Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Best brand of speaker wire

What brand and model of speaker wire would you recommend?

Any 12 - 14 gauge will do, even the stuff from home depot (bulk). Don't believe the hype.

Yup, home depot.

Monoprice is actually cheaper compared to my Home Depot, even after shipping, and it's quality stuff. Lots and lots (and lots!) of people here have used it without problems.

Good call on Monoprice. Stuff from Blue Jeans is really nice, too. The Dayton wire from Partsexpress is also good quality. I'd shop by price and gauge.

If the runs are of reasonable distance and you hold the gauge constant, I believe the only improvements you get by spending more money are appearance and flexibility. Copper is copper.

I used the Lowes (or HD, can't remember which) bulk 12ga for the runs throughout our room but the visible run from the wall plates to main speakers I later switched to the nicer looking Axiom terminated speaker wire ... doesn't have a thing to do with SQ, I just wanted a nicer looking cable from the 80s to the wall plates for atheistics.

I was going to mention monoprice.com, but meh. Its true, they have cheaper wire than HD, and its very good quality.

I bought a 250ft. spool of 14/4 in-wall speaker wire from cablestogo and the quality is quite nice. I bound the two pairs of conductors together to form the equivalent of two 11-gauge conductors. I think I paid $180, which works out to about .72 per foot.

I recently got some Canare Quad Star termninated with banana plugs from Blue Jeans.. I really like it. I'm sure it does not sound better than the other cables people here have sugested, but I do like the look of the cable and it was affordable, for me anyways.

*listening for signs of life from Ken*

Ken, tell 'em about your experience with Pear cables! ~~~

FYI, n00bs, the tilde ~ is used here to denote sarcasm.

I also use Canare Quad Star from Blue Jeans for the mains, generic 16 gauge for the center, and flat 16 gauge for the surrounds. No particular reason for the quad star other than the fact it looked cool and DIY sounded kind of fun.

It wasn't fun. I'm no good at heatshrinking or terminating cables.

I use Canare to dust out my 'puter.

My teen patients often use it for other things...

Just thought of something I should mention. I priced flat cable from axiom vs. HD cable and plastic channel. This was for runs that I wanted (and may still want) hidden or under carpet. It priced the same, so I give a nod to Axiom for that.

If you really want oxygen free copper I'll bet they are reasonable as well.

lamp chord is always a good alternative.

major or minor?

A well-respected audiophile at the AVSforum once let out that the 10 or 12 gauge, well insulated outdoor extension cords (them orange or yellow spools) from Home Depot or Loew's made for outstanding speaker cables.

I bought the 12 gauge Axiom cables and have been quite impressed by their quality. They were also easier to run inside the Wiremold Cordmates than extension cords.

John

A second nod to Axiom's 12 gauge wire, one of the finest stranded cables available. The fine stranding makes the cable very supple and the insulation is stamped with Axiom

That's why I got Blue Jeans to terminate with banana plugs and heatshrink the ends as well They were beautifuly done.

I got some white 12 gauge from Blue Jeans. Used their banana plugs and heat shrink for the receiver end and left the speaker ends untermintaed. I also bought a sub cable from BJC and I really like it. It is very flexible so it runs flat against the carpet.

I recently bought an HDMI cable from monoprice though and found it be made exceptionally well. I think I will buy speaker wire from monoprice next time just 'cause its cheaper than BJC.

Here is an four page shootout at audioholics that has lowes vs cat 5 vs monster vs extension cord vs ...

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/cable...cable%20faceoff

The extension cord beat out Monster. I remember reading this and another article about four years ago and went with Sound King based on the two articles. In the other article it suggested going with a cable that is oxygen free is important (which sound king is). Here is a link to this article that is long and technical.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/the-truth-about-interconnects-and-cables

- Nick

+1 Same here.

I won't get into the argument of sound quality, as it's just way to subjective. But the Canare cables look good. That's why I wanted them. I also bought some of the flexible sleeve stuff and nice plugs. Took me an hour or so to cut, install the flex, and terminate them, but they add a nice touch to my setup. I think they look good, anyway. BJC is a great place to buy cables, though their stuff is a bit on the pricier side. If you're going for a bit cheaper stuff, I'll offer another vote of praise for Monoprice. Super cheap prices, and all of the cables and wiring doo-dads I've bought from them have exceeded my expectations as far as quality goes.

While I don't believe in absurdly-priced cables (AudioQuest, Nordost, Kimber, etc), I also don't like just using generic cables. Something about buying nice speakers and nice components and then just connecting them with lamp cord doesn't sit well with me.

The Home Depot 12 gauge stuff in my area works fine but is soooo stiff and hard to work with. It doesn't bend easily and you'll wish you had gloves on if you have to terminate a lot of ends.

Of course, this may vary from area to area.

Last reel I bought for the new room was from Monoprice. Still 12 gauge but extremely flexible and easy to work with. Also sheathed for in-wall application, (just in case you worry about that sort of thing,) AND it was way cheaper, even after shipping across the border, compared to the Home Depot bulk wire.

I stumbled across this link trying to figure something out for a friend.. wasn't looking for audio stuff, but when I saw the link I was intrigued..

Check out the Avatar pricing 3/4's of the way down..
Prana Wire - Pricing

Man.. Hard to believe someone would actually buy that.

Gene, that is a wee bit pricey for pieces of wire, but isn't the most absurd example around. You might take a look here at what Mr. Fields charges the suckers.

wow... do people actually pay these kind of prices?

I prefer to buy from his wife.

This guy did. He makes me think that upgraditis is a very serious disease indeed.

Spend enough money and you are required to convince yourself it sounds better.

I've gone to that NBS cables site several times now, and each time I have same reaction...

They charge that much for cables...and that's the best website they can put together?

I just poked around a bit just now...I hadn't seen the $40,000 CD player before.

Wow, me either. That is certifiably insane. And I would know.

We are also in the 6th month of 2008, you would think they would update their copyright for such expensive items...

I have a question about quad conductor cables like the Canare 4S11. Do you guys just combine the two wires into one banana plug at the reciever/amp end? And then use 4 banana plugs to plug into the speaker?

If the $40k CD player is insane, then what's your professional opinion of $75k speakers, Doc?

From the NBS site, I followed the link to their distributor, one Kastle Cable, who offers these speakers.

It's a good thing they spent no money on their web design so they could pass the savings on to you.

That is one way to do it.

You could also double both ends and just use it like a normal two-wire speaker cable. Either way, make darn sure you keep the polarities correct.

I left my 4S11's in a quad-wire configuration because I bi-amp my M80's.

"That's all you need to know. Your ears will tell you the rest."


sounds fishy....

Fish have ears?

I think it would be cool if Axiom offered Quad Conductor cables...with the Axiom logo on them...I would probably purchase that for my mains.

That is exactly how I ordered my Quad Star, 4 plugs at speaker end, 2 plugs at amp end. My system sounds good, the cables look good and I'm happy. I have " high end " cables in a 5.1 setup for about $250 bucks, that includes 2 toslink opticals and 1 coax.. a grand total of about 180ft of cables.. long runs to the mains and center.

I was considering the Prana wires..but in the end, I decided to save myself $35,765.00 dollars instead..

Thats what I did

I agree.

Congrats everyone....nicest speaker wire thread...EVER!