Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions What size speaker cable to run?

Puff, welcome. Since you're new you can be excused for using the link that Ken has exclusive rights to on this board. Incidentally, don't get too enthusiastic about making that since it doesn't really amount to anything significant unless you'll enjoy the project(Ken didn't). The article itself is a good read.

I am in a similar situation.

I had purchased 150' of "standard" Monster Cable at Menards, a regional home improvement store. Now, is it me, or is Monster Cable going out of their way to either hide, or eliminate listing of the wire gauge?

Anyway, upon reading this article, I learned that 12-14GA was recommended. This prompted me to more closely examine the spool of MC where I learned that it was 16GA.

Thus began my quest.

Home Depot - HD had 100' spools of 14GA RCA "100% oxygen free" $34 each.

Next stop Best Buy, where I found 50' spools of 12GA from Accoustic Research for $50 each. This stuff appears to be 80% casing and HUGE casing at that!

In the end, I opted for Axiom's wire. The specs were every bit as good as Monster Cable, the price per foot was less than the AR at BB, and the casing appears to be of resonable size (making it easier to pull multiple runs through conduit).

Other than the 14GA RCA, my local Home Depot only had 14GA bulk stranded electrical wire which, for some reason, looked far smaller than the RCA "100 oxygen free" "Digital" cable.

Okay, the Axiom is on order, I could have probably found other 12GA on eBay for far less, buy I have an assurance (along with a possible "illusion") of quality in that it will perform well and last a long time.

I am REALLY looking forward to hearing my Axioms for the first time. They have sat on the floor of our formal dining room, in their boxes, awaiting the day that the "Serenity Home Theater" is finished and comes on line.

Boy, that always gives me the heebie jeebies--when people who have been around awhile say that they've never heard their Axioms.... What if you don't like them? Oh noes!

I'm taking them on faith, backed up by the many reviews that I've read over the past year.

Add that to to the glowing posts on this site and the fact that I am upgrading from 12" 3-way Cerwin Vega mains, a pair of 2-way 6 1/2" Cerwin Vega Surrounds, a 5" 2-way Cerwin Vega center, a 15" down firing Cerwin Vega sub, a very small pair of Cambridge Audio cubes with a passive sub for rears and an inexpensive 10" Sony sub.

Now I've got a 7.1 Epic Grand Master v350 waiting to erase childhood memories of BIG, LOUD, and "boomy" Cerwin Vegas (which served me well) in favor of the accuracy and realizm of Axioms.

Now I haven't listened to my Cerwin Vegas for a year so any sound will be good for me at this point!

Spence

P.S. I'm keeping my 15" CV sub.

I'm sure you'll like them, but there have been a few cases...

In reply to:

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Now I haven't listened to my Cerwin Vegas for a year so any sound will be good for me at this point!

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CVs - the one DOWNSIDE to them is they're bulletproof. You can't "accidentally" blow a driver to have good reason to get a new set-up.

Bren R.