Changing to thicker speaker wire . Bigger difference ?

[DJBlueRay]

Thinking of changing speaker wire on my 7.1 Onkyo. Will I really hear a difference when I do. Firedog guys recommended swapping to new from factory supplied. Doubling the guage. Any help would be appreciated

[Moefiz]

What guage are you using now...

[allstar780]

Some will say it won't make a difference but I use either 10 or 12 gauge for everything I do... my 2 channel system uses 10 gauge and my 7.1 uses 12 gauge (except the center... i'm using 12 gauge bi-wire cable, effectively creating a 9 gauge wire to the center)

[Twitch9]

12 gage is all you really or should ever need, and buy from monoprice don't get scammed into some very expensive speaker wire it will make no difference in sound.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by DJBlueRay

Thinking of changing speaker wire on my 7.1 Onkyo. Will I really hear a difference when I do. Firedog guys recommended swapping to new from factory supplied. Doubling the guage. Any help would be appreciated

Cable gauge per se has little to no bearing on the sound quality; what matters is the quality (provided that the cable you're using is thick enough for the current it'll be carrying). That being said, you don't want to over buy: spend about 10% to 20% of your system's cost on cables.

WHat speakers do you have, and how much were they?

[Yeha-Noha]

If you're running speaker wire lengths longer than 50 feet, believe me, you'll want 12 guage. Otherwise 14 gauge is more than you'll ever need.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by Twitch9

12 gage is all you really or should ever need, and buy from monoprice don't get scammed into some very expensive speaker wire it will make no difference in sound.

With respect, that's a very broad statement to make, that happens to be wrong. On poorly set up systems, or systems with poor components (or both!), I agree that cables will make little (if any) difference, but on a carefully set up system with half-decent components, cables can make quite a bit of difference.

"Expensive" is a relative term; in the context of a $500 receiver and speakers, $2000 cables are indeed ridiculous. But in an appropriate system, that same cable could be a very worthwhile expense. And will make a difference in sound.

[Twitch9]

Originally Posted by richteer

With respect, that's a very broad statement to make, that happens to be wrong. On poorly set up systems, or systems with poor components (or both!), I agree that cables will make little (if any) difference, but on a carefully set up system with half-decent components, cables can make quite a bit of difference.

"Expensive" is a relative term; in the context of a $500 receiver and speakers, $2000 cables are indeed ridiculous. But in an appropriate system, that same cable could be a very worthwhile expense. And will make a difference in sound.

I'm sorry but what you are saying is completely wrong in every aspect. there is no difference in speaker wire except what it may look like and the gage, you my friend are buying into the marketing aspect of cables, it has been proven in tests that a $1000 speaker cable and a $10 cable of the same length and gage will perform exactly the same. All wire is made the same and please don't tell me oxygen free wire will outperform lower end impure wire that has been proven wrong as well, tests have been done on this as well with a 20 year old corroded speaker wire vs a new brand name wire and they performed the same as well.

I know people who spend outrages amounts of money on cables have to defend there purchase but don't try to get other people on these forms to follow their mistake. If they feel their cables are better than my $20 cable they should be happy but i'll take the extra money and get some better gear.
Before you post please do some research on the topic it might help you save face.

[Bluubyu]

monoprice all the way baby

[kevinbr100]

Originally Posted by Twitch9

I'm sorry but what you are saying is completely wrong in every aspect. there is no difference in speaker wire except what it may look like and the gage, you my friend are buying into the marketing aspect of cables, it has been proven in tests that a $1000 speaker cable and a $10 cable of the same length and gage will perform exactly the same. All wire is made the same and please don't tell me oxygen free wire will outperform lower end impure wire that has been proven wrong as well, tests have been done on this as well with a 20 year old corroded speaker wire vs a new brand name wire and they performed the same as well.

I know people who spend outrages amounts of money on cables have to defend there purchase but don't try to get other people on these forms to follow their mistake. If they feel their cables are better than my $20 cable they should be happy but i'll take the extra money and get some better gear.
Before you post please do some research on the topic it might help you save face.

give him a break, apparantly he's bought into their marketing, and spent a fortune on cables, let him think it was worth it . besides i got a bridge that i want to try and sell, very high quality, somewhere in london. all joking aside, gauge does in fact matter more than "quality". simply buying the appropriate sized cable for the length you are running is all that matters, unless the manufacturer is flat out lying about whats in the cable 12 gauge cheap wire, is exactly the same as fancy expensive big name brand 12 gauge cables, in some cases i wouldn't be surprised to discover it was the exact same manufacturer in china that made the cheap cable, just got rebranded by monster. box stores make a lot on selling cables and other accessories, because the markup on them is huge, so they will tell you how great they are, and make it difficult, if not impossible to find the cheaper ones they carry.

and as far as "sounding" better, that kind of reminds me of an experiment that was done with alcohol at a frat house. they served everyone fake alcohol, only 1 person didn't know there was no alcohol, everyone acted like they were drunk, and the 1 person that was not in on it acted drunk as well, and insisted that he was drunk, felt drunk, even though he consumed no alcohol. its the power of suggestion. if something is more expensive, it must be better.

[CasualKiller]

Originally Posted by richteer

With respect, that's a very broad statement to make, that happens to be wrong. On poorly set up systems, or systems with poor components (or both!), I agree that cables will make little (if any) difference, but on a carefully set up system with half-decent components, cables can make quite a bit of difference.

"Expensive" is a relative term; in the context of a $500 receiver and speakers, $2000 cables are indeed ridiculous. But in an appropriate system, that same cable could be a very worthwhile expense. And will make a difference in sound.

I'm with you on this one, there was a huge difference when I upgraded to proper speaker cables. A wider more open sound stage with more depth and detail in both the high and low freq's.

I don't have to justify my purchase by saying, well I paid for them, I better find something it improved, my local dealer gave me loaners to see the difference for myself before I ever paid a dime.

Any non believers in the Lethbridge Alberta area are more than welcome for a demo involving my professional cables vs. 2.99 a foot Monster Cable 12 gauge.

I can promise you this, not all cables are equal.

[solarrdadd]

I am curious about everyone's cable issues. I have looked at this site in the gallery and other sites in their gallery and now i'm talking only about the high end stuff, speakers that cost $10k per/pair and up with amps that cost $15 - 20k and up, you get the picture. I have never, ever seen any of those people in their setup state how they are happy with monoprice cables in their systems. I dare to bet Bill Gates & George Lucas do not use monoprice cables in their systems or just some 20 year old corroded speaker wire and say it sounds great. When we have rated these types of set-ups in the gallery at this site I have yet to see anyone say how that person wasted their money with those expensive speaker cables or those inter connects too. check some of those high end galleries and see if any of them use "cheap" cables. I get the strange feeling that it's not just because they have money that they want to get expensive cables or is it that most of us just can't afford to buy those expensive cables so we ridicule them for doing it the way we say they ridicule us for not doing it? who is really right? and what is "really right? I do buy things from monoprice. i bought some 14/4 cable to build cables for my surround L & R speakers. However, I also purchased cables for my front 3 cables that were professionally made. I made an informed choice to do that, to me and for me, they (the cables) serve their purpose. I also bought inter-connects from bluejeans cable too. i do buy lots of things from monoprice but not everything. all i ever hear from people at this site is monoprice is best and everything else is a waste of your money. did anyone ever think just how much you sound like "monster cable" telling everyone how their cables are the best? telling the truth or lying, your pushing monoprice onto everyone as "the truth" in cable needs, sounds like what monster cables is doing too. like i said, some of my cables are home made from monoprice, some are professionally made from calabrine.com and some are from bluejeans cable. I am very happy with how each of them perform and i think they each do their job very well and make my system sound great for me and i have no regrets about spending the money or when i built my cables of saving the money. this is not just directed at this post either, i see this all over this site. people being beat down because they use other than monoprice. I wish i had stock in monoprice, whether it's good or not (and i'm not saying it's not good because I use it) they've got people selling it for them like hot cakes!
it's like a gang here and if you don't buy or say you use monoprice for everything, you can't be a member in the gang and we'll make you feel foolish if you don't join the gang.

i know i didn't really answer the question about what speaker cable to get and how will it sound so as for that you won't go wrong with #14 or #12, it's more of a personal choice neither is wrong. if your going very, very long distances and if you are using low impedance speakers of 4ohms or less and a high powered amp to feed them (as you should) then use the #12 and if your run is long enough under those situations #10 won't hurt. If your just using 8ohm speakers than in most instances stick with the 14 or 12. I'm not going to tell you your wrong for using any particular brand of cable for your speakers or audio needs either. i hope somehow this helps.

ok everyone, go ahead and start the beatings!

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'm with richteer, CasualKiller and solarrdadd on this issue and I really don't care about the tests and placebo effects that were mentioned earlier. I can show the same number of tests that "prove" quite the opposite.

I upgraded the cables on my speakers several times and found a significant difference, but much more so when listening to music as opposed to when viewing a movie. There is way too much going on with viewing a movie that the listening enjoyment is not nearly as much of a critical listen, unless perhaps you're watching a concert BD.

Listening to music, truly listening (sitting down and concentrating) is when you can hear differences become apparent with upgraded speaker cable. The single biggest improvement that I have always been able to hear is the improved level of detail. As my system improves over time I will again be changing out for better speaker cable and interconnects. Let me make it clear however, that this is not based on any marketing hype, but tried-and-true personal experience.

John

[DJBlueRay]

Well, to answer some of your questions, its an Onkyo 7.1 HTIB. I bought 22 guage wire to replace the thinner factory supplied wires . Will it really make a difference, or will I be wasting a few hours of rewiring.

[DJBlueRay]

The system is a year old. It is the Onkyo HTS 5100.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by DJBlueRay

Well, to answer some of your questions, its an Onkyo 7.1 HTIB. I bought 22 guage wire to replace the thinner factory supplied wires . Will it really make a difference, or will I be wasting a few hours of rewiring.

I would take the 22 gauge wire back & get 12 - 14 AWG wire ! This is what you want for what you have !!! Then in the future for upgrades you don't need to replace the wire again .

As far as responses in the thread I agree with ~ solardadd , John , CasualKiller , & richteer !

MY .02 cents

[DJBlueRay]

Is the 22 gauge too much ?
Bought it a year ago, so can't really return. I can go buy the 12-14 if necessary.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Check this discussion on Interconnect cables & Speaker cables

John

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by DJBlueRay

Is the 22 gauge too much ?
Bought it a year ago, so can't really return. I can go buy the 12-14 if necessary.

Having just looked at you're system , Yes I would get different cable !

[Hammie]

Originally Posted by DJBlueRay

Is the 22 gauge too much ?
Bought it a year ago, so can't really return. I can go buy the 12-14 if necessary.

It's too small. The smaller the number in wire the larger in diameter the wire is.

As others have said, 12-14 gauge speaker wire is good for future proofing your system.