Speaker Wire?

[Tarheel]

My preferred wire for the last few years has been Kord, american made and by the foot shipped to you door.

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KRD10BL

That's what I got in 10 awg. I could not believe how inexpensive it was. The 10 awg was actually so big that I had to shave off a little to fit it in my RF-7s.

My run is long enough to benefit from 12 over 14 awg--I just got the 10 because it did not cost any extra. It was cheaper than every other company I looked at.

Couple years ago I was messing around in the living room, needed some wire, parts express came to mind, so I picked up 250', the crap would not even hold solder, I chewed them up one side and down the other, still have a $75 credit with them.

But that ticked me off so much so that I contacted every wire Mfg in the USA, and ask them to send me a sample, I ended up with at least 12 responses, with samples and pricing, hands down http://www.knukonceptz.com/mobile-audio/speaker-wire/kord-speaker-wire/sp/kord-ultra-flex-10-gauge-speaker-wire/ was then and still is the purest fine strand among all of my samples, amazing they also have a great price shipped. 10Ga is my standard.

Good link Mark. Like that the polarity stripe is bold enough to see! Good price as well.

[derrickdj1]

For me, 16 guage wire from the local ace. I have them hidden so, nothing fancy or super expensive in the wire department.

[Cosmic_surfer]

Well I think I will go with the 10 gauge wire from knuconceptz. Seems like a great wire for a fairly cheap price. I plan to get 200 feet which should be more than enough for my basement setup. Just curious if this wire will be to thick to run under some carpet when I come to a door? Iwe have Wayne's coating around the whole bottom half of the walls so i plan to wedge it between the carpet and Wayne's coating. Problems arise when I come to doors. I imagine if it doesn't fit well, I will have to cut off a half inch on the bottom of the Wayne's and then put baseboards around the room. Problems still arise when I have to go under the carpet though... Suggestions?

[minermark]

Well I think I will go with the 10 gauge wire from knuconceptz. Seems like a great wire for a fairly cheap price. I plan to get 200 feet which should be more than enough for my basement setup. Just curious if this wire will be to thick to run under some carpet when I come to a door? Iwe have Wayne's coating around the whole bottom half of the walls so i plan to wedge it between the carpet and Wayne's coating. Problems arise when I come to doors. I imagine if it doesn't fit well, I will have to cut off a half inch on the bottom of the Wayne's and then put baseboards around the room. Problems still arise when I have to go under the carpet though... Suggestions?

Tough I highly recommend this as the supreme 10Ga wire, it aint "Under carpet friendly", could try a threshold with channels under it, or iv channeled a floor/slab one time too.

[Thaddeus Smith]

I use CAT6 cables, one per speaker, 4 strands per terminal. works out to be around 16ga.

[CECAA850]

Couple years ago I was messing around in the living room, needed some wire, parts express came to mind, so I picked up 250', the crap would not even hold solder, I chewed them up one side and down the other, still have a $75 credit with them.

How odd. I've bought different ga wire from them over the years and have never had trouble soldering it. I actually used monoprice wire when I taught my son how to solder. Their in wall rated wire has about the best jacket I've used for pulling as well. The only thing I'd like to see from their wire is maybe a higher strand count.

[Cosmic_surfer]

After further thought on this, I think we will be able to run the wire in the ceiling. There is a large box around the ventilation that would allow me to run all 4 surround wires to. We also have pocket lights so I can pull them out to feed wire. I don't know what the finish product is going to look like, but I imagine it should be pretty inconspicuous. I really wanted to avoid running race tracks. Anyway, thank you guys for putting me on to knuconceptz wire.

[JJkizak]

I was tought that all of your signal travels along the surface of the wire so if you get #10 and trim it down to fit the connectors what do you gain?

JJK

[minermark]

I was tought that all of your signal travels along the surface of the wire so if you get #10 and trim it down to fit the connectors what do you gain?

JJK

I ONLY run 10Ga as my standard, sometimes it needs to be whittled down a tad to fit crimps/solder holes, it is what it is.

Quality multi strand pure copper, just cannot get much better than that and it's made in USA.

That's like asking Klipsch why their late model Khorns are wired with chit 10Ga monster wire ? anybody that has rewired a set has seen a few whittled down connections in their time.

This comment could easily go to a CABLES thread.

[Fjd]

I was tought that all of your signal travels along the surface of the wire so if you get #10 and trim it down to fit the connectors what do you gain?

JJK

I believe that for alternating electric current (AC) there is a "skin effect" that concentrates the current flow toward the outside of conductors with higher frequencies being worse.

For anyone interest in skin effect, the wiki page is helpful, although check the notes and references at the bottom of the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

Here is a paper that gives additional insight into skin effect and proximity effect.

http://www2.schneider-electric.com/documents/technical-publications/en/shared/electrical-engineering/electrical-know-how/general-knowledge/ect83.pdf

If I'm remembering correctly for very low frequencies the full wire has uniform current density; however, as the frequency gets higher, the current density becomes non-uniform and moves closer to the surface of the wire. This is called "skin effect."

It is for this reason that many people like Litz wire (specially braided stranded wire) for high frequency use as it is designed to maximize the current carrying capacity by minimizing the skin effect.

[Schu]

^ You realize we're talking about speaker wire right?

[Fjd]

^ You realize we're talking about speaker wire right?

Too funny

You know how it goes, the required gauge of the speaker wire really depends on three factors; the load impedance, the length of cable required, and the amount of power loss that can be tolerated.

I suspect the impact on sound to be extremely negligible for most; however, the audio signal as carried on wires is an example of alternating current, hence, the potential for skin effect whereas part of the sound reproduction goal being the recovery of the 'modulated' information riding along on the AC signal. If experiencing skin effect, there will be an increase in apparent resistance of the wire at high frequencies and I believe there will also be a certain amount of phase shift.

There actually is a 'technical' reason why ALK uses Litz air core inductors for the high frequency portions of his networks and a solid wire, heavier guage air core inductor for the low frequency portions of his networks.

Have you ever seen very large computer systems in industry? They use a very thin, wide and flat ground strap instead of an 'equivalent' size round wire as a ground strap because the electrostatic discharges essentially have an infinite frequency due to the fast rise time of the waveform, which results in essentially another form of "skin effect."

The part that I have a hard time understanding is the interaction and impact of introducing DC in a cross-over network with the DC bias concept. It works and impacts the sound and I guess the capacitors still protect the drivers from DC. I suspect like the old telephones that carried both AC and DC over the phone line they can co-exist.

I actually have a pair of the Magnequest parafeed output transformers wound with Litz wire that is slated as one of my back-logged amp projects for which the amplifier is slated to high frequencies in a bi-amp set up.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Fjd

[Cal Blacksmith]

Normally there is more heat than light with a wire thread!

I have tried lots of wires and none made much if any difference. Perhaps it is my old and well worn ears, or that I did not have expectations of what I was supposed to hear IDK.

When I rewired the HT, I went with the flat wire from Monoprice, it is designed to go under carpet and blend in well, just keep the wires side by side rather than on top of each other when running multiple wires say near a door under the carpet.

[Alain C]

Speaking of speaker wire, I got my 2 pair (Monster Series M 1.2s) from ultimate electronics before they closed, My friend Gerry (Salesman) called me and told me, new there were like $150. per cable. he sold two pair for $65. plus i got this nifty brief case that came with it. Everybody knows that speaker cables that come in a brief case sounds better that one that don't. By the way, I did not here any difference. Here is a pic of my old cables working on sounding better sitting in the brief case.

[minermark]

Speaking of speaker wire, I got my 2 pair (Monster Series M 1.2s) from ultimate electronics before they closed, My friend Gerry (Salesman) called me and told me, new there were like $150. per cable. he sold two pair for $65. plus i got this nifty brief case that came with it. Everybody knows that speaker cables that come in a brief case sounds better that one that don't. By the way, I did not here any difference. Here is a pic of my old cables working on sounding better sitting in the brief case.

Get in touch with me after about 6 Months seasoning time, should put us about xmas time, iv a need for heavier Gage Wire fort my Lawn Display(s).

Untill then please keep the case in a secured location, Tweekers can smell copper, and I value your life.

[Alain C]

Check

[tigerwoodKhorns]

My preferred wire for the last few years has been Kord, american made and by the foot shipped to you door.

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KRD10BL

Will this work for in-wall use? It doesn't seem to have the right jacket. I see they have a different cable for in wall use.

[minermark]

My preferred wire for the last few years has been Kord, american made and by the foot shipped to you door.

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KRD10BL

Will this work for in-wall use? It doesn't seem to have the right jacket. I see they have a different cable for in wall use.

No harm running this stuff in the walls, not like your going to run 220 or 221 through it.

[minermark]

This thread has reminded me to look at my wire stash, it seems in two years im down to less than100'.

I bought 400' and figured it would last me a few years, until of course a friend or two "wanted just a little bit".

[derrickdj1]

After further thought on this, I think we will be able to run the wire in the ceiling. There is a large box around the ventilation that would allow me to run all 4 surround wires to. We also have pocket lights so I can pull them out to feed wire. I don't know what the finish product is going to look like, but I imagine it should be pretty inconspicuous. I really wanted to avoid running race tracks. Anyway, thank you guys for putting me on to knuconceptz wire.

In a basement, wire in the ceiling are easy to run and hidden. That would be my first choice.