Speaker Wire For Vintage Equipment Suggestions

[Stepwise]

I completely agree that a somewhat soft but "bare" cable ending is good for many reasons.
The softness gives a large contact area when the connection is tightened and this is far better
than some fancy goldplated connector unless this has many individual "fingers". If it don't
the contact will be in a few places only no matter how shiny the goldplating may be.

The disadvantage of tinning the cable end is that tin cold flows when high pressure is applied
so sometimes you must retighten after a while. The solution to avoid this is to steal the solution
that is used in other electrical installations (and you don't need a soldering iron) where cable end
sleeves holds all the cable strands in place. Can be tightened quite a bit more, it's copper
all the way through.

 

[Catfishky]

I ordered some cables today, finally! Belden 5000UE from Blue Jeans Cable.

 

[62caddy]

All you need to know.

 

[Chrisxo55441]

for future reference some of the cheaper brands like RCA are copper clad aluminum you should to stay away from that especially on long runs

 

[G.D.T.R.F.B.]

50’, 14 gauge OFC copper, a little more than $20. Perfectly fine for >90% of the systems run by AKers IMHO. Sky high car audio brand purchased on the bay. I prefer bare wire when possible. I will be using Nak pin connectors for tiny speaker connnections on things like Luxman M120A.

 

[Old HiFi Guy]

The thing about speaker wire is that back in the 60's and 70's it was manly18 gauge lamp wire. Buy a stereo from a cheapie to a 200 watt Mac that is what you got and used. And a lot of 20 and 22 guage wire got used. Welding cable was used for welding, not connecting speakers, Most of the vintage equipment speaker connectors can't accommodate today's larger speaker wire sizes without modification or smaller wire spliced on the end.

 

[sqlsavior]

Not really, 14ga. stranded from your local hardware store will be just fine.

Often sold as 'landscape lighting wire' in fixed lengths from 50 ft. up, and sometimes in a different place than the spooled wire, IME.

 

[the skipper]

Having been in this hobby since the mid 60's, I heard a lot of fine sounding systems that used lamp cord from then until now. I don't think the equipment on either side had changed so much that it requires a rethinking of the technology that connects them. But, people will hear what they hear.

 

[bluesky]

1980 Sansui PS-107C 'High-Efficiency', 23' long each, thick black jacketed, speaker cables.

Sounds wonderful. I use 2 pair.

Works for me, Perfectly !!