phips25 Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 Could someone please explain the major differance between the Monster speaker wire and the wire I can buy at my local Home Depot. Thanks, Phips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 Danger Will Robinson! Danger! This is a religious issue here. ------------------ It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca.1900) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seb Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 are you talking about the entry level Monster, or the higher-end Z series? ------------------ http://members.fortunecity.com/sebdavid - go laugh at my crappy website/equipment http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mc.asp?alias=Sebdavid - go laugh at my puny little DVD collection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phips25 Posted June 29, 2002 Author Share Posted June 29, 2002 The regular monster wire. Phips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 quote: Originally posted by lynnm: Danger Will Robinson! Danger! This is a religious issue here. no joke! LoL ------------------ -justin SoundWise Support A technical help site created by me and my fellow Klipschers I am an amateur, if it is professional; ProMedia help you want email Amy or call her @ 1-888-554-5665 or for an RA# 800-554-7724 ext 5 Klipsch Home Audio help you want, email support@klipsch.com or call @ 1-800-KLIPSCH RA# Fax Number=317-860-9140 / Parts Department Fax Number=317-860-9150s> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forresthump2 Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 The Price. LOL ------------------ Go Forth and Hump the World Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 I find that triple strand razor concertina wire performs adequately...it can be found near your local battlefield. ------------------ I can now receive private messages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 I can tell you SOME differences in the two wires you mention. The Home Depot cheap stuff is just that. It is very diffucult to separate the + and - strands without splitting the cheap/hard plastic cover and exposing strands of the copper wire. If not careful when using the cheap stuff,you'll get what you paid for. Check www.partsexpress.com for decent wire at good prices. I prefer their 12ga to the HD cheap wire. Also,in the search bar,check out # 100-762. 100' for $19.90. Good luck whatever you decide! Keith EDIT> Here's the number of the Sound King wire I have used- 100-155. Good wire for the price,although the markings are harder to read than the Munster. This message has been edited by talktoKeith on 06-29-2002 at 09:47 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted June 29, 2002 Share Posted June 29, 2002 quote: Originally posted by HDBRbuilder: I find that triple strand razor concertina wire performs adequately...it can be found near your local battlefield. I onced used Prima-Cord. Once that is.....till I turned it up too loud ------------------ Tom's Money Pit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundthought Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 The more important question is who makes the cable for home depot? My local Home Depot carries a few different types and gauges. I've bought a few kinds there. They all seem adequate for the job. Nothing especially fancy. Just cable. Now Monster, on the other hand, is kinda like buying Levi jeans. They built a market for their product with quality and affordability. As the years passed, the company was forced to cut corners and trim production costs to maintain a stabile profit margin That meant the quality standard had to be re-evaluated. And so as their standard changed, so then did their marketing strategy. Now, when you buy Levi jeans, you are mainly paying for a name. A name that use to mean built to last, means built to be good enough. I'm starting to feel that Monster is going that same route. IMO Levi still are good jeans. Don't seem to last long enough to make into shorts though.... used to. I have several different types of Monster cable. I does look decent. Handles fairly well. It is what i call higher bottom end cable. Speaking of different brands of the same guages. Basically, anything from Monster on down(in cost) will sound about the same.IMHO. When you go up line from Monster, you start to get into some serious bucks. It's a whole different world. Lots of interesting people with interesting cables and empty pockets. BTW. I saw a set of three bi-wired Monter cables at my local shop. They each came in their own case and were sweet. Steel braided, one inch round, and 10ft long each. All three and a Denon DRA-295 for a cool $1000 out the door. Ouch! Good luck with your purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killer58 Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Phips, Knowing that personal feelings about wire are VERY strong, let me offer a few tips to help you. (As qualification, I did my graduate and initial PhD work in metallurgy and solid state physics.) 1) Copper wire has very little resistance, but it adds up the longer the length. (Silver conducts better than copper but is economically impractical.) Wire that is 14 AWG will have about 0.5 ohms in 100 feet. With an 8 ohm speaker, this results in approximately a 7% power loss due to the wire. Larger gauge wire will have less loss. For most home applications, any commercial grade of speaker wire should do fine. Generally, the longer the run, the larger the wire, but 12 ga should do for any run under 50 ft. 2) The major difference in commercial speaker wire is in large part due to the different outside coverings and whether they conform to the National Electric Code. Monster is one brand common in home applications. Belden is another brand, one of the industry standards. 3) "Oxygen Free" In the refining process, copper is purified in steps to about 97-99.5% purity. For electrical/electronic use, copper must be even more than 99.9% pure, so goes through an additional step. In a process called "reduction", natural gas is blown into the molten copper. As it burns, it uses up most of the remaining oxygen in the melt. The small amount that remains, combines with any other impurities to form oxides. Tied up as oxides, this oxygen actually further improves the wire's conductivity. So, a small amount of oxygen in copper, approximately 200 parts per million, is a good thing. Monster advertises their cable as oxygen free. That's like Ford offering "drivable" cars. 4) This should provide you with enough 'ammo' to select the best wire for your application and budget. As far as being able to "hear" a difference in wire, I'll only say that there are those that claim to see Elvis too.... Good luck, Killer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 The main thing to look for in choosing bulk wire as mentioned above...i.e.: "home depot"...is to try to find the manufacturer on the wire. If you pick wire that is made in the U.S. by a reputable wire company...Belden, Comscope, West Penn, Eastman, etc. you will get a good cable with a good jacket. Home Depot imports alot of the wire it carries and its jacket and insulation is frankly a POS. (Sorry for the language...) I won't even start to discuss the merits of the wire itself....I don't have my bullet-proof vest on..... This message has been edited by minn_male42 on 06-30-2002 at 03:39 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STL Posted July 2, 2002 Share Posted July 2, 2002 I have 150feet of some Monster Cable SuperFlat Mini Speaker Cable (well it is RCA branded but make by Monter Cable) that I no longer need. I never ended up using it so it's basically new. I would like to get $30 for it (that's 20 cents per foot). I see it listed on Monster Cable's website for 75 cents per foot ( http://www.monstercable.com/productPage.asp?pin=82 ). Here's some more info: Ultra flat profile high performance speaker cable perfect for running cable under carpets around doorframes and along baseboards. Unique "Navajo" white paintable jacket for invisible cable runs. Over 300 copper stands for exceptional clarity and high frequency response. 16 gauge, 2 conductor wire with a DuraFlex jacket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyKlipschFan Posted July 2, 2002 Share Posted July 2, 2002 Ok as a caveat...Don't shoot the messenger. Just yet!! Yes, there are those who will spend literally THOUSANDS of dollars on wire for very big esoteric speakers that are also very in-efficient that claim to hear a difference. Some do some don't. I will offer that Woods Wire. (They make commercial wire for other people that put thier names on it in the audio business, and electrical housewire too.) It is located right here in Indiana..(Carmel to be exact.) They make 12 guage in bulk (Go to the electrical section, not the Audio department) at your Lowes stores..I know not as glamourous as your out of the way Hi Fi outlet.. You can buy a spool say at 250' for close to 63 dollars or roughly 25 cents a foot. It is the same high end stuff...Just like you see others use... Doesn't come in a wild box with graphs and propaganda telling you this will give you crisp highs and solid lows. My suggestion before spending said 1000's of dollars on something you may never hear why not save your $$$ and actually buy some music cd's or a DVD player or upgrade your system from a RF-3 to a RF 7 ( ok trying for the Klipsch push here,,, To really expand your appreciation of music, rather than spend lots of $$ on Speaker wire. I do agree and have heard and seen a difference on interconnects.. That is something different. OK, Line me up and shoot me now!! We seem to debate this every other month. (From the other side) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted July 3, 2002 Share Posted July 3, 2002 You can buy very good speaker wire without spending "thousands" that will give better sound than the el cheapo wire. Problem is, you'll never know without trying it yourself. I could hear an improvement while listening to my Elvis albums. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted July 3, 2002 Share Posted July 3, 2002 I got my MBA in Marketing... ANYWAY, I pretty much chalked up the high-end cable thing as snake oil until I had the chance to audition some high end speaker cables and interconnects compared to my "came in the box" interconnects and zip cord at homoe on my system. I clearly heard differences and ended up buying some higher-end cables for my stereo. nothing for thousands but some Cardas speaker cables and Audioquest interconnects. I don't know much about the physics, metallurgy, etc. but I heard audible differences, especially in the treble region, and thought it was worth the investment of a couple of hundred dollars to keep the sound. I have read much about impedance matching being important and I assume that anything in the signal path can somewhat flavor the sound. that is what makes different components sound different, these cables lie in the singal chain as well, they thus can affect the sound, makes sense to me... BTW Killer it was Elvis who turned me onto Cardas cables! Warm regards and enjoy the hobby, tony This message has been edited by sunnysal on 07-03-2002 at 02:10 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vavoline Posted July 15, 2002 Share Posted July 15, 2002 Killer58: "4) This should provide you with enough 'ammo' to select the best wire for your application and budget. As far as being able to "hear" a difference in wire, I'll only say that there are those that claim to see Elvis too...." LOL...Love it!!! Per PWK..."Zip Cord" This message has been edited by Vavoline on 07-15-2002 at 02:30 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krusty46 Posted July 27, 2002 Share Posted July 27, 2002 I noticed a huge difference in bass output when I upgraded from Monster XP to MIT T2's. I also had a problem with interference from my cell phone, that the MIT cables cured. Better insulation I guess. Considering a spool of MOnster XP is what, about $25. You can pick up a pair of MIT T3's for $109 at Audio Advisor. $85 is a lot on money, but for a noticable differnce in sound it might be worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted July 27, 2002 Share Posted July 27, 2002 I went to Wal-mart the other day, bought a box of them .58 cal "buffalo bullet" lead slugs for black powder huntin over in sportin goods...then walked over to hardware and got me a pack of them machine screws like on back of my receiver and Heresy speaker terminals...2" long ones...then I went home and got out the electic drill...drilled holes through them bullets, took them screws and mounted one of them bullets to each speaker and receiver terminal, slapped a goop of di-electric grease on them bullets, too, so they don't corrode up and stuff!!!...them big yeller automotive jumper cables ($12 a set) from Wal-Mart automotive section work great for speaker wire!!!...SIMPLE TO HOOK-UP or UN-HOOK-UP, TOO!! Hell, they already got black and red on each end of em!! I just wish they were longer!!! Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs never sounded better!!!...Hell, if'n Ida known this 25 years ago, I woulda NEVER stole that strand of barbed wire that I been using all them years from Billy Bob's fence next door!!!(his brother, Joe Bob, almost ran over a heifer that got through that fence the next day cause of my thievin nature!!) Hell, I don't even need that suppressor I took off'n the ole Studebaker pick-up's coil wire to get good FM radio reception, NOW!! LIFE IS GOOD!! ------------------ I can now receive private messages This message has been edited by HDBRbuilder on 07-27-2002 at 12:51 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted July 27, 2002 Share Posted July 27, 2002 OK, religious issue I would strongly recommend that you buy from Parts Express. They are cheap, and a good company thay deserves business. The stuff they have is VERY good stuff for cheap. Home Depot USED to carry the 12 gague Monster Cable, but it didn't meet UL approval, so they stopped carring it. Instead of $1.25 a foot, they had it for 40 CENTS a foot. Damn, I want it back. If you feel cheap wire, the jacket is stiff and hard. On hi-quality cable, the jacket is limber and soft, like rubber. Nice stuff will jump into your hands, the cheap stuff will chafe the webbing between your fingers. Also, I would recommend some banana plugs or pins, they will make you cable into somthing that can be easity and quickly removed and reattached. Good luck! ------------------ Receiver: Sony STR-DE675 CD player: Sony CDP-CX300 Turntable: Technics SL-J3 with Audio-Technica TR485U Speakers: JBL HLS-610 Subwoofer: JBL 4648A-8 Sub amp: Parts Express 180 watt Center/surrounds: Teac 3-way bookshelfs Yes, it sucks, but better to come. KLIPSCH soon! My computer is better than my stereo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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