, including MonoPrice and the two suggestions that followed(the last two are good but a bit pricey). For lampcord to wire up your speakers it might be more cost effective to deal with Home Depot or another local supplier in view of shipping charges.

As to the gauge of the wire, you should study the suggestions made in this explanation of the reality of speaker wiring. Mr. Russell is a veteran audio professional who's an electrical engineer and was already the head of speaker engineering for McIntosh over 30 years ago when I began to study sound reproduction seriously.

Bill Ayotte

I used Signal Cable for everything but speaker cable, which I used monster. I couldn't be happier. I will tell you it was about $800 for all of my HT rig and my 2 channel rig, with 2 extra sets of Analog II interconnects. I know it makes your head spin, but for the amount of cabling I got, $800 was a bargain.