Hi all, i've been reading here for a while now. and its time to jump in. i should be ordering my axioms in dec. m60's qs8's 150 and hopeing for the ep500. i already got my oppo 981 and my optoma 6800 from costco last week. and i am curently looking the onkyo 705 as the receiver. now i will be going with hdmi, so my question is what other wires do i need, i also want to do get into sacd and i want sound to blow away my friends. how can i do this.
thanks

hi PilerTyler,
it would appear that this email got lost in the shuffle around here so i will do my best to help you out. While i'm not perfectly familiar with all of these components we'll see if we can struggle through this. If you are adding a Onkyo 705 receiver that will change things a bit too.

Oppo to Onkyo - HDMI cable (single cable should carry audio/video on DVDs as well as audio on CDs/SACDs/DVD-As) Monoprice HDMI
Onkyo to Optoma - HDMI cable
Onkyo to speakers - regular speaker cable (depends on distance, but usually more than safe with 12 or 14 ga)
Onkyo to EP500 subwoofer - regular shielded coax cable with RCA ends Monoprice RCA Note you don't need a fancy coax-RCA cable that is listed as a "subwoofer cable". Any cable with RCA connectors will do.

This is probably the cheapest and easiest way to hook things up. Of course if you are adding other components into the mix such as a VCR, satellite receiver, HD-DVD or BluRay, etc then it will increase your cabling needs. However, the nice thing is that with your Onkyo 705 you will still only require one cable to the projector and the receiver will do all the switching for you.

There are millions of options for where to buy your cables, but in general the best/cheapest bets are Monoprice for your HDMI and sub cable and a home improvement retailer such as Home Depot for your speaker wire (they usually have this in bulk). One other suggestion i love throwing out there for fellow Canadians is to check your local Princess Auto store. They often carry a large selection of audio/video cabling that is of comparable quality but at significant savings.

I would recommend the Axiom bulk speaker wire it is extremely fine stranded and lays nice and flat. it also has Axiom stamped on the insulation for an added coolness factor. Best bang for the bulk at it's price for 12 gauge.

I re-wired all of my cables with Axiom cables and it is very nice indeed and not expensive.

thanks alot for your help, and i think i found a topic talking about the cableing needed for the sacd needs.

later