Speaker Cable Fanatics: Post your speaker cables (1 Viewer)

[Vinny Petronio]

Herb,

I don't no why they can't hear the difference I sure can and I am sure others can to,Beauty is in the eyes & ears of the beholder!!

 

[Michael R Price]

I feel like I should post here, because I recently finished my low-budget DIY speaker cables.

I bought a 500-foot box of Cat 5e computer cable from Home Depot for $33, and 3 sets of Dayton banana plugs from Parts Express for $21. It's a biwire cable, the tweeter cable is a ~15awg 9-pair braided cable (see www.geocities.com/venhaus1/diycatfivecables.html ) and the woofer cable is simply 6 of the large Cat 5e cables taped together (~10awg). I used the solid color wires for the positive side, and the striped wires for negative. Since my cables are 16 and 30 feet long (for now at least), it did take a while to make.
But they do sound great. To be honest, I didn't try any cheap zip cord or anything, I just wanted a nice quality cable that would last a long time. (If I can tell the difference, though I probably can't, at least I know I have something better than zip cord.) Total cost: $61 for about 50 feet of cable. I've heard that the larger 27-pair version of the Chris VenHaus cable yields excellent results (3 of my tweeter cables braided together). However, for my desired budget and length, it wouldn't have worked out. (If you're making Cat 5 cables, plenum-rated cable, which is Teflon insulated, is recommended. But I couldn't afford it at 33 cents per foot, my non-plenum cable was 7 cents.)

 

[Brian OK]

Using Analysis Plus Oval 12/9 shotgun bi-wire for mains, single Oval 9 for center.

Ixos 6003 Gamma for surrounds.

BOK

 

[JerryW]

I use DIY braided bi-wired sets of 12AWG SPC (silver plated copper), FEP (Teflon) insulated cables terminated with Pheonix Gold ProDual banana plugs. They really sound incredible and they were very inexpensive (comparatively) to make, about .50 /foot for the cable and $6 each for the dual bananas... roughly $75 for 2 bi-wire sets (counting shrinktubing and misc).
Truth is, I've tried some of the high end Kimber and Audioquest cables and these sound as good, if not better. Can I tell the difference between these and regular 12AWG zip cord? Yeah, a little, especially at >10KHz. They simply sound crisper and cleaner. Plus, they look awesome and you can make them in any colors you want. Mine are orange and white (I'm a huge Univ. TN fan).

 

[Alf S]

I'm using Radio Shack 16 gauge speaker wire (bare ends) that came in a 30 foot spool (10' for each of the front speakers..replaced the 18 gauge stuff I used to have). Rears are also RS 16 gauge.

Total cost $5.50 for the spool or .18 cents a foot...sounds great and I couldn't imagine spending much more money than that...I rather use the extra money I save to buy DVD's or pay bills!

Alfer

 

[Steve Zimmerman]

This is hilarious. I would absolutely love to see *any* double blind study results that would back up these claims of expensive cables noticeably improving the "soundstaging" compared to 12-guage speaker wire.

But regardless, it seems to me that if you spend more than 10% of the value of your speakers on the wire you're using to hook them up then you're wasting money that would be better spent on something else (better speakers, better receiver, better amp, better sound processor, etc).

So to all of those "interconnect Emperors" out there I say enjoy those new clothes, boys--and thanks for stimulating the economy.

--Steve

 

[JerryW]

Hey Steve, who asked you?

 

[RicP]

Steve Zimmerman:
Your post is commonly called a Thread-Fart and is usually frowned upon.
If you'd like to start your own thread to debate the relative merits or illusion of speaker wire differences than please feel free to do so, however coming into a well-established thread simply for the purpose of derailing it is not really considered good posting etiquette.
Good Day.

 

[Mark Austin]

Audioquest Midnight2 bi-wired.

I would absolutely love to see *any* double blind study results that would back up these claims of expensive cables noticeably improving the "soundstaging" compared to 12-guage speaker wire.

DBT's wouldn't be able to back up or disprove any claims no matter what the results were. That's out of the scope for what those tests can determine.

 

[Vinny Petronio]

Hey Steve,
What ever floats your boat I happen to agree with RicP put it in another Forum OK???

 

[Dan Hine]

Mark,
I agree. What someone else's ears may or may not hear does not determine what mine hear. That being said I am glad this thread has come along. Right now I'm using 12awg Radioshack speaker cable but I am curious as to other brands to try. I won't be upgrading my cable too soon as I want to have better gear first. But stepping up some of my interconnects along the way would not be a bad idea. This thread certainly gives plenty of places to choose from!
Dan Hine

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Rajee,
AWESOME JOB! Glad to see you got them done and I am glad
to help anyone when I can!
I run a pair of Bi-Wires made out of SoundKing 12awg 99.999%
OFC terminated in RadioShack Nikel Siver Banana's Terminated
to the cable via Silver Solder. The cables are encased in
Alpha Expanding Nylon Braid and Heat Shrunk with Polyolefin
rated for 300V.

 

[Howard_S]

Nice work. I wish I had the will to experiment and spend the time to make my own cables. It would definitely be a satisfying experience if I can make it sound and look nice.
Now I just have to figure out what speaker cables to buy. I'm glad this thread is helping some of us out. Thanks guys. Keep it up.

 

[rodneyH]

Monster Z2 biwire 15 feet, to mains ($299)

Kimber Kable (don't know model) biwired to center (free, kicking around house)

 

[Jason Watson]

I am using Audioquest Clear3 and Midnight2 in a double bi-wire/bi-amp configuration to the right and left fronts, and Audioquest Crystal to the center channel. The surrounds are are the least likely to show any sonic benefit from higher end cables in my system(no thank you to surround music)so I cheaped out with a double run of some flat A.R stuff.
I dont know the original price for the Clear3 or Midnight2 but I think an 8' run of each was about 1500.00 and 500.00 respectively. How'd that taste Steve?
I guess cable nay-sayers could just post their gear profiles and we could tell them what fools they are for making the choices they did.....But wait, that would be just as narrow minded and rude as what we hear from them. Better to not be drawn into such juvenile diatribe
Jason

 

[Steve Zimmerman]

Ok, ok so I came on a bit strong. I apologize. For those of you with $15000 speakers I don't have any problem whatsoever with $1500 interconnects (the ol' 10% rule). I'd still like to see double-blind taste test results though. I guess I've just been off-put by the local high-end AV store that tries to convince everyone they need a $200 component video cable to go with that $300 DVD player.

BTW, those DIY cables looked fabulous and I'll bet they sound just as good as cables costing 10x more. But that's just my opinion, of course.

--Steve

 

[John Tillman]

The rack O' gear sits about 6' from the RPTV & speakers. Unfortunately, cabling/wires have to travel 50' to get there due to opening of room. So I use generic Home Depot 12 gage.

On the plus side, the flexy is now neatly manageable with switch boxes for:

Component video - Dish 6000, RP-91, X-box & DVL-91

Corresponding optical switcher

Dish6000 - switchable HD-OTA & HD-Cable

6-channel switching for DVD-A & SACD (pondering what to do for 2-channel).

 

[EarlR]

Well Steve I’m one of those guy’s you rant about. I have a high-end system and use Cardas Neutral Reference interconnects and speaker wires for the front’s and front center, Cardas Golden Hexlink 5C for the 4 Sub interconnects, Cardas Cross interconnects and speaker wires for the sides, rear surrounds and rear center. Speaker wires and interconnects are a personal choice and are basically tone controls in a high-end system. I don’t want to get into another cable war here just stating what I have.

Earl

 

[Ryan Allison]

As for whether or not more expensive cables makes a difference in sound, I believe they do. How much of a difference really depends on what you're upgrading from. I started with Radio Shack wire from my Yamaha RX-V1000 to Paradigm Monitor 9's, and that sounded pretty good. After using that setup for a few months, I decided to try some Straightwire Quartet biwireable speaker wire b/c many people suggested biwiring the monitor 9's to open up the soundstage. These cables only cost me about $50, so I knew I could more objectively compare them since they were not ultra expensive and I wouldn't feel buyer's remorse from the purchase. I can say without a doubt the sound improved (esp. the highs; much crisper and detailed) and the soundstage widened. It may not have been quite night and day, but I am sure there was a difference. However, I bet that upgrading from those cables to even more expensive ones would yield lesser returns. This would go along with my feeling that in the lower end you can improve the sound for not much, but you have to spend more for less improvement as you go higher up. As for the Straightwire Quartets, I love them. Very capable wires and for many it would be a very small investment. That being said, I would love to try out some DIY cables when I have the time.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

EarlR,
Define High End? To me "High End" is synonomous with main
speakers that are priced between $15,000.00 to $100,000.00
per pair.
Some would even argue that a pair of $15,000.00 mains are
STILL not "High End" when there are 6 figure prices for some
speakers and other gear.
I beleive the most expensive speaker cable is the Tara Labs
"The One" at $32,000.00 per 8 foot (not a pair)
Suffice it to say IMHO the only reason anyone would pay
$60,000.00 + for a pair of speaker wires is because they are
in fact "eccentric" and not because the wires sound better.
That's not to say that buying them to say "Buffy, I have a
pair of 60 thousand dollar wires, Ahh Ha Ha Ha" is right or
wrong. And to be honest I could care less what other people
spend thier money on