Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Speaker cable....which one would you get?

Ok, after installing the speakers and everything I need some rear speaker cables. I need 90 feet max so either I can buy axiom bulk cable or a friend of mine will sell me his monster xp flat speaker cable for same price but its 150 feet but I only need 90 feet. So for the same amount of money which would you take? Which you think is better quality (I know you can't hear a difference) as far as resistance, last longer over time, etc?

90 ft? Are you saying you will have two 45ft runs for both speakers? I would suggest looking at the wire table for the below link. The table shows you recommended gauge to use for certain ohm speakers and length runs. You may have to read the section on over 50ft runs, which is not as recommended. I would also not hesitate to just go to your local home improvement store and buy right off the spool per foot, you save money and not pay higher unneeded costs. I would not recommend your friends XP flat cable for this application.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

Well, only one side needs 35 feet and the other 25 feet but I'm picky and want it the same so 35 feet each. I figured I'd buy additional 20 feet for future needs or in case I cut too short and mess up. I was thinking I need 12 or 10 gauge.

Well, I guess I don't know anybody that uses 10 AWG wire. I used 12 AWG for all my speakers. I would recommend keeping a little extra on each end for error, or if you have to rework anything in the future. You would rather have a little to much than not enough. There is really no need to match lengths of your left/right side. I know some people will tell you that though....

good luck

Reason wires will be kinda long is since I do not have attic or crawl space I'm gonna have to run speaker wires on the walls, corners, etc which I bought mouldings for. I'll post some pics of it. Ok, I just saw some bulk speaker wire at monoprice really cheap but not sure if thats good quality or if its all I really need. I'm looking at the OFC 12 gauge spool, or would you go with CL3 rated even though its not really inside walls?

Eric, God didn't make no bad copper, so don't worry about "quality". In addition, theres no good reason to use extra wire just to make the runs of equal length. Stop by Home Depot or Lowes and have them cut you some of the regular 14 or 16ga lampcord. There's no need to use a jacketed cord if it isn't going to be installed in-wall.

I actually use 10 awg(Blue Jeans Cable). I'm sure its overkill but so what. Just make sure your connections will work fine with it as it is big and I ended up using banana plugs for easy of use. Without them the 10 would have been a pain to connect as it was difficult to connect cleanly on the back of AVR and my Axioms(hole was almost not big enough). IF you use the banana it looks much better and setup is easy.


Bill3508

There seem to be two common explanations for the "equal length speaker wires" idea. The first dates back to vacuum tube amplifiers with output transformers and higher output impedences, where (for some reason) the impedence of the speaker cable made a greater difference than it did today. I never understood that one.

The other reason was to sell more speaker wire. I understand that one

The cheap Home Depot (etc..) speaker wire with the clear insulation has had a few reports of corrosion, but even that seems to be caused by the insulation rather than the copper. My favorite speaker wire is the jacketed stuff sold by Home Depot -- it's cheap, in-wall rated, easy to strip, and looks good on the floor if a bit "industrial".

The Axiom cable is felt to be very high quality, but the quality shows in relatively subtle ways -- the fine strands make the wire bend more easily (which makes hookup and troubleshooting easier), the insulation is tough but strips easily, it looks good etc...

Just make sure you know the reasons for buying better speaker cable and the right choice for you should become more clear. You can't really go wrong, although I tend to stay away from the clear HD 12 gauge just because it's a bit of a pain to work with and won't lie flat.