Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo buying speaker wire?

Could you please suggest a good speaker wire? I'd prefer 12 gauge.

thanks.

I use this. It's surprisingly flexible for a thick wire, but it ain't pretty (IMHO). In addition to the 100ft. roll for $37.50, it also comes in rolls of 50ft. for $22.95, or 500ft. for $179.80.

If you find it too ugly, you could use this. It's an "in-wall" wire, but it can be used like regular speaker wire. It's better looking (IMHO), and is even cheaper.

I've had nothing but good experiences dealing with Parts Express.

Others will recommend just going to Home Depot and getting some of their inexpensive wire.

i really dont know why you guys dont ever suggest the axiom bulk wire. heck, it says axiom on it and its sold by axiom, and has free shipping and its not really THAT expensive. you can get 25 feet for less then 25 bucks.

haoleboy-


as far as recommending AXIOM speaker wire.. i think it is pretty well believed that 'over priced' speaker wire in general isnt really worth the money. now, the axiom wire is around $1 dollar a foot, and the home depot stuff is $.30 cents a foot.. if you have 100-125 feet total, like i will have to run, you are talkin a difference between $60-$80 bucks.. thats a lot of money to me.

and its not that the axiom wire is bad, per say, but the home depot stuff is just as good at 1/3 the price..

bigjohn

Simple.

You can get 100 feet of Axiom speaker wire for $100, or you can get 100 feet of Sound King 12 guage bulk speaker wire, which is rated as some of the best wire at that price, for $70 less. http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=100-155 shows it as being $37.50 for 100 feet, which makes it $62.50 less than the Axiom bulk wire for the same amount of wire.

That wire is really good, and a thick guage too. And if you'd like the fuzzy feeling of using better wire - instead of buying one pair of insanely priced wire, use all the extra wire you'll have left over in the 100 foot spool to bi-wire the speakers, since I doubt you'll use 50 feet of wire for two speakers.

If you don't mind adding your own connectors or just using bare wire, this is what I use:

http://www.markertek.com/SearchProduct.asp?off=0

It's better looking than most bulk stuff, but costs a bit more at 50 cents a foot. It's just a plain round black wire that's decently flexible. It's 4 wires at 16 gauge - so you use 2 twisted pairs each for the + and -, which results in 13 gauge equivalent. After adding some connectors and shrink tubing, mine look quite "professional."

Audiofan:

I was turned on to these:

Knukonceptz
Karma 12AWG Speaker Kable

Knukonceptz
Klear Kable Blue 12 Gauge Speaker Wire

http://knukonceptz.com/



Sutter Cane

Is SoundKing very flexible? I have to run wire through several corner, so highly flexibility is important to me.

thanks.

Hi audiofan

Dunno about the soundking, but the monster mini flat is extremely flexible. Sounds great also. It's the only monster speaker cable I like.

I bought 100' at Lowes for $26. Works fine for me. I hear no difference between it and Munster I had from my previous HT set-up.

That Munster wire is pretty cheesey!

oh will, that was just bad..

bigjohn

Isn't that Muenster?

Fromage is not Fromage...

WhatFurrer

UUUMMMM, cheese is good!!

bigjohn

Herman, Grandpa, and Eddie. Not the cheese.

They were cheesy too...

WhatFurrer

FYI...Blue Jeans Cable now has speaker wire/cable. It's not on their website, but if you give them a call you can get it.

I called them about getting a long subwoofer cable, and asked if they also had speaker wire. Glad I asked. 10ga in-wall speaker cable for .48/ft!

10ga? That's a great price! I assume you'd onlt use that for going from wall plate to wall plate, though, right?

If I use a wall plate, I don't think the QS8's will mount flush will they? I was thinking of perhaps using a wall plate on the wall behind my audio rack, but having the wire hooked directly to the QS8's.

I've read that people had trouble getting 12ga wire to go into the binding posts on their QS8s. In-wall wire tends to be stiffer due to the tougher jacket material, so it may be a pain to work with. You could always splice a more compliant (i.e. flexible) length of wire onto the end of the 10ga, however.

I haven't had any troubles with the QS8 binding posts. I'm sure the 10ga will fit just fine.

I had some trouble keeping the 12 gauge bare wire connected to my old QS8s. The wire was stiff and there weren't alot of strands to it. Over time the connection would get loose. They were on stands that I moved around a bit, too. My new QS8s came with the same "wrench-able" binding posts as the M60s, so I really cranked the nots down on the wire. So far so good. It seems to me that these fatter wires don't like to stay plugged in as well. Maybe connectors would be in order?

If you have too much wire and not enough binding post, you would be OK to trim a few strands off around the outside of the wire to enable a better fit.

I just got SoundKing speaker wire from PartsExpress. It's highly flexibl as more strand counts. I'm happy with it because I can run wire easier even though i can't tell the diff. in sound quality with other wires.

I'll second the Sound King. I just ran 12 guage in my room and it is very well made, sturdy, but easy to manipulate in the walls and such. Can't wait for the speakers to show up so I can test them out!

Nice pic with your moniker, GoVols. I had the wonderful opportunity to tailgate with some Tennessee folks when they came out to play UCLA a few years ago. Great fans, great people, even loved hearing "Rocky Top" looped for 6 hours straight.

an interesting note - the internal wiring on my AX3 models is Sound King

Regards,

BBIBH

Thanks Big Will. Yep, our music selection at games is kind of "one track"! I swear the band can play other tunes. But we do like to eat at the games and I think you found that we are pretty good to get along with! We hoped to come out that way to the Rose Bowl a couple of years ago, but the kitty kats from LSU killed that plan.

I am doing my HT room with a "Vol" slant (even a couple of orange walls). I will hopefully post some pictures along with my orange felted pool table. Oh, and there will be some Axioms in there somewhere too!

I'm sure you could convince Axiom to custom paint your speakers orange...

Yes, uh, orange and possibly have the speakers white with a orange "T". I would go for the Royal Purple and Old Gold, on the M60's and since there are 3 speakers I would want a "L" on the Midrange "S" & "U" could be put on the woofers.
Uh, Geaux Tigers!

But, I have to say I am an avid College girls basketball fan and Tennesse, UConn, Duke, LSU, and of course my fav LATech are always exciting to watch. Pat Summit is an awesome coach!

Semper Fi

WOOHOO!! GO LATECH....sorry that's my Alma Mater

Small world we have a local here on the board that went to NLU. My nephew goes to La Tech.

Semper Fi

Yep..the bigger the boards get, them smaller the world gets, or so it would seem. It's always cool to see others from La around here.

My daughter is going to be graduating from the Louisiana Tech (Ruston) Nursing program next week...

Very small world...

WhatFurrer