Speaker Wire

[User Name]

Hello all,

I recently purchased some KLF 10's to add to my home theatre collection and had a wiring question. I originally wired my original system with 12 guage monster wire but I had just enough to get by.

Now that I am adding speakers, how important is it to remain consistent with the speaker wire? Should it be the exact same kind? I realize it's probably good to go with the 12 guage again, but how important is it to use the exact same wire?

[Ray Garrison]

Whether using different brands / types of wire will, or will not, make a difference is one of those topics that gets argued about quite a bit on this board and other forums. One think I think we can say for sure is that even if it DOES make a difference, it's going to be a fairly small difference in the overall scheme of things. I'd stick with 12 gauge cable, and if it were avialable cheaply enough you might as well go with Monster, but if you wind up with some other 12 gauge cable I'd focus on getting the speaker positions and the surround processing optimised before I even started worrying about whether going with the same cable all the way around was going to make a significant difference.

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Music is art

Audio is engineering

[Malcolm]

Years ago, the folks at McIntosh did blind A/B tests. The result was that once you had large enough wire, there was no audible difference between speaker cables. A lot of people will argue with this. People have come up with all sorts of esoteric speaker cables using CAT5 wire, coax, Litz wire, etc. that they claim to be big improvements over run of the mill speaker cable. The cables forum at www.audioasylum.com has more that you will ever want to know about the topic.

IMHO plain old 12 gauge speaker wire is fine for reasonable runs, say 50 feet or less. I am currently in the process of pulling it in my attic and walls for my HT system. Acutally, its not quite plain old 12 gauge wire. It is plain old 12 gauge wire in a CL3 rated jacket. Cost about $.18/foot.

I would suggest buying the cheap stuff and see if you can hear the difference. At worse, it is a cheap experiment. At best, it could save you a good deal of money.

[Prana-Bindu]

I'm exhausted with that debate. I made a commitment on another thread to participate in a double-blind test of various speaker cables, but I haven't found a sucker I trust to swap out cables for me. Of course, I wonder if the rest of my system is revealing enough to perform such a test.... (wagging the dog?)

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May the bridges we burn light our way....

[User Name]

Thanks for everyones help.

I've been browsing around ebay and noticed this twisted blue wire that they claim beats all other wire as far as noise reduction. Is it just hype or does a twisted wire perform better that the standard oxygen free copper?

I know it matters a very little difference based on your postings and I appreciate your input, but this twisted blue wire intrigues me for some reason.

User Name

quote:

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Originally posted by Malcolm:

Years ago, the folks at McIntosh did blind A/B tests. The result was that once you had large enough wire, there was no audible difference between speaker cables. A lot of people will argue with this. People have come up with all sorts of esoteric speaker cables using CAT5 wire, coax, Litz wire, etc. that they claim to be big improvements over run of the mill speaker cable. The cables forum at

www.audioasylum.com

has more that you will ever want to know about the topic.

IMHO plain old 12 gauge speaker wire is fine for reasonable runs, say 50 feet or less. I am currently in the process of pulling it in my attic and walls for my HT system. Acutally, its not quite plain old 12 gauge wire. It is plain old 12 gauge wire in a CL3 rated jacket. Cost about $.18/foot.

I would suggest buying the cheap stuff and see if you can hear the difference. At worse, it is a cheap experiment. At best, it could save you a good deal of money.

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[lynnm]

FWIW

I use a pair of KLF 30's on a purely 2 Channel Stereo system.

I recently replaced my "zip cord" wires with 12 guage wires and noticed a small improvement in sound quality. I then Bi-Wired with 12 guage and percieved another slight improvement. I then upgraded my amplifier and CD player and heard a truly "SIGNIFICANT" improvement.

All things considered - I suggest that upgrading your source components has a much larger effect than upgrading your speaker cabling.

I think that you would not hear any appreciable benefit by "upgrading" to a "better" cable for your rear speakers.

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It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca. 1304 BCE)

[WMcD]

IMHO, you're being led astray over the noise issue.

There is a theory of thermal noise because of resistance. It is truly miniscule in this setting.

There is also a theory that speaker wires might pick up external noise sources. One might be radio frequency interference. Do you hear taxi cabs or buzz from light dimmers?

Before going overboard, please turn down the volume to zero. If you hear a hiss from the speakers, and also hear the same hiss on headphones alone, it probably from the amp circuit -- not the wires.

Gil