Need speaker wire, but no money, would these be okay? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Hsu]

I've seen people refer to the cables at PE found here , but I also have seen Link Removed cabling, since I bought something from them before. Spidergear's stuff sounds good, but is more expensive by the foot, comparitively. Thing is, I don't need 100 ft of the stuff....25 ft for my girlfriend's mom's system, and then at most 40 for myself...
Are there any other places that sell cabling for around these prices, and compare quality-wise? Are these even decent cables? I know Home Depot's supposed to sell cabling, how's their stuff compare?
Thanks, I'm sure a few of you will have exact answers for me.

 

[Eujin]

To me, a lot of the 12 guage OFC is pretty much identical. The Home Depot stuff is very decent and you'd be hard pressed to hear any difference between that and any other 12 guage OFC stranded cable. I've recently been using a DIY design made out of CAT5 ethernet cable:
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/triple_t_e.html
Very cheap to make if you have the patience for it and after they break-in, sound very good. Having said that, I didn't really feel that I was missing out on much when I was using the HD stuff. One of these days I'll pick up some MIT Terminator or Kimber 4TC to do a comparison, but I'm happy enough with the DIY stuff, so my motivation is zero.

 

[Joe Hsu]

hmmmm, that looks interesting, and I'm buying a good length of CAT5 since I'm home for the summer anyway (comp's in the basement now)...
Noticed that it's bi-wiring, which my speakers don't use...I suppose I could still build them like that, for future upgrades...
I'll keep it bookmarked, maybe a summer project. Thanks for the post.

 

[Mike Matheson]

Joe,

The Home Depot 12 guage I used was I think less than $.35 per foot, just to give you a feel for its cost.

 

[Eujin]

Noticed that it's bi-wiring, which my speakers don't use...I suppose I could still build them like that, for future upgrades...

You can make them without bi-wiring--that's what I did with mine, eventhough my speakers can be bi-wired. Just make sure you have the appropriate stripper for the conductors in the CAT5.

 

[Steve Zimmerman]

Very cheap to make if you have the patience for it and after they break-in, sound very good.

You had me 'til you got to the part about the break-in. You realize that to a person with a degree in Electrical Engineering like myself, the suggestion that cables "break in" is almost akin to a personal attack, right?
But, to the point, you'll be completely fine with 12-gauge wire and a set of banana plugs. If you are extremely Type-A and are worried about the possibility of interference, you can always put the wire in an attractive looking sleeve of sorts if it will help you sleep better at night.
--Steve

 

[Greg_R]

You don't even need HD's "speaker cable". Get some lamp cord instead.

 

[Rob Lin]

.35 cents for HD 12 gauge? Wow, they're gouging us here in Canada. I was in HD a few days ago and I think it was over 70 cents per foot.

 

[MartinFG]

Check out the special at www.mcmelectronics.com They have 100' of 12ga low voltage zip cable for $4.99 (P/N 58-6630) It's heavy stuff with a black jacket. Even with S&H it's still a great deal

 

[Joe Hsu]

Thanks Martin, I'll take a look!

And thanks to everyone else for their input.