So which speaker wire do you guys use?

jinjuku

shack wrote: »

Yawn...

Just a little wider now for your foot...

shack

jinjuku wrote:

Just a little wider now for your foot...

Wow...what a catchy comeback....

F1nut

jinjuku wrote: »

Just a little wider now for your foot...

Not a effing clue
Not an ounce of class
Not being jinjuku

Priceless!!!

rdefer

Monster Cable 10g wire.

dorokusai

100% MIT and Signal Cable.

lumpy

I thought that if I rolled up all of my pennies and duct taped them end to end and terminated with alagator clips, that the cables would cost about $4.25 a foot. This would have to make them great cables right?

vc69

Transparent MusicWave

But I'm going to try some MIT's someday.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

I have recently done a set of custom's with Canare 4s11 cable, based on all of the positive comment's i read it seemed to be just about the best bang for the buck.

So far i have about 50hrs the set, give or take, and they are a definite improvement over the 16g Rocketfish i was previously using! There is more detail audible at lower volume level's and the clarity/separation at higher volume level's has also increased! I am running them bi-wired so maybe this contribute's to the noted improvement's?

RuSsMaN

digitalvideo wrote: »

So which speaker wire do you guys use?

I use good ones.

Cheers,
Russ

Montoya

Home theater using audioquest type-8 for fronts and center surround duty is audioquest flx/14-2.

2 channel JPS labs Ultra conductor 2

leroyjr1

MIT Shotgun S3 (2channel)
MIT AVT S3 (HT)

louhamilton

I make my own:

Monoprice 12/4 speaker wire
Cable Organizer TechFlex
Cable Organizer HST
Radio Shack Banana Plugs (May be swapping out for better quality ones)



I'm considering these as well from ebay:

Valab Custom Made Silver Plated Oxgen Free Copper Speaker Cable

Bliip

John K. wrote: »

DV, it's a bit of a stretch to even use the term "performance" in reference to pieces of copper wire. Local sources of hardware such as Home Depot and Lowes have wire at somewhat lower cost which does this very simple job as well as anything. Among lower cost online sources is MonoPrice.

If you haven't studied the basic facts of speaker wiring as explained here by a veteran audio professional, it'd be of benefit to do so. Over the past few years this has helped many avoid the wire charlatans who pollute our hobby.

O.K., not getting into brands and after reading this report, is it correct that I should be fine with #16 with the 2ft. and 5ft. runs that I need to make for my m50's and CS1?

dorokusai

Yes.

Squishy Tia

I wonder what the capacitance of a 10 gauge coat hanger wire would be. I would guess that as long as it's insulated with something that won't promote corrosion that'd work just fine for any speaker needs, yes?

AFAIK, copper wire of sufficient gauge that is insulated and cleansed of impurities (iron, etc) should be just fine. I'd be more concerned with the method of termination than the "features" of most speaker wires out there.

When my best friend gave me some Monster Z-Series wire (dunno why he bought the bi-amp set, but meh, gave me a choice between gauges in a single run :P ) I did notice a marked difference in my speakers. Was it the insulation? Nope. Flashy, but non-functional as far as conductivity was concerned (as should be). Was it anything to do with "time correct" wiring? No. Electricity moves in the order of picoseconds, not milliseconds, and since the load wasn't highly resistive...

So what made the difference? The thickness of the wiring [gauge]. Nothing more. I previously had #16AWG cable running to my speakers (a pair of Yamaha NSA-XT100s, 6 ohms). I didn't know then what I do now - my old speaker wire was just too thin, and thus too resistive, causing lesser volume and/or distortion. It didn't help that I was running them off a Pioneer 505S that I bought two years prior to that. I didn't know that a) the speaker wire I originally had was borderline, if not flat out detrimental, for the load it had to carry, even for short runs, and b) Pioneer's non-Elite line of AVRs were, and still are, a steaming pile of cow dung. Their PSUs simply cannot handle loads that deviate far below the 8 ohm nominal impedance they're rated for.

Upgrading the wires improved the sound, but only for a short time - apparently with a less resistive load, more current was being drawn and the Craponeer blew itself out (I heard the caps inside blow and immediately had to shut off the system). Stepped up to a Yamaha receiver (the 5860 I now own) and all was well (it can "handle" 4 ohm speakers just fine in either switch position if you aren't stupid with volume levels).

The moral of the story? Get the right size cable, and as long as your amp is well designed (i.e. not borderline like the low end Pioneers are) and there's nothing to corrode the cable itself, you should be golden. Just make sure your connections are tight and can't short each other out.

There's a reason car audio wiring is so thick. Enthusiast audiophiles put in high power, low ohm (2 ohm) capable amps in along with low ohm (4 or less) speakers. You see 8, 6, and even 4 AWG wires. Insulation and termination aside, it's literally size that matters.

Malaka

DH Labs T-14. Very VERY good for the money!

BlueFox

Upgraded last night to Omega-Micro Planar passive cable. Review coming 'soon'.

http://www.omegamikro.com/Speaker_cable_I.html