Well I have decided on my entire system except for the cable, I am about to order from DH Labs (the T-14 speaker cable $130 for 12ft pair w/ bananas and D-75 coax digital $65)

Since $ is a factor, should I consider any less expensive cables that will offer good performance?

Try the AR (acoustic research) speaker cables, you can also go to buy.com (though i have a very bad experience with them lately), they offer a very cheap cables, fiber etc compared to other internet site or local CC and BB, like for example the AR fiber optics 6 ft that I bought at only $13, while others it's around $19.

seanandredj makes a good suggestion for AR cables. They make good wire too, but you can do just as well with other brands. In my system, I have AR Pro Series cables (digital coax, s-video, composite, and audio) and an AR Master Series component video cable. I'm running a mix of AR 12-ga wire, SoundKing in-wall 12-ga, and Home Depot (Carol) 12-ga wire. I am extremely pleased with the performance of my cables and wire, and you can get it all for excellent prices (much cheaper than what you were planning on in your original post). Check out the AR cables and wire at Accessories For Less. They just started carrying AR's Master Series cables as well if you're interested.

You can also check out Parts Express for more wire. I think you'll do just fine with a 12-ga wire that you can get for .30 a foot. Parts Express also has a plethora of banana plugs or other connectors to choose from as well. I've had great success shopping from both of these companies. Good luck.

lando

This has been discussed here( and just about everywhere else)at length. You might want to do a search here on "speaker wire". My advice is to save your money. You haven't described the length of the runs that you'll be using; this is the primary factor. I use standard 16ga lampcord at about $0.10 a foot. For longer runs 12ga lampcord might be advisable, but copper is copper; don't be fooled. So far as an interconnect or sub cable, any shielded coaxial with RCA connectors from RadioShack or wherever is just fine; again, don't waste your money.

wow, just did a search for speaker wire and did alot of reading. looks like I was about to waste some cash on cables! At this point I am a bit of a byproduct of reading tons of audio reviews in preparation to buy a system and probably believing too much!

I'll find some copper wire and call it a day, I'll be spending enough as it is!

I totally agree with lando. No need to spend more on wire and cables. The places suggested are great to deal with.

undecide5, you can get your speaker cables from your local Home Depot or Lowes store. For subwoofer, I bought a 20ft RG6 cable and 2 RCA gold connector (totalling to $10) from radio shack. I'm actually looking for a less expensive RCA connector but my local Radio Shack store don't have them on-stock. And agin for other cables such as fiber optics, component video, the cheapest site I found is buy.com. Goodluck on your shopping for cables...