Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Where to buy 12 gauge?

Where is the cheapest place to buy 12 gauge wire? Which online store has the best deals?

Do you need a whole spool of it, or a few short runs? Home Depot should carry it, and cut to length if needed, and you won't have to pay for delivery.

Or, if you prefer, PartsExpress has a high quality 12 gauge in 50ft. rolls ($22.95 + shipping), 100ft. rolls ($37.50 +shipping), and 500ft. rolls ($179.80 + shipping).

Or they have a less obtrusive, but no lesser quality, wire in 100ft. rolls ($19.30 + shipping), and 500ft. rolls (98.20 + shipping).

Check the outside lighting wiring at Home Depot. I almost picked up 50' of 14 gauge for around $15 or something last weekend, until my wife said, "You're going to use ugly black wire?" When I looked in the electronics aisle, the same amount/same guage of cable was more like $30.

The 12 guage "Carol" wire at Home Depot has been positively reviewed/discussed on other forumns. There are 2 places to obtain speaker wire at Home Depot (and Lowes). First is on the regular shelving where they have RCA or Phillips brand up to 14 guage. For 12 guage wire (manufactured by "Carol" at HD; uncertain at Lowes) it is on the huge revolving carosel of bulk wire where is sold at $0.33/foot. Also, I noted next to the bulk wire carosel "contractor pac's" of 250 foot spools, dropping the per foot cost into the twenty's but I forget how much.

Uncertain what brand Lowes carries in bulk, as was beyond my eyesight on the carosel and didn't see contractor pacs. NOTE: Both HD and Lowes also have 14 guage and 'zip' wire on the bulk carosel.

For end plugs, uncertain if the RCA banana plugs at HD will accept 12 guage, but I do like their assembly. Radio Shack is a good source as they have various plugs designed for 10-12 guage and 14-18 guage. Be careful of package labeling as the plugs look identical.

When I had my black QS8s on black stands, I bought 100 ft of 12 ga landscape lighting wire for the surrounds. Looked great (tacked down to the stands), sounded fine, and actually was more finely stranded than the generic Lowes 12 ga speaker wire I replaced it with. The cost difference is negligible though, if I recall.

How much do you need? I almost bought this stuff from partsexpress.com as well.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=100-569

If you are just doing one set of speakers, you can get 10 ft. for the set with 5 ft. left over for a center channel, if you like.

I just got some off ebay yesterday for Stinger 12 Gauge Speaker Wire comes in different colors. I got white for my walls. I paid $35.00 for 100'.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=32811&item=5703983396

The Home Depot thing works well. The big advantage for me was to get to the bulk area and have them cut the length I needed. The 50' and 100' rolls tend to leave you with some pieces you can't use.

I ended up buying the 12 gauge carol wire at Home depot.
Unfortunately, it does not look as thick as my current 12 gauge which i bought from partsexpress Home Deopt looks to be about 75% the thickness of the partsexpress wire.

Any comments? This will probably do the job, but I want to get what I paid for.