BillA Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Hello all, I have the Klipsch Quintets and a KSW 15 sub, I have replaced the Quintet center with the RC-3, and am about to replace the two front Quintets with RF-25's or 35's (haven't quite made up my mind yet, but within a week or so I should have a set of 25's or 35's), and I NEED to upgrade wire - since I am just using this thin 22 gauge wire from radioshack. The 22 gauge stuff is just a spool I had in my closet and when I moved recently so it is what I reached for, hasn't been setup this way with that wire for very long really, I had some decent in wall thick (12ish) gauge wire before but left it in the walls at the old place. My amp is an Onkyo DS 575 (5 channels 75 watts per channel) and above are my speaker choices, basically what is a good gauge and what is a good company for quality/yet not break the bank priced wire. I was looking at SOUND KING 14 gauge wire (100 foot spool), and wondered are they any good, I don't wanna blow $300 on wire, but figured in the $75 to $100 range is something I could afford for all my wire. My two mains and center wouldn't need more than about 10 feet each (30 feet total) and my rears I am looking at about 30 feet each so (60 feet total) for rears, so I am thinking a 100 foot spool should do me up fine for all my wire needs. Gauge I'm guessing 14 would be good enough??? Company who makes good stuff at reasonable costs ??? I saw some "sound king" brand online and thought that was pretty reasonable price wise, but are there any companies who you all recommend or better yet that I should stay away from? And connector wise, I thought I would go with banana style posts and just plug them into my Klipschs, but I actually talked to a guy at the stereo store who said they only use those clips to change speakers out fast and easy, for home use they recommended using "spade" type connectors (almost like a 2 prong Y shaped), is that what most of you all use too? Lastly question on my KSW 15 sub, currently from the amp to the sub I am using a coax wire that is actually a big thick spare video cable, is that type of cable (designed for video) ok to use for the sub? It always seemed to ROCK the room before, but I never demanded much of it volume wise , but will be soon as I slowly build this new home theater setup, If that cable is not ok to use, then what should I be looking for when getting Sub RCA type connection wire... Basically I have had all this stuff in an apartment and hooked up cheap wires, kept levels down low, now that I am in a HOUSE and have started to upgrade various speakers and such I am wanting it to sound as good as possible, so hence after buying new speakers and wanting to get the most out of them, I have many wire & connector questions... Any info given will be much appreciated. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaaihue1 Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Hey Billa, Here's an interesting article for you. These speaker cables seem to get the job done, without breaking the bank. http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/interconnects/SpeakerCableFaceoffp3.htm Good Luck Sorry don't know how to make a shortcut on here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yromj Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 For your speaker wires, yes 14 ga. will be enough. Some of the "audiophile" grade from http://www.partsexpress.com would work great. Otherwise, Home Depot wire will work. In other words, don't plan on spending $2/ft. You should be able to get quality wire for less than $1/ft. I use the Dayton banana plugs from partsexpress as well. They fit nice and tight. The coax wire you're using for your sub is great. I'm about to run a coax to the other side of my living room to move my sub. Coax can be used for all your interconnects, audio, and video. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meuge Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Those SoundKing wires from partsexpress.com look quite good. I am using something in the same price range - the Pro II 12-gauge wires by Acoustic Research ($30-35 /50ft on the net). The only difference is that the Acoustic Research wire is abnormally large for its gauge (cannot even be stripped w. 8 gauge strippers, had to do it with a knife) and it has a dielectric fiber core, which should be removed at stripped ends before terminating. Don't know how much difference such think insulation and the dielectric makes, but the wire looks awesome and professional. As for connectors, I am just using the gold-plated banana plugs (screw type) from RadioShack. You're pretty much safe going with the cheapest screw-type gold-plated bananas you can find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 If you can swing it or get it used get some Kimber Kable 4pr speaker wire with banana plugs. OH man what it did for me is incredible. I love em! It turned my medeocre Denon into something a little more special. I just got a pair for my two mains, and what a great sound. The inner or background detail is where it's at! Like their is no stressed out sound almost like you went and got a better amp. More like your sitting right in the studio. The best revealing sound I had the pleasure to hear. I am gonna have to get a strand for my center now. No doubt the best 30 dollars I ever spent on hifi equipment. I found a 9 foot pair on audiogon with tributary banana plug connectors for 30 shipped to my door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckears Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 wheelman, On behalf of the cables-make-a-difference camp, thanks for putting forth a solid recommendation. I've been using Kimber 4TC for my mains and center for a few years now, and with the higher-dollar components I have (Anthem AVM20 Processor and McCormack amps), I would not settle for less. The 4PR is an excellent value in better speaker cables; but I would never promise that everyone is going to be able to tell a difference with their setup. And even if that difference is there, not everyone has the ears to hear it. My experience is that it takes a degree of familiarity with the source material on the system being tweaked to be able to discern the differences engendered by cable upgrades. One of the tweaks in my future upgrade wish-list is replacing the internal wiring connecting my Fortes' terminals, crossovers, and drivers with Kimber 4PR. My local dealer has performed this service for several customers, with amazing response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 ---------------- On 7/7/2004 6:45:05 AM chuckears wrote: wheelman, On behalf of the cables-make-a-difference camp, thanks for putting forth a solid recommendation. I've been using Kimber 4TC for my mains and center for a few years now, and with the higher-dollar components I have (Anthem AVM20 Processor and McCormack amps), I would not settle for less. The 4PR is an excellent value in better speaker cables; but I would never promise that everyone is going to be able to tell a difference with their setup. And even if that difference is there, not everyone has the ears to hear it. My experience is that it takes a degree of familiarity with the source material on the system being tweaked to be able to discern the differences engendered by cable upgrades. One of the tweaks in my future upgrade wish-list is replacing the internal wiring connecting my Fortes' terminals, crossovers, and drivers with Kimber 4PR. My local dealer has performed this service for several customers, with amazing response. ---------------- Yes your right. I went back today and listened to some really old heavy music, and didn't hear anything that would make them stand out differently. Its in the recording if its in there you probally will hear it. Like you said being familiar with a recording. Now some recordings I thought I was familiar with I then started hearing things that weren't there before. If it's in the background you will notice the difference, but with some music I didn't hear a difference on the older thrash metal. On the new metallica album whoa I was hearing tons of stuff I never heard. A recording that is completely awesome, but captures all the mistakes. Well done with the right audio gear. I really can hear a difference on radio. Especially when I am in the other room. For some reason my klipsch's sound really really good the further you are from them ,well to a point. I cranked it up today nothing helping an amplifier when it's cranked if the amp doesn't have the goods. I wanted to see if things were clear cranked. It got congested, but before it almost sounded like the background sounds where congested before I got this wire at lower volumes. Nice balanced sound now at lower volumes, now at lower volumes I mean loud for most people. Oh it sounds good cranked too just need a sub for the old school thrash metal. I am running a denon receiver which sounds awesome with the blues and classic rock. You start getting into thrash, heavy metal. My harmon would excell in that category. I have been listening to more bluesy, classic rock styles so I am sticking with the denon, and the Klipsch, kimber kables combo. For now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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