I just hooked up a Samsung HT-DB600 HTIB system. My home was prewired with a pretty thick (I'm guessing 12-14 gauge) speaker wire. The front speakers are probably about 10 feet from the wall where they terminate and the rear are probably 20 feet.
From my receiver to the wall (where all the prewired speaker wire terminates), I am forced to use the cheap (probably 20 gauge) wire that came with my system because they have a proprietary termination into the receiver itself.
The receiver is only 4 feet or so from the wall plate. Given the difference in wire gauge (hefty in-wall, cheap terminating), would it lead to a significant improvement in sound quality if I cut all the cheap wire down to 4-5 feet?
Right now, the wires corresponding to the front speakers are probably 10 feet long (so, 10 feet of cheap Samsung wire, then 10 feet of quality wire in the wall, leading to the speakers) and the ones for the rear are 20 feet long or so.
I don't want to cut these wires if I don't have to...because of the proprietary termination, if I chose to move the system I may need more wire than I do now.
Sorry for such a long post, but I wasn't sure how else to describe this.