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so I set up my speakers around my newly aquired 92" screen last night (wooo), and I was using some wire strippers that I am borrowing, I have some 14guage (from HD) and 12guage (from bluejeans). When stripping the 14guage some of the wires get cut from the cable, like 3 or 4 of them, I then switched to stripping the wires with the 12guage set, still, wires were getting cut off. Is this normal? Will it effect the sound quality?

THere is about 3 feet for the surrounds from the reciever to the wall plate, the rest is 12guage.

Thanks,

-Hutz

Absolutely normal (although you'll get better at it, and it'll happen a little less. No, it won't affect sound quality in the slightest, unless you're not careful and one of those little bits shorts between the posts. In the last inch or so, going down in gauge is not going to introduce significant resistance.

Awsome, thats the response I was looking for!! I was prepared to do all the connections with my 12 guage wire (which is SUCH a pain in the arse to connect to banana plugs, 14guage is so much easier).

I did the same thing, and although I knew it wouldn't affect sound quality, it still bothered me enough to snip the end off and start over. I guesss I'm just obsessive about that kind of stuff.

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I did the same thing, and although I knew it wouldn't affect sound quality, it still bothered me enough to snip the end off and start over. I guesss I'm just obsessive about that kind of stuff.

I actually did that a couple of times too

Then my wife was sitting in the lazy-boy, just WAITING for the movie to start...so I had to stop screwing around

Hutzal, yeah, that happens to me, too, but only when I use wire strippers. For some reason, I'm much better using just a knife to cut the insulation off. It takes just a bit of practice, but I can strip the wire without cutting into any strands.

Like the others said, it's no big deal losing a couple here and there.

the strange thing is that it only happens with the 14guage from HD, when I strip the Belden from Blue Jeans Cable all the strands are still intact.

go figure?

Same here. It may make no difference to the electronics, but it matters to me. Yeah, a wee bit of compulsiveness.

Several years ago, in my heyday of working on car audio, I bought a set of those 'automatic' wire strippers. Very similar to this.. It makes stripping wires a breeze and has been worth every penny.

I have some Belden cable from BJC too, and I know what you mean. Those use very thick strands of copper, and so it's much more difficult to accidentally cut them. If you were using a very highly-stranded wire like the kind Axiom sells, I bet it would be a whole lot easier to accidentally cut a few of those teeny-tiny strands.

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I did the same thing, and although I knew it wouldn't affect sound quality, it still bothered me enough to snip the end off and start over. I guesss I'm just obsessive about that kind of stuff.

Hutzal, what are you using for banana plugs ? There are a number of good suppliers in the US but I haven't found any good ones up here in Canada yet.

I need to rewire my system some time soon and I really don't want to touch anything until I at least have bananas on the receiver end of the speaker cables.

Yes, we have no bananas today.

I find it much easier to use the hole for the next smallest gauge with LIGHT preasure, just enough to break the outer sheath. Then I move up to the larger size your supposed to use to pull it off. This way I rarely lose any wire strands.

So, for 12 gauge wire, I start with the 14 gauge hole on the stripper tool. Using light preasure I break the outer coating, then movie up to the 12 gauge hole to pull it off, works great.

Oh yeah, I also twist the bare wires with my fingers before inserting them into the wire terminal on the AVR.

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Hutzal, what are you using for banana plugs ? There are a number of good suppliers in the US but I haven't found any good ones up here in Canada yet.

I need to rewire my system some time soon and I really don't want to touch anything until I at least have bananas on the receiver end of the speaker cables.

I got all my video cables and interconnects (for audio) from monoprice.com. IF you are ordering enough items, even with the shipping, the cables and banana's are cheaper than buying from a retail store (by over 200%).

for $1.39/pair (for 20 pairs), you just simply can't do better than that anywhere in canada, even with shipping, similar plugs in calgary are selling from $6/pair.

With shipping, it ends up being $1.70/pair (for 20 pairs) USD to Calgary. Which is $1.98 CAD (estimated) which ends up being around $40 Canadian for 20 pairs.

20 pairs in calgary at $5/pair will end up being $106 CAD...no thanks!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I paid $15 duty on a $190 order.

-Hutz

I'll second the monoprice.com suggestion. I recently ordered a couple of AV cables and about a dozen pairs of banana plugs. My total was like $40. It would have been over $150 if I'd purchased the same stuff at the local big-box electronics store. I will be doing a lot of my 'nuts-and-bolts' shopping at monoprice from now on!

I purchased the other type of banana plugs, the ones with compression fittings. They seem to work well and look great, although it took me a few tries to figure out how best to attach the speaker wire to them!

Real men use wire cutters to strip wire.

Real, real men use their teeth.

I learned to not use my teeth when I was rewiring the phone jack in my apartment in college. Everything was going fine until my future wife decided to call...

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I learned to not use my teeth when I was rewiring the phone jack in my apartment in college. Everything was going fine until my future wife decided to call...

Shocking!

WhatFurrer

Real, real, men ask their future wives to call when they're stripping wire with their teeth.

Also they will replace outlets and light switches without shutting off the breaker first.
(I replaced a couple switches last week and didn't bother with the breaker... Only got shocked once or twice. Kinda fun, actually, but I'm strange that way.)

Careful, or you could end up looking like this:

Agreed, Peter, it is fun in a sick masochistic sort of way. I did it a few times when i was wiring the basement, even a couple of breakers in the panel box with the main breaker still on...those i was pretty damn careful on.

Possibly the stupidest thing i accomplished though was giving myself a hell of a shock when the electrical inspector was over to check that the wiring i had done was up to code...."yes you can just ignore these couple of wires hanging from the roof. They are stapled up there and i haven't bothered to pull them down yet because i was thinking i might use the same run to wire something else in." As i grab the collection of wires with my hand to prove to him that they weren't hot i got a very nice jolt. He just looked at me and said, "you might want to put a marrette on that." Tough to get more bone-headed than that.

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Then I move up to the larger size your supposed to use to pull it off.

I was nearly slapped by an electrician for doing that when much younger... the prescribed way is to cut the insulation with a cutter and then pull off the cut piece with your fingers. Using the cutters to pull off the nub (like I'd watch my dad do it when I was a kid) is a major cause of dulled wire cutters (and nicks in solid core wire - which was bad for aluminum, and broken strands in stranded copper). I used to go through a pair of wire cutters a year... I've had my current pair for about 5, I guess, and they're still irresponsibly sharp.

At the farm, one of the cousins-in-law was using a pair of these to strip cabin wiring on a tractor. They work remarkably well for something that costs $0.88 at Princess Auto for smaller wire, maybe 22-16 ga.

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Oh yeah, I also twist the bare wires with my fingers before inserting them into the wire terminal on the AVR.

You monster... all that finger grease will disrupt the delicate balance of electrons in your speaker cable.

Bren R.