pythagore Posted January 2, 2004 Share Posted January 2, 2004 Hi Guys, Please, advise on which speaker cables to use. I'm currently using the 5.1 monster THX 16gauge cable set. Am I loosing in performance with this cable set? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted January 2, 2004 Share Posted January 2, 2004 no... copper is copper.... electrons don't care what name is on the cable jacket.... unless you are running a couple of hundred feet.... 16 gauge should be fine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beday00 Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 I was using monster cable for a while because of the cost and then I stumbled across the Chris Venhaus DIY Cat5 cables and after many hours and sore fingers I really do think they made a significant difference. The lower frequency seemed to get a lot clearer and everything seemed more open. To some wire is wire and the costs aren't worth it; however different wire configurations and quality of metal can and do make a difference. There is physics to back up this argument. This is very obvious in network cables. If you try running gigabit ethernet over cheap cat5 cables you will notice a decrease in speed when compared to cat5e or cat6. There have been a bunch of previous posts on this topic in the past so if you don't get many responses do a search. I know a year or two ago there was a lot of discussion on wires on this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted January 3, 2004 Share Posted January 3, 2004 Don't think you could improve much. Monster is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iXtreme Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 You are somewhat comparing apples and oranges. The reason gigabit won't work on cheap cat5 cables (not really possible though to have cheap cat5) is the poorly done twists in the wire possibly. Either too many or too few but there is really no such thing as cheap cat5 cable as I said, as the cable has to meet certain requirements to even be called cat5. Cat5 also only truly meets 100 hZ and gigabit requires 1000 hZ to attain full speed. Maybe it's mhZ but you get the idea...... As far as cable is concerned even the most maximum lengths required in a home would have in-measurable levels of resistance. I have one cable run somewhat over 60ft. and if I run a resistance check on it, it's at 0.00. Thats a 16ga. Audacious Sound Cable and is not expensive and works equally as well as ANY monster cable you could get. I would bet a blind sound test on it. You will of course hear improvements if you want to especially if you paid alot for the cable but sonically there really is no difference you could hear if you did the test honestly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 I'm honest with myself. I can hear a difference in the few inexpensive wires that I have tried. With high efficiency Klipsch, Monster is the grainiest/darkest wire I've listened to. And I'm talking about the cheapest to the more expensive Monster products. Probably depends on what equipment you're using. Solid/multiple stranded wire is my preference. YMMV. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthurs Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 why not order some other cables and do some blind a/b tests? I know several companies like bluejean, cobaltcable, signalcable, offer 30 day returns, so what do you have to lose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 For speaker wire, bigger is better. Try 10 or 12 gage stranded wire. The reduction in resistance makes it easier to bring out detail. When I changed from 16 to 12 gage for my surrounds, there was a major improvement. Front speakers will not benefit as much, but there will be a benefit. The plain stranded wire from any hardware store is ok as long as its jacket is sufficiently flexible. Leave excess wire to be able to move speakers or trim wire if you do not tin the ends. My advice is to avoid spending money on speaker wire unless appearance is important. There are too many better uses of limited funds for home audio. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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