Speaker Wire (1 Viewer)

[MarkPayton]

Great tips Brett! I just ordered the 100' roll and a few sets of the Dayton Audio screw type banana connectors (I'm not great with a soldering iron). This will be perfect for the SVS and new surrounds I've got coming!
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[Johnny Lerner]

Come on folks - there's no reason to go beyond 16 gauge - unless you want 'thicker' for 'decorative' purposes. The 'story' is in the tightness and 'cleanliness' of the 'terminals.' Believe me, please!!!!!
Hours spent on 'scientific' A-B'ing!

 

[MarkPayton]

Great tips Brett! I just ordered the 100' roll and a few sets of the Dayton Audio screw type banana connectors (I'm not great with a soldering iron). This will be perfect for the SVS and new surrounds I've got coming!
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[Brett DiMichele]

Johnny,
Who cares? When you can buy 100' for $30.00 and it's pure
OFC with 300 strands.. Use what ya can use and hell sell
the rest on ebay for $.050 a foot and ya made out like a
bandit..
And there is no reason NOT to use 12Ga, the more current
you run through the wires the more skin effect you get and
I want thick cable to combat a measureable factor that can
degrade audio signal transfer.
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Brett DiMichele
My Home Theater Site!
[email protected]

 

[Chu Gai]

very nice looking cables Brett but I think you're a bit off on your understanding of skin effect. regardless 12 gauge especially for the price covers all your bases and the sound king with its many strands makes for nice flexibility.
RiteshP: perhaps 10 years or so ago stereo review conducted a comparison of various speaker wires and provided the gauge was sufficient, and 12 gauge most certainly is, no differences were found. time has moved and many new cables have been introduced based on the composition of the wire...insulation...individual strand thicknessess...and so on. there is yet to be a manufacturer that has been able to demonstrate an audible difference between their wire and some challenger like the ubiquitous 12 gauge zip cord. plenty of 'individual' testimonials but nothing that seems worthy of hanging one's hat on. you'll find your most reasonable approach in your home ht setup will be speaker placement and perhaps equalization to get the desired sound that'll please you. personally i think its a great idea to dress ones cables up if they so choose as Brett did. i'm sure it was fun and most satisfying. save your money. if your mindset is such that you insist there must be a difference in cables then head on over to audioasylum.com and you'll find many who swear to the most monumental of improvements. to examine the other side of the spectrum, take a peak at audioreview.com message boards and look at the cable threads.

 

[Nick G]

Ritesh, here is a link for you. I think it will tell you what you want to know.
Nick
http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/wire.htm

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Chu,
Straighten me out if I am bent.. From what I was told by
a good friend of mine who is an EE/Telecom expert.
"Skin Effect" is the tendency for electrical current to
force it's way to the outermost "Skin Surface" of a cable.
This is especialy true with AC Voltage, therfore when the
current starts to move to the outside and you use a thick
multiconductor cable you still have adequate paths for the
current to move through. We also got into a Solid Vs. Strand
discussion in which he told me I *could* use solid conductor
*but* Skin Effect is more predominant in the 15-20Khz range
and this could (he said *could* introduce bad harmonics but
he thinks it would be minimal and most likely unotiocable by
the human ear.
So if I am in error I would like someone to explain to me
what exactly Skin Effect is so that I don't pass on MissInfo.
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Brett DiMichele
My Home Theater Site!
[email protected]

 

[Norm Strong]

The equations that calculate skin effect show virtually no effect until you reach about 100kHz. IOW, quite worrying about it.
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Norm Strong ([email protected])

 

[Chu Gai]

the skin effect is basically the tendency for alternating current to flow near the surface of a conductor. the higher the frequency, the more electrons are forced to the surface and the overall resistance tends to increase which leads to a slight attenuation of high frequencies. this is one of the reasons that some RG6 cables are constructed of copper coated steel. there's more to this and of course one can always do a web search and sift through the information provided. information though is not always knowledge but then that's not limited to the web is it? the bottom line of course is the attenuation audible? cable companies that exploit this area will say yes for among other things, its in their best interest. and their websites will be filled with INDIVIDUAL testimonials. perhaps is it they don't have the financial resources to conduct such testing perhaps under the auspices of an institution skilled in auditory science? i'll concede that point. but there are companies out there, monster comes to mind, that most certainly has the resources to fund such a study. oh, that's right, why should they? who am i? just joe f***ing consumer looking for a fair shake. enjoy the day

 

[todbnla]

I guess you guys missed the $25 /100ft rolls of 12ga speaker wire @ Parts Express®? I got two...nice stuff

This stuff:

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Todd,
Nope I got a spool I still have at least 50-60 feet left

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Brett DiMichele
My Home Theater Site!
[email protected]

 

[Brian Johnson]

Wow. what a great company(parts express) I ordered my speaker wire & plugs on the 13th after 5 pm. Its now the 15th & they were at my door today. Granted I live in Indiana, but hey.....
[Edited last by Johnson_B on November 15, 2001 at 07:29 PM]

 

[Ritesh P]

hey guys, thanks for your help. I am setting up a HT, and hadn't decided on speaker wires as of yet. appreciate your help.

 

[William J Hudson]

Ok, I'm a HT newbie too, so if somebody can answer me this question I'd really appreciate it. I was at a HT store last week looking at Audioquest speaker wire, and the salesperson was telling me all about it and what great speaker wire this is, blah, blah, blah. And he tells me this: Audioquest speaker wire is 10 times MORE oxygen-free than Monster wire.

I'm sorry, but in my book, if something is 'oxygen-free', that means that there is absolutely postively zero oxygen in it whatsoever. So how can one 'oxygen-free' speaker wire have 10 times less oxygen than another 'oxygen-free' speaker wire? Or are these companies allowed to call their speaker wire 'oxygen-free' as long as the get the oxygen content under a certain threshold (but still not zero)? If that's the case, I don't like it. The should have to call it 'very low oxygen content' speaker wire, because it is not truly oxygen free. (meaning ZERO oxygen)

so:

1. are all these oxygen-free speaker wires just under a certain threshold of oxygen?

2. does audioquest wire truly have 10 time less oxygen than monster?

3. does it really matter?

4. should I just abandon both these brand-names and buy the cheapo 12-gauge stuff from Lowes Home Improvement?

(btw, I have an Onkyo DS595 receiver, and Paradigm speakers: Atom fronts, ADP-170 surrounds, PDR-10 sub. That salesperson that I talked to told me that my speakers were 'good enough' that i'd be able to hear a difference between using the audioquest and the monster wire)

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[Nick G]

William,as has been suggested several times already in this thread, 12G Home Depot, 12G Radio Shack, 12G Parts Express etc. are, sonicly, as good as it is going to get. Reduced amounts of oxygen in a wire does not alter the resistence of the wire, so it makes no difference whether or not a wire is 10 times more oxygen free. If you want more details about speaker wire see my link earlier in the thread, otherwise just wire em up with the 12G and enjoy the music.

Nick

 

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

It really isn't the oxygen that matters - it is that the process of removing the oxygen has the side-effect of removing other metallic impurities that can effect impedence and such. So, as long the wire is is a reasonble percentage oxygen free (like 99.99%) then you are good to go. I'm sure that if you had read the specs on the wire itself, rather than listen to a salesdroid, they would have reported the actual percentage - not that it really matters much anyway.

 

[William J Hudson]

Nick, Jah-Wren, thanks so much for the replies. I think I'll just get some decent 12-gauge wire from wherever. I think it will sound PLENTY GOOD to me. (unless someone can tell me a good place to upgrade my ears! )
-Bill

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Hey does anyone want to buy my Bi-Wires? Without measuring
them I am going to say they are at least 12 if not 15'
you can see what they look like on the first page of this
thread.. Asking $40.00 (have that much into materials)
If I don't get any response they are going up on ebay where
I know they will sell for atleast $40.00 (probably more)
Why am I selling? Ohh because I am making another pair..
It's so much more fun making them.
Here's my next design.