Delmiroc Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 I was wondering if monster cables are really worth the money the ask for? I have 4.1 and I love the sound pretty much everythin about them... let me know ... thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinipig523 Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 when i was at tweeter to purchase my home theater system (klipsch of course ), they had this display where two Reference 7 (RF7) had different speaker wires and connected to the same receiver. one rf7 (one to my left) was connected with a 22-gauge wire (the same that comes with the 4.1s) and the other rf7 (the one to my right) was connected with a 14-gauge Monster cable. There was definitely a difference when the two speakers were playing. the one with the bigger monster cable sounded much better than the one with the 22-gauge wire. highs were clearer, midrange was a litle more pronounced and the overall speaker was louder than the other. so in short, speaker wire does make a difference - as for the one that klipsch sells as an upgrade to the default 4.1 speaker wire, i do not know since i do not know what gauge it is. the bigger the wire, the better... i dont think the one sold by klipsch for the promedias are 16 gauge so u may be better off making ur own. i will be making my own this summertime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpg Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 The wire sold by Klipsch is a little much for my taste... the gold connectors really don't help anything (in my own opinion), so to me, just some plain wire is fine. I am still running stock wire, believe it or not. I swapped to some Monster Cable once when I was working on my home theatre and had the wire laying unused until the main speakers were back up, and it added a bit more midbass clarity, and had my 5.1's not been kinda messed up, I am sure they would sound better... I think my dad over-EQ'ed them. They distort pretty bad... ahh the abuse they take. In all, yes, you will notice a difference. How much of a difference you will hear may vary. If you have great ears, you may notice a huge change. Maybe not. The cheapest way is to get a spool of 14-16 guage (the PM's take down to 14) and make your own... oh wait... I now remember I am in the 4.1 section, therefore disregard my gold plated connector thingy comment. You WILL want gold plated mini plugs for the speakers, but the gold plated wire thingies that go into the back of the sub are not necessary and just add expense. In all, with a roll of MC from Best Buy, etc and some connectors from RadioShack, you can do this for under $40, probably, depending on how far you need to run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccsakura Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 if you are going to get the plug as well maybe get to partexpress, I ordered l6gauge 100fts for around 25, I tried them on Pro 5.1's center, Quintet satallites, 4.1's satallites and all of them did better than 16gauge cable than default/16gauge cable did. The thing is they are cheap like 17 or something if you are getting 50ft(that'd be enough for 4.1). One more thing, the gold/metal plug did the same to me. I'd be happy for silver color instead of gold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deaf guy Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 Funny my little pup chewed up the right channel wire as her chew toy. There was no way the stock 20 gauge could withstand her needle like teeth. I took that upon myselft to upgrade the wire rather than resoldering it back together. Bought 50' of some 12 guage Carol speaker wire at Home Depot and some mini mono plugs at radio shack. Total cost was at less then 30 bucks, you should be able to get it lower if you go for 14 gauge you'll see why below. I just got the soldering job (2% silver solder used) done today so now I'm listening to the speakers right now and frankly I don't notice much at all if anything my wires are 25' and I have a much better flexibility in placement of the speakers and sub. (I'm only using two speakers, I'm a stereo man I guess). couple notes about the 12 gauge wire, 12 gauge wireS will not fit into the encasement of the mini mono plugs, 12 gauge wire will not fit into the amp clips. So I had to peel it down to about 14 gauge to get the tinned wire terminals to fit into the clips of the amps, The wires did fine soldering to the mini mono plugs but the plastic encasement doesn't fit two wires into it only one does so I had to leave the encasement out which puts the plugs at risk since 12 guage is freaking heavy and which should not be hanging from the plugs since it could bend the leads and break off. So if you need more length but you don't want to tackle the job yourself then get the monster cable from klipsch, it looks nice and the wires are plush against the plugs , unless you'd like to take this on yourself then go buy some mini mono plugs and bring it to home depot and see which gauge wires fits into the encasement nicely and buy that one; don't make the mistake I did . If worse comes to worse its placebo but it ain't that bad cuz you think its all good then its all good right? hopefully more people can chime in on thier wire upgrade experience I'd like to hear more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnovaZero Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 I rent to radio shack and bought 2x 16ga 50ft for under $20, then got 4 gold Mini plug jacks for under $10. Well there is slightly better midrange presence and clairty, and the highs a tad warmer, the sound seem to flow just a tad better as well. I'd say a decent improvement, but weither you want to spend the time for it is up to you. The PM's sound good with the stock 22ga too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
najibs Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 Hey Guys, Well, I also went ahead and built my own cables (16 gauge with mono plus at the end soldered)and do notice a slight improvement. Some friends of mine have also asked me to make them cable for their PM's, so, now that I've had practice making them, if there's enough interest I might put up a small webpage and start selling them if people request them! Najib Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samwise Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 The second set of 4.1s I got was an open box from Best Buy and it didn't have the wires included so I talked the guy down to $100 for the set. I didn't have the time (or skill?) to make the wires myself so I just ordered the 4.1 set from monster cable. I can't tell too much difference in sound quality but I think that is mainly because this new set has the high pitched hissing that some others have complained about. I have definitely determined that is not the monster cable wire either, it is the sub. I have to send it in to Klipsch. What I really like with the monster cable is that it gives me the extra length (15 feet for the fronts and 30(!) feet for the surrounds) and the connectors are really nice. I had some problems with connectors not staying in right with the ones Klipsch provides. Isn't the included wire 20 gauge from Klipsch? The monster cable set was listed at 16 gauge but they sent me 15 gauge. Not a big difference but nice none the less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnovaZero Posted April 1, 2003 Share Posted April 1, 2003 The PM 4.1's stock wire is 22ga wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delmiroc Posted April 5, 2003 Author Share Posted April 5, 2003 Thank you very much for all your responce... I would probably try to make my own... One I have to say , it's that original cables ... they look cheap and are way too short for me ... Thanks again guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtsui Posted April 6, 2003 Share Posted April 6, 2003 I made my own wires out of some Phoenix Gold 16 gauge car stereo wiring and they just made my set of 4.1s sound 50% better. Then again my stock wires were pretty cut up and worn out anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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