Speaker cable

[romchik]

Hi guys.Could anyone advise me a good quality loudspeaker cable? I want to put it into walls for home cinema. Thank you.

 

[breezer]

its a sore point on this forum

some say gold plated , oxygen free, some other gimic, blah blah blah.

so long as its big enough it doesnt matter.

i have seen it all from "bell wire" to "monster cable" it all sounds the same

try alarm cable (seen that too) its not too pricey, and its multi stranded, unlike phone cable

 

[Damocles]

But it's not very thick! This is low voltage equipment and voltage drop along the cable matters.

SOmeone also explained why multi-stranded is important too. something to do with the frequency.

 

[Lectrician]

1mm 2core flex, 1.5, 1.75, 2.5 as you run it further.

 

[big-all]

what ever you do if you get 1 pair of wires back to front your speakers will be out off phase basicly means the sound comes from each side
reverse ONE pair of wires at ONE end the sound should now come in a fan between speakers[sterio]providing all things equall

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Hello again Roman
I use this for speaker cable installations on boats, good quality and value:Click me

Same site as before (but no I am not on commission!)

 

[ban-all-sheds]

what ever you do if you get 1 pair of wires back to front your speakers will be out off phase basicly means the sound comes from each side
reverse ONE pair of wires at ONE end the sound should now come in a fan between speakers[sterio]providing all things equall

Thanks, M_B...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Hi guys.Could anyone advise me a good quality loudspeaker cable? I want to put it into walls for home cinema. Thank you.

There is no one universal answer - it depends on what amplification and speakers you have, and what sort of sound you prefer.

It also depends on how much money you want to spend...

There are several good cables in the £5-6-7 per meter bracket. Or you could buy Kimber KS-3035s at £3,735 for a 3m pair....

You need to read some reviews, visit some dealers, try some out. Any reputable audio dealer ought to be prepared to lend you cables overnight.

 

[ali68]

After doing a bit of research on this myself. There is a lot of positive talk on making your own using Cat5 network cabling it involves braiding together 3 cables, also twin and earth gets some good reviews it's to do with the solid conducters rather than stranded.

Personally speaking the cat5 route worked for me, there was a considerable difference between the Cat5 and the cheap speaker cable.(It takes time though)

Try here for loads of info on the subject, got to the cabling section and do a search.

http://www.avforums.com/

 

[AdamW]

1mm 2core flex, 1.5, 1.75, 2.5 as you run it further.

University of Bristol (oh Eddieeeee!) did a study in '98 where they did blind listening tests with high-end hifi gear and different speaker cables. The "best" cable, as determined by audiophiles, was kettle flex.

Personally, I run

in my walls for my living room, and some other stuff (can't remember which, but it was £4 a metre) in my bedroom.

 

[ZenStalinist]

I actually remember reading in the 'Opinion Feedback' section of the New Scientist, about somebody who had attended one of these audio technology industry shows... One of the hot new products was this special cable (at several hundred quid for a set of cables inc speaker cable), which would greatly reduce resistance and interference, for cleaner sound.

Then, there were some new several thousand pound speakers (connected to a linn amplifier, best quality soruce etc,), sounded very good. But the person writing noticed behind the speakers, this unsightly orange cable, and recognized it from somewhere, on further inspection and by asking, their suspicions were confirmed, it was lawnmower flex... having forgotten the speaker cable, the speaker company had just gone to the local B and Q, and bought some lawnmower flex, and nobody had noticed over the several days their exhibition had been running, only commenting on how pure the sound was.

So to be honest, I don't think all of this super advanced cable stuff is all what it's cracked up to be. Certainly, if you don't have one of the ridiculously expensive amplifiers, spending big money on cable is probably a waste.

Just use a good, thick copper cable, should work a treat.

I believe regards cat5, STP would probably work well, if you took off the RJ45 plugs and use the wires, it would have very low inteference.
STP and UTP would be good, if you have a mains hum problem I reccomend you try STP.

 

[breezer]

i agree entirly with you, but those that buy it say oxygenfreegoldplatedmultistrandedextortionatlypriced cable is best (yes i meant no spaces in the previous)

 

[AdamW]

And apparently if you have your eardrums plated with gold then you get a dynamic range improvement of 3dB.

 

[plugwash]

I actually remember reading in the 'Opinion Feedback' section of the New Scientist, about somebody who had attended one of these audio technology industry shows... One of the hot new products was this special cable (at several hundred quid for a set of cables inc speaker cable), which would greatly reduce resistance and interference, for cleaner sound.

Then, there were some new several thousand pound speakers (connected to a linn amplifier, best quality soruce etc,), sounded very good. But the person writing noticed behind the speakers, this unsightly orange cable, and recognized it from somewhere, on further inspection and by asking, their suspicions were confirmed, it was lawnmower flex... having forgotten the speaker cable, the speaker company had just gone to the local B and Q, and bought some lawnmower flex, and nobody had noticed over the several days their exhibition had been running, only commenting on how pure the sound was.

So to be honest, I don't think all of this super advanced cable stuff is all what it's cracked up to be. Certainly, if you don't have one of the ridiculously expensive amplifiers, spending big money on cable is probably a waste.

Just use a good, thick copper cable, should work a treat.

I believe regards cat5, STP would probably work well, if you took off the RJ45 plugs and use the wires, it would have very low inteference.
STP and UTP would be good, if you have a mains hum problem I reccomend you try STP.

the problem i can see with cat5 is its low CSA
so if you are using long runs or high power you probabllly don't want to use it

inerference isn't really a problem on speaker lines due to the low impedence of the loads

 

[breezer]

thing is how are you going to get a long run in a house (unless you live in buck house)