speaker wire

[cembros]

im looking to purchase some new speaker wire for my HT system and am looking for very high quality wires with banana connectors built in. Im sick and tired of messing with weak connections between the connector and the wire and am looking for something similar to any other cable your would buy with the connection securely connected to the wire(hdmi, coax, optical). Any input is appreciated

[musicman1999]

How much, per foot, are you willing to spend?

bill

[richteer]

Originally Posted by cembros

im looking to purchase some new speaker wire for my HT system and am looking for very high quality wires with banana connectors built in. Im sick and tired of messing with weak connections between the connector and the wire and am looking for something similar to any other cable your would buy with the connection securely connected to the wire(hdmi, coax, optical). Any input is appreciated

I recommend Nordost Valhalla.

When you recover from your heart attack, please tell us the budget you have in mind. :-)

[Colglizity]

Here's what I just bought. It'll be here next week so I can't tell u how it is, but it looks pretty good. 12 AWG- from a good brand, hope I did the right thing

[Colglizity]

Oops... here it is... sorry
http://www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com/c...a76bc7e3278789

[cembros]

id be willing to pay about 50 bucks for a 10 foot cable at the very most

[Colglizity]

Originally Posted by cembros

id be willing to pay about 50 bucks for a 10 foot cable at the very most

Wow- that's more than I would ever spend...

[musicman1999]

Originally Posted by cembros

id be willing to pay about 50 bucks for a 10 foot cable at the very most

Well you will need more than 10 feet. My room, for example is about 12x19 and i have a good quality 5.1 set up (JM Labs) and i have about 100 feet of speaker wire ( center speaker is bi-amped, so a double run of wire). I use Kimber Kable across the front and Ixos for the rear, total cost about $650.00. Good cable makes a difference if the rest of your system is up to it,you would not want to spend $600 on wire for a $2,000 system.

bill

[Lucy Diamond]

The Ultraline by audiostream is an excellent cable and won't kill you or get you poisoned by your wife when she finds the receipt.

[Scooby Blu]

Originally Posted by cembros

im looking to purchase some new speaker wire for my HT system and am looking for very high quality wires with banana connectors built in. Im sick and tired of messing with weak connections between the connector and the wire and am looking for something similar to any other cable your would buy with the connection securely connected to the wire(hdmi, coax, optical). Any input is appreciated

I AM NOT A SHILL ! If you want the best then FIND a store and listen to THIS SHIT ! If you can't have fun with this then just go to sleep.
link http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf

[colofan]

Originally Posted by Scooby Blu

I AM NOT A SHILL ! If you want the best then FIND a store and listen to THIS SHIT ! If you can't have fun with this then just go to sleep.
link http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf

Well here is a link as well which refers to the frequency bands for litz configured wire and it isn't in the audio range.

http://www.litz-wire.com/applications.html

Also stranded wire is not the smallest wire that the signal is running through to reproduce sound. Check the wire size instead the voice coil of an average speaker or even in the crossover circuit and the need for high price wire disappears really fast.

One last consideration is that audio application areas the actual current running through the wire is really small if sampled over the time of the performance. Wire heating and inductance of the voice coil is much more of an issue in dynamic testing of speakers under actual operation.

[cembros]

the quailty of the sound is not so much an issue for me, its the quality and duribility of the wire and the banana connection that is most important

[Luis_A51]

Considering the total lack of any study showing that luxury cables have even the slightest measurable improvement over "regular" wire of the same guage/length, I dont know why people still claim you need expensive wires.

Yes its true that certain companies bombard you with graphs and charts and diagrams that show their cables perform differently than regular wires in certain electrical tests. But not a single one ever shows real-world comparison data between two wires hooked up to identical systems. Why? Because if they truly provided higher fidelity sound, this could easily be measured by measuring the sound output of the speaker. The more expensive the cable, the more outlandish the claims. Yet even the most expensive cables never show these tests, even though they claim amazing improvements over regular wire.


All you need is cable that is of sufficiently large diameter with respect to its length so that it does not affect the overall system (by system I mean amp-speaker-amp signal path) resistance by a significant amount.

However, many companies have tried misleading "simulations" to trick consumers. One famous example is Monster Cable "comparison test" that had the user select between a Monster Cable wire and a regular wire, hooked up to a speaker and amp. Of course, they didnt tell you that the "regular wire" was of a much smaller diameter and a much longer length, thus its resistance was much higher. Not a fair comparison by any means. ALso, if you want to do A/B tests yourself in a store, chances are an employee will come along and say "wow, dont these expensive ones sound so much better?" and invariably cloud your judgement.

And as another member pointed out, remember that inside each of your components is 10s if not 100s of meters worth of wires and circuitry the signal needs to pass through. Once you realise that you can see that a few meters worth of high-priced cables is irrelevant.

Let me just finish by saying this. A lot of the principles and theories used by Cable companies are only meaningful in high voltage or high current applications such as power distribution. They are 100% overkill in any consumer application. Its the equivalent of cooking your food in a level 4 biohazard environment using $10000 scales to ensure everything is perfectly clean and in incredible precise measurements. Its completely unnecessary.

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

are only meaningful in high voltage or high current applications such as power distribution. They are 100% overkill in any consumer application.

I would add high frequency applications to that list - and that would be used in consumer electronics...hdmi cables.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

Considering the total lack of any study showing that luxury cables have even the slightest measurable improvement over "regular" wire of the same guage/length, I dont know why people still claim you need expensive wires.

What I find amusing is the lengths some people go to in order to pooh-pooh the idea that cables do make a difference--the sole exception to their efforts being actually listening to various cables. If you're happy with zip cord mediority, knock yourself out, but there are many people who actually want to get the most from their system.

Our ears are the most sensitive and relevent audio measuring tool we have. Not everything that affects sound quality can be measured--at least, not yet--because in some cases we don't know what to measure or how to measure it.

Most receivers these days measure within a nothingth of each other. So why do they sound different?

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by richteer

Our ears are the most sensitive and relevent audio measuring tool we have.

Most sensitive - definitely not.

Most relevant - absolutely!