New cables...

mjk91383

I've just started building my home theater, and I've come to the point of picking out some cables and speaker wire. I know a few people who swear by Monster Cables, but others say that they are not worth the money.

Does anyone out there feel that Monster is the only way to go, or are there other options? I've considered getting some AudioQuest or Liberty speaker wire from OneCall, but again, their salespeople recommend Monster.

I've checked Best Buy, Circuit City, and numerous other electronics retailers, and everyone I talk to tries to sell me Monster Cables. I'm looking for about 100 feet of quality speaker cable (16 gauge or smaller) and a good digital coaxial cable.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do? I want to get something that's made well and will last for awhile. Money isn't too much of an issue, but I don't want to spend more than I have to.

Any comments, ideas or recommendations I can get would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!


- Harman/Kardon AVR310
- Polk RM7500 satellites w/ PSW650
- Toshiba SD3755 DVD player
- Mitsubishi 36'' Direct View TV

I-SIG

Everyone here swears by AudioQuest. I'm waiting for a set myself. Monster is just marketing hype. Not that they may or may not have some good invations, They just get rammed down peoples' throats, kinda like Blose.

Wes

wangotango68

save yourself some money and go the home depot or lowes and get a big role of 12 gauge speaker cable and forget about it.there is so much hype in cable and interconnect's its sicking!! i have monster z1 reference cable and some no name 12 gauge cable
and they sound the same to me.

scott:cool:

Aaron

My experience with Monster Cable is that they make OK stuff that seems to be overpriced in general. I've never tried Audio Quest, but most everyone seems to love it. For me, I just spend the money on nice cables for my L&R speakers and a good set of interconnects for my source (or a nice coax digital cable in your case) since I do a lot of stereo listening.

Aaron

CHRIS

IMO the hi-end Monster is good. However I stick with AQ and Transparent as my favorites. Transparent cable is very expensive for their hi-end, over $1000 a foot. I know most will say no cabe is worth it but in some setups it will make a difference. Being diabled and spending much of my time watching movies I feel spending the amount I am on building my main system appropriate.
AQ has techs who devise the specs for their cable and it gets sent to a manufacturer much like many cable companies Kimber etc. they don't make the actual cable, just the specs.
Chris

PETERNG

MC have the new 10 gauge speaker cable, reasonable price, good quaility, costs about $50 for 50ft. You can also get the AR
speaker cable for less...

rskarvan

I think I read once that some expensive speaker cables that delivers a "warmer" sound in reality just does a piss-poor job of delivering the full frequency signal (filtering the high end).

Monster cable is ok. It is over-priced; but, its generally quality stuff. A good shielded interconnect is probably worth a few bucks. I've heard significant differences between lower and higher-end interconnects (due to good shielding).
Anyways, I sort-of enjoy the pride of ownership of a nice system with quality interconnects (as apposed to the free cheesey ones). Though, I still have a few el-cheapo's back there temporarily doing the job for me quite adequately.

gidrah

Man I just had I great reply 4/5ths written only to hit CLOSE when I should have hit BACK. It went into agree with Wangotango68 and Rskarvan about standard 12 (10) AWG speaker wire and guality interconnects respectfully. I even went on to say how I was going to try automotive jumper cables soldered to the crossovers until I realized the wires running to the drivers was s**t and needed to be replaced first.

Summary of attempted post:
1. Speaker wire invovles resistance/capacitance. The shorter the better. If not short, than thick. "Oxygen Free" price can be offset by thicker.
2. Use quality connects. Copper conducts better than gold, which resists corrosion better. The greater surface the better. Even cramming and crimping beats lousy banana or spades.
3. Change out interconnects one at a time if need be depending on usage. Amp to Preamp, CD, etc.
4. I'm thinking about DIY. It's like me, cheap. But it involves time which is why I haven't tried it yet. You said you can afford to buy, but DIY brings a whole "I did it myself. Man this sounds great." kind of psychoacoustic. But then again for some reason my system sounds better after a good wax and knob cleaning. I found a website (this is where I died) www.geocites.com/venhaus1/. They have DIY speaker cable and interconnects. I also found www.IndyPC.com which has 1000ft cat5 for $63.00. I almost did it again (back/close). Even my cheap self might go for the 350/10 enhanced wire. You might even be able to hook up a deal through somebody local to you.

Good luck!

I think this post may actually be longer than the original, but WTF. Time invested.

jeffeb3

I'm hurt, I can't believe you compared monster to bose. what a shame. for 100 ft of cable, I would go with non other than monster cables's xp or the mc. the xp is 16 guage, has magnetic flux tube, and is "the biggest little wire". It costs .60/ft. mc is about 10 ga., also has magnetic flux, says it has time correct windings but I've always been suspicious. It costs 1.60/ft.

The other things are true, good gold terminations, to resist corrosion. be sure to keep all the lengths of the speaker wire the same for all the speakers in one system.

I-SIG

Not backing down either :mad:

On the DIY note, You can buy AQ wire by the foot and do all the terminations yourself. Mike McG. is working on mine for me right now. I've heard nothing but great things about McG terminated wire.

Wes

scottvamp

mjk,
bettercables.com Later
PS,
Has anyone seen a dead horse.