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Speaker Wire


LD2210

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Nothing fancy for me, 14 or 12 ga wire from Monoprice.com, works great and cheaper than I can buy locally. 

 

I know some people like fancy wire, but I figure room acoustics is more important and my room is not perfect so...........

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I bought a 250 spool of Belden 14ga from PE. It has a black/white pair in a black sleeve, making it easy to get polarity correct. Zip cord is harder to see which side is which.

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6 hours ago, fmalloy said:

 

WOW.....that's just insane. Who buys this stuff?

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On 5/6/2019 at 7:31 AM, glens said:

 

Nobody I know or could keep a straight face talking to...

 

Diminishing returns kick in pretty early with cables. But there are returns to be had above zip cord and throw away interconnects. The above example is extreme for sure, but there are some very good sounding cables at reasonable prices.

 

If you can't hear the difference, don't buy it. Some people have systems that will resolve details that better cables can provide. And they have better listening skills. No shame if this isn't you. But it is someone.........

 

Shakey

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24 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said:

 

Diminishing returns kick in pretty early with cables. But there are returns to be had above zip cord and throw away interconnects. The above example is extreme for sure, but there are some very good sounding cables at reasonable prices.

 

If you can't hear the difference, don't buy it. Some people have systems that will resolve details that better cables can provide. And they have better listening skills. No shame if this isn't you. But it is someone.........

 

Shakey

 

I would add that "better" isn't always better... sometimes it's worse or sometimes just different.  It's all about synergy.  

That said, it wouldn't have even occurred to me to worry about what wire I'm using to demo a pair of speakers to sell.  Depends on what all the other components are I guess.  

 

 

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On 5/5/2019 at 2:55 PM, Shiva said:

 

Go to the nearest Home Depot or Lowes, then to the wire cutting area, and ask a guy to cut two pieces of 14 or 16 gauge speaker wire of the desired length, from the big spool. 

 

Talk about a king size rip! So I was just at the local Home Depot scouting/pricing materials for my next project and decided to price "wire off the big spool". 14 gauge lamp cord is .59 a foot, 12 gauge is .71 a foot before sales tax. I purchased some quality, color coded copper 14 gauge speaker wire on ebay from a shop in Vegas for .14 a foot delivered.  I paid $14.50 delivered to my door for 100 feet. That same 100' @ home depot would cost me $65.10 with tax. 

 

NO THANKS

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On 5/6/2019 at 2:56 AM, polizzio said:

WOW.....that's just insane. Who buys this stuff?

The insane, or the type who like to impress friends with the invoice instead of the sound.

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Lol,  must have gone up in price a bit since i last bought there.  On the other hand, the original poster had someone coming over his house to demo his speakers, so he needed wire.  A quick trip to HD,  perhaps 12' of wire, at 60 cents per, to give them a 6' spread for the demo.  With tax, 8 bucks or so.   Sells the speakers fast for 6 or 7 hundred, I would assume. I say,  thats worth 8 bucks and a quick trip.     

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Lamp cord is not OFC and will oxidize. Oxides are non-conductive. Don't see much point in using this stuff long term if you're even remotely serious about the hobby. If you can't handle a buck or so a foot for something decent, take up knitting or something.

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And maybe the stuff from Home Depot is pure copper (maybe even "oxygen-free") while the stuff from ebay is clad AL (or clad something else)?

 

I bought a 50' spool of #14 "speaker wire" at Home Depot not too long ago (they had shorter and longer spools available) and I don't think it was even $20.  It's pure copper at least.

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2 minutes ago, Deang said:

Lamp cord is not OFC and will oxidize. Oxides are non-conductive. Don't see much point in using this stuff long term if you're even remotely serious about the hobby. If you can't handle a buck or so a foot for something decent, take up knitting or something.

 

Didn't buy lamp cord clown, bought quality copper stranded color coded speaker wire on line. You pay $1 a foot, not me. 

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2 hours ago, Pete H said:

IMO, monoprice is all you need to know.  

Those are very good prices for what they're selling -- as long as the insulation doesn't have off-gassing issues/chemically react with the wire.

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Just now, Deang said:

Those are very good prices for what they're selling -- as long as the insulation doesn't have off-gassing issues/chemically react with the wire.

I've used their wire for about 10 years now and really that and any other cables that I've used have performed great.  I've never noticed any oxidation and have changed out connectors, equipment and speakers many times, so they're my go to because of that.  I'm sending you a PM on a project.  

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