Speaker Wire!

[BluRayExplosion]

I'm extremely excited as my Onkyo 7.1s have just shipped to compliment my Onky 705 reciever. I've never hooked up a real home theater system before so I have a couple questions.

The way I understand it, there isn't a standardized cable/interface that goes to each speaker, rather the user must buy a long reel of cable and clip it into pieces and mash it into the separate devices, correct? Which leads me to my next question- these wires transmit analog signals, I believe, so will the quality of the wire affect sound quality?

Thanks in advance.

[mjm_hbk]

I was a Home Theater installer for Best Buy for a few years and in all my installs, I could never tell a difference between any of the speaker wire on any job.

Even the super thin stuff that came with HTIB's seemed to do the same as the thicker Monster or THX wire that we used for other jobs. I'd say go to Home Depot and get you a big spool of 14 or 16 gauge and you'll be good to go.

However, all the geeks () here may disagree with me!

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by mjm_hbk

I was a Home Theater installer for Best Buy for a few years and in all my installs, I could never tell a difference between any of the speaker wire on any job.

Even the super thin stuff that came with HTIB's seemed to do the same as the thicker Monster or THX wire that we used for other jobs. I'd say go to Home Depot and get you a big spool of 14 or 16 gauge and you'll be good to go.

However, all the geeks () here may disagree with me!

lol, im a fan of the expensive wires myself but for all we know he's right

[razor29]

I have a Onkyo 7.1 system and rewired the entire system with phillips 14' gauge wire and it sounds wonderful to me. So, monster is always not needed just to have a good sounding home theater.

[jomari]

depending on the length of the run, id say go with 12-14 AWG. honestly, you can head over to any home depot,osh to get these wires. the only worry you'd probably have is oxidation, yet this sometimes is a myth regarding degredation of sonic quality.

[moviefan]

Originally Posted by BluRayExplosion

The way I understand it, there isn't a standardized cable/interface that goes to each speaker, rather the user must buy a long reel of cable and clip it into pieces and mash it into the separate devices, correct? Which leads me to my next question- these wires transmit analog signals, I believe, so will the quality of the wire affect sound quality?

Thanks in advance.

Any good quality "speaker wire" 14 or 16 gauge should work just fine.
HOWEVER ... be very careful of "mashing" the ends into the speaker connections!
USE CORRECT POLARITY ... the striped/printed/colored wire to the RED terminals. other wire to the black terminals.
TWIST ENDS TIGHTLY before inserting into connector. Don't strip more wire than necessary, and BE SURE NO STRANDS BRIDGE RED & BLACK TERMINALS.
Better yet, get some high-quality banana pin connectors.
Good luck!

[reiella]

Originally Posted by moviefan

Any good quality "speaker wire" 14 or 16 gauge should work just fine.
HOWEVER ... be very careful of "mashing" the ends into the speaker connections!
USE CORRECT POLARITY ... the striped/printed/colored wire to the RED terminals. other wire to the black terminals.
TWIST ENDS TIGHTLY before inserting into connector. Don't strip more wire than necessary, and BE SURE NO STRANDS BRIDGE RED & BLACK TERMINALS.
Better yet, get some high-quality banana pin connectors.
Good luck!

But I thought the flashing lights were an added effect of my new Home Theatre system .

[quetzalcoatl]

Order you cable from here.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...02&cp_id=10239

And here are the banana plugs.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

[jfarnkopf]

Yeah, dont forget the bananna plugs, they saved my ass...

[sydney]

i put together a 2ch. system for $120,000 for my father and we are still trying to find the best wire for the speakers, from $5.00 to $3,000 and even cat-5, sofar most 12 awg at any amount will be just fine imo, my father will say different, he also spent $20,000 on a damn turntable

[RUR]

Originally Posted by sydney

i put together a 2ch. system for $120,000 for my father and we are still trying to find the best wire for the speakers, from $5.00 to $3,000 and even cat-5, sofar most 12 awg at any amount will be just fine imo, my father will say different, he also spent $20,000 on a damn turntable

I suspect your father and I would get on splendidly. Very high-end systems are far more sensitive to the quality of the (analogue) interconnects, amongst other things, and what I've spent on speaker wire alone for my 2ch audio system is fairly astonishing. My A/V system isn't nearly of the same caliber (Yet!) and zip wire my weapon of choice.

[xtop]

i'd agree here. unless you've got a super high end system. you're never going to know the difference in speaker wire. to pay overpriced monster prices

[sacredchao]

+1 for all monoprice recommendations. I'd do 12 gauge if I were you, not 14 or 16.

[BluRayExplosion]

Thanks for the advice... I thought I'd read somewhere that banana plugs didn't work with the Onkyo receivers.... I'm probably wrong though. This holiday shipping is KILLING me.... lol. I should have shelled out the extra cash for air shipping.l

[gearyt]

Originally Posted by sydney

i put together a 2ch. system for $120,000 for my father and we are still trying to find the best wire for the speakers, from $5.00 to $3,000 and even cat-5, sofar most 12 awg at any amount will be just fine imo, my father will say different, he also spent $20,000 on a damn turntable

Is your father interesting in adopting another son ???

but although I use monster XP, I see no difference between it and 14ga Zip !
Onkyo has no problems with plugs that I have seen or heard of

[BluRayExplosion]

Any recommendations for the sub cable?

[Sinner]

I'm looking at putting in some surround speakers... how are those flat, under the carpet speaker wires? and whats the best way to slip those under the carpet without peeling all of the carpet back?

[gearyt]

IF you can, go arround the edges. there is room between the carpet and the molding... going under a door can be done with a coat hanger

[Sinner]

Originally Posted by gearyt

IF you can, go arround the edges. there is room between the carpet and the molding... going under a door can be done with a coat hanger

so you don't really recommend the flat wires? I guess I can try going around the room... but was hoping to go straight back across the room instead of around it... thanks...

[mjm_hbk]

You can go under the carpet. At Home Depot or Lowe's they sell a carpet snake. It's a thin strip of 1" wide metal that you slide under the carpet. They work really well. Another method is moving all the furniture and peeling the carpet back.