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Good and cheap speaker cable

Thanks for the help everyone! I ordered the cable needed for the WLM from Walmart and picked up some shrink tubing. I'll use these with some banana plugs I've already got. Total price including shipping came to be about $23! I'll update with impressions, though I don't have much to compare to when it comes to cables.
 
bluesky said:
:thmbsp:

Never heard Blue Jeans cables myself but 'everyone' loves em. Never heard a bad thing said about them...EVER.

I'd buy Blue Jeans in a heart beat. And if you ever get 'designer' cables...it's nice to have a set of Blue Jeans laying around for other projects!

Who knows, you just may end up loving blue jeans!! I love both blue and black jeans. RLs fit great but nothing beats good-old-Wranglers. Wear them to the end of the earth!! :)

Good Luck!
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Blue Jeans Cable; Ditto X 10 to the 33rd power. BJC is fantastic. I received my first order for interconnect cables last week and I cannot believe the value I got for my money and whats more the improved sound especially with the coaxial digital cable was astonishing to a skeptic like me. For a Bi-amp setup like you have BJC has Canare 4S11 this is a 4 conductor cable that BJC will terminate anyway you want.

However I have a good but cheaper suggestion. My current speaker wire is from Monoprice it is a CL-2 rated 12AWG O2 free copper I paid $32 dollars for 100 feet of it. Really good stuff. For you they have a four conductor cable, 12AWG O2 free CL-2 rated wire 100 feet of it for $63.36.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...d=1023901&p_id=4037&seq=1&format=1#largeimage
 
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Radio Shack has a somewhat flat 12-gauge speaker wire that I use for most of my set ups. the other uses lamp cord so I'm also a believer of that too.

Regardless of brand, thicker gauge is usually better esp is you're going using long runs.

I'd say get the thickest gauge your budget can handle.
 
Taowolf51 said:
Hey guys, I'm looking to bi-wire a new pair of speakers I picked up (B&W 685), and was wondering if anyone knows of a good and relatively inexpensive speaker cable that I could preferably purchase from Amazon (Prime).

At the moment, I have this cable, which I got for free:
http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=4605

It's...alright. I wouldn't have bought it, but it's serving me well enough at the moment.

I'd say my budget is pretty low, unfortunately, about $50 at most, $30 preferably. However, I don't need much cable, since I'm near-fielding the 685s and the amp is pretty close (my current cable will be used for my Monitor 7s which are not in near-field, I am at the moment switching the cable each time I want to listen to different speakers). I'd say about 5 feet per connection, so about 20 feet of cable.
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The Monster cable will be just fine. I use Monster Cable and also the car audio speaker cable made by Scoche in my three way active amplified stereo and all have sounded great to me. I'm one of the types who use pro audio cables. Reason being is more than likely when a band is recorded they are using pro audio cables and given that reason there is no real benefit for using higher grade cables.

PioneerGuy75 said:
Wire nuts?
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Wire nuts are ok for electrical work or temporary work elsewheres, but the best way is to either solder together short pieces of wire or get the correct length wire.
 
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One question, what about shielding out all that interference. I have never quite understood the concept. Are power cords shielded? Is the rubber part considered the shielding?
 
jamus said:
One question, what about shielding out all that interference. I have never quite understood the concept. Are power cords shielded? Is the rubber part considered the shielding?
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Power cords may, or may not be shielded.
No, the rubber part is just insulation, not shielding.

Shielding is used to try to block outside interference from rf sources, like CB radios, ham radios, etc. Speaker wire is not usually shielded as it would take a very close and powerfull signal to effect the sound. Although this may be subject to debate. Interconnects should be shielded as any interference will be amplified by the next stage in the path.
 
The cheapest, good cable, is probably home made from extension cords from Lowe's or Home Depot. I use Utilitec 16 AWG three wire outdoor extension cords from Lowe's. Last time I checked, it was $8.44 for a 40 ft cord. Add some decent termination and you're good to go. BTW: It sounds like the really good $tuff!

Best Regards,
TerryO
 
Could someone tell me why low voltage wire is preferred over high voltage? My understanding is high voltage has more strands than low...wouldn't that be a good thing?
 
Tube Radio said:
IMHO speaker wire doesn't need to be shielded.
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The only time speaker wire needs to be shielded is if you are in a situation like I have and are running "power" on HF, by power in mean upwards of 1500 watts. Then if you have speaker wire lengths that happen to be in a resonate length to the frequency you are transmitting on there will be a problem. At such times the music system is shut off anyway. and I have magnetic decouplers to snap onto the wire runs if I need them Otherwise there is no need

There is a really sweet thing about solid ribbon cable. The equivalent gauge is the width of the ribbon. So if you have have ribbon cable that is a 5th of an inch wide that is roughly equivalent to 4 AWG round sold copper wire, braided ribbon cable has to be just a bit wider
to reach an equivalent gauge.
 
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For a number of years, Stereophile magazine recommended "Radio Shack 18-gauge solid-core hookup wire: 11cents/ft... not sure if they still do. I never came up with a "fancy name" for mine, but I've been using 25' lengths of indoor/outdoor extension cord from Home depot, for years. For the 4 runs of 25' I need to bi-amp my KEFs in the living room, they work great, IMO just as well as 10' runs of Kimber, Space & Time, or Audioquest that I used before I moved my equipment to the other side of the room. For me, getting the equipment & it's rack away from between the speakers has done much more for the sound that adding more (inexpensive) cable.
 
If you want a breath of fresh air on this matter go here:
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/index.htm
I learned about Blue Jeans Cables on the Polk Audio Forum.
The above articles where on the order of, "at last no voodoo wire
theory. Last week when I received my first order from BJC, for inter-connect cables what I received was a nice set of high quality studio grade cables the gold plating on RCA plugs is where it is actually needed, inside where the electrical contact is made. The 1/8" phone jack has a large body and a spring strain relief which makes it easy to grab onto when removing it. These cables are functionally beautiful. They replaced a set of cheap Radio Shack cables there was a great improvement in sound, and to my surprise the biggest improvement in sound was with the coaxial digital cable. The considerations for interconnects are different from speaker wire, you are coupling together electronic devices the better you match them up the better the sound.

Speaker cable is different you are powering a linear motor (voice coil) As far as I am concerned it boils down to three things. Big enough gauge wire to do the job, quality of the copper, and the quality of the insulation. O2 free copper is one of those things eternal flame wars are being fought over. O2 copper came about early on when it was found the soldering methods used decades ago caused the copper wire to become brittle at the point of the solder joint, a big problem with Milspec' electronics when point to point wiring was still used. O2 free copper was developed to mitigate this problem. Advances in copper smelting has developed copper wire that no longer has this problem. There is even different grades of O2 free wire. Insulation is very important you want insulation that will do the job while staying supple for years. An example of what can happen is cheap zip-cord the insulation can become very brittle to the point that if you try to bend it the insulation breaks exposing the wire. This very thing is why plug in wall clocks are illegal to make in the US. The zip cord powering these clocks after years hanging in the same place can short out and burn down the building they are located in. If it wasn't for the fact it is an absolute nightmare to work with 2 conductor solid , or stranded Romex wire used in house wiring is great speaker wire. I get Monoprice speaker cable because it has good insulation, good quality copper, and it is cheap. They have a knock off of the original Monster cable speaker wire that is even cheaper then the CL-5 rated stuff I use.

The best thing you can do is educate yourself on the metallurgical standards for copper wire once you learn about the different grades copper wire is drawn in you will no longer be subject to the bovine scatology associated with speaker wire. The trick is don't let on that you know all of this stuff it will make life so much more peaceful.:yes:
 
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transmaster said:
Insulation is very important you want insulation that will do the job while staying supple for years. An example of what can happen is cheap zip-cord the insulation can become very brittle to the point that if you try to bend it the insulation breaks exposing the wire. This very thing is why plug in wall clocks are illegal to make in the US. The zip cord powering these clocks after years hanging in the same place shorted out and burnt down the building they where located in.
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Point taken on insulation, but plug in wall clocks are neither illegal, nor even particularly hard to find in the US... as a matter of fact, I just bought one for my kitchen wall a few months ago. The insulation used these days is much better than the old true rubber stuff of days long passed, I don't see any more danger in a modern wall clock's cord, than the one putting power to your lamps, or audio equipment.
 
Thread craps deleted. Mocking those who think that speaker cables can vary in quality is not acceptable on AK, and repeat offenders risk suspension.
 
Taowolf51 said:
Thanks for the help everyone! I ordered the cable needed for the WLM from Walmart and picked up some shrink tubing. I'll use these with some banana plugs I've already got. Total price including shipping came to be about $23! I'll update with impressions, though I don't have much to compare to when it comes to cables.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to hearing how you like it.
 
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