HT Speaker Cabling

[GCTIII]

Hi!

Nice to meet all of you. My name is Gordon. I have taken the plunge and bought the klipsch ultra 7.2 speaker system. As I await the system's arrival I intend to start running some speaker cable. Some of these runs will be over 30'. My dealer recommends monster THX600 speaker cables.

My concern is the distance and the 14AWG. I am of the mind to go with a 12AWG or 10AWG for the long runs. Do you smart HT folks have a recommended speaker cable to use that will not cost me my first born child? I went to some sites on the internet and almost fell out of my chair looking at cables you audiophiles use.

The speakers are going to be hooked to my Sunfire 7401 amp, 400watts x 7. I intend to buy the cable in bulk.

[Arky]

Monoprice.com or bluejeancable.com.

Welcome to the forum & congrats on your plunge.

[Youthman]

Welcome to the forums Gordon. Did you order the THX Ultra 2's? If so, can we be friends? [] I would love to hear the THX Ultra II's one day.

My dealer recommends monster THX600 speaker cables.

Don't buy into the marketing hype. As Arky suggested, you can't go wrong with Monoprice or BlueJeans. I use all Monoprice and love their cables.

If you are concerned with long runs, get the 12awg from Monoprice.

The speakers are going to be hooked to my Sunfire 7401 amp, 400watts x 7.

Ok, you have me drooling.

I intend to buy the cable in bulk.

How does 500ft of 12awg CL2 rated speaker wire for $123.32 sound?

We definitely want to see some pics of your system in the Let's See Your Home Theater thread once you get it setup. I'm sure it will be killer.

[jrod]

I don't know how many children you have, but I'd imagine you lost the first one when you picked up that Sunfire amp! Man, I bet that sounds amazing!

It probably weighs more that your first born child ever could!!!

PS- I second what everyone has said, monoprice is the way to go. I use 12awg in my house, and it's probably a bit of overkill (but isn't that the name of the game!).

[GCTIII]

Arky are you in Arkansas?

I am in Conway. My wife did not want the floorstanding speakers and the ultras are killer sounding. So who was I to disagree with my wife when she did not want the RF83 system. I will do my best to take pics and submit here. I really wanted 4 khorns but the wife did not want to move any furniture.

My dream system had alway been k horns ever since I heard them in my best friends house back in 1971 hook to a mac system. His father owned a recording studio.

I am looking at the blue jean cables and will check out the others as well.

LOL the wife was having fits about setting up a HT system and oh well she promised after I remodeled her part of the house. So far I have bought the speakers, a sunfire tgp-401 processer and the agp 7401 amp and power conditioners. Running new circuits for the new electronics as we speak.

Buying an oppo SE as well, The flat screen will come later as I just installed a 46" in the bedroom.

I almost died when I went to ebay and saw 2 meter speaker cable for over 2k. I mean it is frigging wire not GOLD!

Oh and I am a grand father so no kids at home. Grand daughter comes I spoil the heck out of her and send her home to her parents. Hehe i am so evil!

[Buckeye_Nut]

As I await the system's arrival I intend to start running some speaker cable. Some of these runs will be over 30'. My dealer recommends monster THX600 speaker cables.

My concern is the distance and the 14AWG. I am of the mind to go with a 12AWG or 10AWG for the long runs. Do you smart HT folks have a recommended speaker cable to use that will not cost me my first born child?

You just opened a huge can of worms.........LOL

My 2 cents...check Lowes.... they sell speaker wire by the foot from a huge spool. (at least they used to) Something like this probably wont show up on their website. Calculate how many feet you need....and they'll measure it off for you. When I bought mine, the largest gague they sold was either 10 or 12 gague. I have some long runs too.....and I got the biggest gague they had. I just can't remember whether it was 10 or 12. It's pretty thick...that's for sure.

[neo33]

I wouldn't worry about speaker cables. Any 14 AWG wires will do just fine. Save your money on the gears not the wires.

[Arky]

Arky are you in Arkansas?

Yes sir, Searcy. I bought the 12 AWG in white jacket from Bluejean. I wanted to blend with my wall color. It is quality wire.

I've got alot of friends in Conway; Is Tab still the mayor? We've played alot of golf through the years. Stick around here. This is a real nice knowledgeable community, on alot of topics. The vast majority of members are respectful; mostly middle aged guys.

[wuzzzer]

I went to some sites on the internet and almost fell out of my chair looking at cables you audiophiles use.

If you fell out of your chair from seeing what I use it was from not believing how inexpensive it is. Monoprice.com 12AWG speaker cable goes to all my speakers and from the input terminal to the crossovers inside my speakers.

I picked up a 100' roll for less than $20.

...And your audio dealer is recommending the Monster Cable because he is probably making more profit on the cables than he is on the electronics.

[rgdawsonco]

My concern is the distance and the 14AWG. I am of the mind to go with a 12AWG or 10AWG for the long runs. Do you smart HT folks have a recommended speaker cable to use that will not cost me my first born child? I went to some sites on the internet and almost fell out of my chair looking at cables you audiophiles use.

According to the data here http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable, 14AWG should be fine for distances up to 80ft for an 8ohm speaker. I think the rationale is something like if the overall resistance of the wire is less than 5% of the resistance of the speaker it it inaudible. I'm not trying to open a can o' worms, but you do not have to spend a fortune on wire. You could probably run 18AWG with no audible effect according to this table and rationale.

[Arky]

Dang rg; where you been since 2001?

[rgdawsonco]

Dang rg; where you been since 2001?

Ha!, off raisin' kids, that's where. Now the kids are off to college and I am able to spend much more time with my audio hobby lately. This is where I go since (a) I'm just a Klipsch man (as my son says), ( I grew up in Arkansas and I like Arkies, © Speakers and the room are what matter most, everything else is mostly jewelry. Thanks for asking. :-)

[winchester21]

I highly reccomend Blue Jean cable- across the board. I plan to go to a Belden dist at some point and buy a 1000 ft roll of what BJ uses for their spreaker wire. Their interconnects are great as well. Unless you go with some ultra high end 2 ch tube stuff- the BJ cable is all that you need.

IMHO- Monster products are over hyped garbage. I have spent lots of cash overe the years on Monster stuff and now after reeading comments on the froum- I feel like I got screwed. I had a really bad floor noise hum that was traced to a Monster power conditioner. Swapped it out with an APC- problem gone. The dealer is trying to line his pockets. Their speaker cables are really tiny ga wire with a big thich plastic coating. I avoid their products like the plague.

[GCTIII]

Tab is doing well. It is a small world. Everything should arrive this week and then it is time to lay it out, position speakers and then run wire.

Great advice and I will be in from time to time to see whats happening here. I have always been a klipsch fan. I will take pics of the system as I am going to build the cabinet and also install the electronics in a closet. That will require me to build a rack system I can remove from the closet to service and troubleshoot the electronics.

Going to buy the oppo once I read and understand the bypass system on the preamp.

Will keep you all posted on the progress. That posted wire article is a darn good read. He put my thoughts into words.

Thanks to all of you.

Gordon