Speaker Wire

ShaneOC

Hello,

I am currently putting in the wiring for my new house. I want to run some speaker wire for my home cinema setup. A friend of mine is supplying the electrics and I asked him for 100m of Speaker wire too. His place didn't have speaker wire so instead he gave me regluar two core electric wire (the one with the blue and brown wires inside). Is it ok to use this as speaker wire or would I be better off getting the proper speaker wire?

Thanks
Shane.

Kali

theres no actual problem in using it (resistance wise it'll be grand)... but theres absolutely no point in doing that now and then when (if) you upgrade your speakers in the future you'll be left with a rather expensive and terrible sounding setup.

If you plan to use bog-standard speakers and want to save a few bucks then yeah go ahead and use it.. also your room could have poor acoustics anyway in which case it wouldn't matter

But personally I'd definitely go purchase some proper cable, for the 100m i'd budget at about €125 upwards... depending on what you are connecting it to... you will notice the difference.

ozpass

Can't stress this one enough.

I power my fronts (Celestion Impact 40's) with Gale XL315.

When I moved recently, my cables got lost for a couple of weeks so I did like yourself and hooked them up with mains cable. The bass sounded really 'muddy' and I just wasn't happy with the sound. I figured it was the compromised setup I was running (due to the shape of the room) with the right speaker nearer the corner than I would have wanted.

When I found the XL in a discarded box, I stripped the ends and hooked it up. Instant clarity! I've never noticed such an audible improvement, even when exchanging components.

It's only about 2 euro a metre, but it is quite bulky if you're going to be running it through trunking.:)

Well worth the money in my view.

I think there's a bi-wire version, too, if that's your kettle of fish, but that'd be just huge.

ShaneOC

OK. Thanks for the advice. I think I might comprimise and use the good cable for the lounge and the cheap stuff for the back room.

I've had a look at the richer sounds web site. The Gale XL189 looks fine for my setup. Anyone used this cable before. It will be connecting a Sony Dolby Digital STRDE475S receiver and the SAVE225 entry PASCAL surround speakers (HTK 475 package).

Kali

I use XL105 for my left and right surrounds.. running lengths of 15 and 12m respectively... it sounds a lot better than bog-standard cable, but when switched with the 315 I have for my fronts you can definitely notice a slight lack of depth (that was tested with my floorstanders)

I basically chose that cable because its extremely compact, i run it in between the skirting-board/carpet and it sits perfectly (plus the rear speakers aren't much cop so I wasn't too bothered)

The 315 would imo be too thick a cable to run to surrounds... use that on your fronts if possible, and the 105 or 189 (depending on how you are installing the cable.. conduits/undercarpet etc.) on your rears.

daveg

ShaneOC I wouldn't use electrical wire. I presume your chasing this wire for your rears in which case you dont have to spend a bomb. I used some Jamo wire which set me back about €1.50 per meter. However do invest in decent cable for your fronts. Also make sure to check when your buying your cable is if it is directional (the cable has to be fed in 1 direction from amp to speaker kinda like + and -). Ask when you buying the cable.

ShaneOC

Originally posted by ozpass
Can't stress this one enough.

I power my fronts (Celestion Impact 40's) with Gale XL315.

When I moved recently, my cables got lost for a couple of weeks...

Saw the Gale XL315 in richer sounds. How did you manage to loose it? It is huge.

ozpass

I know, it was 6 metres of the stuff, too!