Speaker cable

[2scoops0406]

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.

Eh, what's that, someone call ? Not guilty m'lud for this one! Personally for my speaker cables I use Mission cable, can't remember which one though. I would personally suggest that the more important part of the cable is a good termination with high quality gold plated banana plugs. I personally think that once you get over a certain quality of cable, the differences are probably minimal. Again though with things like this its all subjective, if a £50 Alba "Hi Fi" with the speakers connected with bell wire floats your boat, then who's to say you're wrong (just cloth eared ).

 

[AdamW]

if a £50 Alba "Hi Fi" with the speakers connected with bell wire floats your boat, then who's to say you're wrong (just cloth eared ).

I took a friend into Richer Sounds for their "if you can't tell the difference between a £300 hifi system and a £300 midi system then you can give us all a slap" challenge. Took his own CD along, they put it on and I thought "They've fixed this, they must have done something to that midi system to make it sound this bad!". But, he couldn't tell the difference and ended up spending £400 on something that had 5 tape decks, 3 minidisc decks, a 43-CD changer and 3 million flashing lights. Must be a good stereo, it is covered in stickers saying things like "Super mega sound realism" and "Ultra bass woofer".

banana

I thought you couldn't buy the plugs anymore, seeing as someone in Brussels was worried about Europeans sticking them in their mains outlets. Some people rate chunky screw-terminals more highly than banana plugs.

 

[plugwash]

maplin still list banana plugs

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1436&TabID=1&source=14&doy=14m11

they are pretty much the standard connector for multimeters (most come with leads with shielded plugs but when working at non hazardous voltages its normal to plug in unshilded leads) and kit like psus that can't give out hazardous voltages almost always have banana sockets that can only take the unshilded plugs

 

[bassman]

I would try Richer Sounds hi-fi shops. They sell hi-fi cable at about half the price of the main dealer hi-fi stores. you could get something pretty good for about £2 per metre. Gale 315 or similar. They also do some "flat" cables - might be useful in some installations.