Speaker wire question (1 Viewer)

[Scotty_McW]

I currently have a mess with my speaker wire. Right now, I have several different brands and guages of wire. How does monster cable compare? Or should I get something a little nicer? Also, does the guage of the wire play a factor in how well my speakers will sound?

Scott

 

[KyleGS]

"For most situations" a quality OFC wire will work fine. I think monster is a little overrated/overpriced. Unless you are running VERY long runs- 12awg wire will work fine and is probably overkill. In small runs like to your mains up front you probably will not hear a difference between 16awg and anthing larger like 12awg. There just isn't much current going through speaker wire- but there are always exceptions when running HUGE subs. As always- this is just my opinion.

 

[Lorne]

From what I understand of the physics, the lower gauge wire creates lower resistance and that's good. Like shotgun barrel diameter, the lower the gauge, the fatter the wire. I just bought 100ft of 12 gauge zip cord (plain old insulated copper strands) for like 25 bucks and I'm very happy with it. I've spoken to a master electrician and a professional B'Way sound designer who does sound for several big shows. Both independently convinced me that you can't really do much better than plain copper wire, and gauge aside, all the fancy tricks of monster cable for speaker wire is just hype. Bear in mind, we never talked coax so I'm not considering that in my discussion. Bottom line -- monster speaker wire is an overpriced gimmick.
LT

 

[Ryan_SS]

I use Welding cable, very finely stranded, it makes the perfect speaker cable and is fairly inexpensive compared to most cable out there, and has more strands per gauge.

 

[Alexis]

Not to start anything up, but many would argue that solid core cables sound better than stranded. This is the design that audioquest uses.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Doesn’t lay very nicely on the floor, though, does it?
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt