Help on choosing a speaker wire (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth Ho]

Hi all,

I need help on picking a set of wire for my speaker. I own a PSB Stratus Silver and B&K 307. My preference is soft and clear kind of music. I stopped by at a few local stereo shop, and they usually recommended the wire that is like $1-$2 a feet. What do you think of those? My budget is not too high, but would like to buy something that is best bang of bucks. I am looking to buy 20 feet. So please give me some recommendation. thanks!!!

Ken

 

[RayJK]

Wire and cable and if they make any difference is a subject of on going debate. From a purely electrical viewpoint you need only to look at how far you have to run the wires and how much power you are running. For the vast majority of users 14 gage will handle everything they have as it is good to over 100' and 300 watts. What you can get in bulk at Home Depot or Lowes will work just fine. Use some good termination like banana plugs or spades and you'll be set.

 

[Kenneth Ho]

I also heard from other members that speaker wire will affect the sound quality.

 

[RayJK]

As i mentioned, this is a subject of on-going debate. My only comment will be that nobody has detected the differences in non networked wire under test conditions. Seems rather odd considering the "drastic change","increased soundstage", "vast difference" and all the other descriptions that are sometimes used for wire change.

 

[Mat_M]

Home depot 12 Gauge wire: 33 cents/foot

 

[Chu Gai]

if your preference is soft and clear music, it won't be speaker cables that prevent you hearing that.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I like the 12G webwire from Link Removed or the 12G bulk stuff from Home Depot. Some people think speaker wire makes a difference; I'm not one of them. It may make a difference with really high end stuff, but not enough for me to care and my stuff's not really high end.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Some people think speaker wire makes a difference; I'm not one of them.

Generally I’m not either, especially if we’re talking about this 12ga. wire vs. that 12ga. wire.

But if anything makes a difference with speaker wire, it’s size (gauge). I’ve seen that most people claiming speaker wire makes a difference say so after switching out small-gauge for large-gauge wire.

For instance, I could tell an immediate difference years ago when I went from cheapie 20ga. stuff to 14ga. It was probably a 20-25 ft. run.

Several years later a buddy of mine asked if I thought he would hear a difference if he ditched the cheap 20ga. stuff that came with his Yamaha rack system in favor of some 14ga. wire. The speakers were rather cheap, and it was only about a 8-ft. run, and he didn’t strike me as a guy with especially fine-tuned hearing. So I told him “I doubt it.” He did the switch anyway, and to my surprise he came back with “It definitely sounds better.”

The reason wire gauge can make a difference (if it does at all) probably has to do with resistance. Anyone who has seen an impedance curve graph for a speaker knows that the speaker’s impedance changes with frequency. If a particular speaker’s impedance drops particularly low at certain frequencies, then it makes sense that resistance added by small-gauge speaker cable could easily affect the way the speaker sounds at those frequencies. And it makes sense, in that situation, that changing from small- to large-gauge speaker wire would make an audible difference (hopefully better).

In my case, the speakers were 4-ohm rated, with 2-ohm drivers. So it isn’t a stretch to see how reducing the resistance of the speaker wire (i.e., switching to larger-gauge wire) would make an audible difference. I could tell the difference at both the bottom and top end – the bass was tighter, the highs were smoother and cleaner.

It logically follows that speakers with higher-ohm drivers will likely not respond as dramatically to a change to larger gauge wire as speakers with lower-ohm drivers. It also follows that speakers with an overall higher and more linear impedance curve across the frequency spectrum will probably not respond the same as speakers whose impedance at places dips to very low figures. This is probably why you get varied responses from people as to how much of a difference gauge size matters (or not). Obviously it depends on the particular speakers involved.

Bottom line – I recommend using 12ga. wire, when budget allows and application permits. Will it make an audible difference? Maybe, maybe not. But do you really want to go through the time and expense of buying speaker wire in various lengths and gauges and conducting listening experiments? Just go with the 12ga. and be done with it.

Beyond that, what you pay depends on the quality of the wire. For instance, if you think oxygen-free is desirable, expect to pay more for it. Finely-stranded wire (which is more flexible) will cost more than coarsely-stranded wire.

The quality of the jacket matters, too. It’s a little pricey, but I like Radio Shack’s 12ga. Mega Cable. The jacket is supple and it lays nice and flat on the floor, and the red stripe is a nice touch (unless they’ve changed that feature). I’ve found that with the Sound King cable, the jacket gets stiff over time and retains shape if it’s bent (i.e., doesn’t readily go back to laying flat), and the (++++) indicator fades away with time and handling, making polarity ID more difficult.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Kenneth Ho]

Thanks for all of your replies. I will try to check out places like Radio Shack and Home Depot. Thanks again