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| hey there, just wodering if anyone here has ever used the radio shack brand 16 guage speaker wire for there onkyo ht-s650. it's only $19.99(here in canada) i was just wondering if anyone had any comments. also, what's some companies that make good, but addordable subwoofer cables? thanks a bunch! |
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Steve | I used 75' of 14 awg speaker wire from my local Home Depot- cost me $13.50 or so. I have nothing to compare it to, but I think my system sounds great. |
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FrankInstall | depends on how long the runs are over 80 ft. would require a bigger size the shack is fine for wire but not much more |
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| FrankInstall, do you recommend 14 guage then? and if so, from what brand? the shack wires will have to do for now, as i'm flat out of cash for the moment. :-( |
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HeavyB3 | Monster speaker wire, 14 gauge... I work at CC so I know the stuff rules. |
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Anonymous | i got the monster cable 16 gauge .. is there a difference between 14 and 16 for average runs? longest is 35 feet. thanks |
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| I wish i could get monster cable, but no one here in kingston that i know (i'm in a shitty city in ontario, canada) carries monster cable. i can get a monster cable that connects my ps2 to my t.v. or a monster optical cable that connects my ps2 to my receiver, but no one here has monster cable speaker wire. not future shop, not radio shack, not anyone. however, future shop sells accoustic research 16 guage speaker wire in 50ft. coils for about $90 (that's including taxes), while just hi-fi sells tara labs stuff by the foot. the $1.50 stuff a foot is 15.6 guage, and the $2 a foot is 14 guage. i haven't measured my room, but i'd say i'd end up with around 50-75ft. (i hadn't measured yet, so i just got a 100ft coil of shack wire just to make sure) is it o.k to use different wire for the front and rears? i'm thinking of getting the $2 14 guage tara labs stuff for the front and centres, then getting some cheaper stuff (still tara labs, but the cheaper 15.6 guage $1.50 stuff instead) for the rears. advice? or is the AR stuff better, and i should just by a coil of that stuff, and see what i can do with the 50ft. ? |
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| also, my longest runs will be about 20ft. to the rears. should i consider investing in a chunk of better speaker wire, or should i just stick with the shack stuff for now? my system hasn't even arrived here yet (in a few days, god i CAN'T wait) and my friends are getting me the shack wire for an x-mas present, as i'm out of cash at the moment. do you think the shack wire will do the job, or should i toss the stuff and try to get better stuff ASAP? my system is an onkyo ht-S650. |
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New member Username: HtjunkiePost Number: 6 Registered: 01-2004 | I use Radio Shack 16 guage wire, and it works fine for me. |
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Unregistered guest | Guys - just ran an experiment. I have a full HK system (AVR 325), DVD and CD players with Infinity Speakers (Entra Point Five). I am running 7.1 with two rear back surrounds. My room is 18' x 30' with a vaulted 12' ceiling. I needed the 7 speakers to fill the room. The HK works very well in the large room. I started off with Radio Shack 16 gauge (50' for $10) since I had run 16 gauge zip cord over the ceiling. The fronts and center ran 20', the mid surrounds ran 40' and the rear surrounds ran about 60'. The fronts worked fine with the 16 gauge but the mid surrounds and rears sounded weak and muddy. I recently bit the bullet changed all the wire including the in-wall to 12 gauge and it made the mid and rear surrounds increase in clarity and volume. It did seem to balance the sound. The fronts and center sound the same as the 16 gauge. You can get 100' in-wall 12 gauge for about $20 and 100' clear low O2 12 gauge for about $40 from partsexpress. http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=40 I used 200' and 100' of the in-wall and low O2 wire respectively. Radio Shack sells 12 gauge low O2 for $.99 per foot here in Florida. My point is that I got 300' for only $80. (I also bought banana plugs). As a rule of thumb I would recommend any run over 20' use 12 or 14 gauge. Less than 20' 16 gauge is probably OK. If the run is >50' definitely use 12 gauge or bigger. |
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Anonymous | Let me make a statement right now DO NOT get fooled into playing the brand name game when it comes to speaker wire, my dad is an engineer who graduated from Cornell, he, along with all his friends have told me not to waste money on expensive speaker wire. Even hi fi components and speakers have low quality connected speaker terminals, so why spend all that money on speaker wire if the company that made your reciever did not? the point I am trying to make is to go for higher guage, not name brand. |
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New member Username: SquirrelyzPost Number: 3 Registered: 01-2004 | This engineer from McIntosh has a great chart for selecting the correct AWG for given distances and ohms. |