Help with Speaker Wires

[quote name='greyzieoriental']I just bought a home theater system, Onkyo Home Theater System (HT-S580), the wires it came with are pretty thin and i read that to get more out of the system i would need to get some monster speaker wire.

Now monster is a little expensive for me, so if anyone knows where i could get maybe 100 feet of speaker wire that is comparable to the monster brand, i would be very happy

so anyone know where to get good quality but cheap speaker wire please post, if not i guess i'm gonna have to throw down $60 on 100' of monster ([/QUOTE]


You can get cheaper monster cable, I got it when I got my Onkyo system at CC

how much did u buy ur speaker wires for? i bought my onkyo system at CC also

[quote name='greyzieoriental']how much did u buy ur speaker wires for? i bought my onkyo system at CC also[/QUOTE]


i cant remember it was a awhile ago, but they had like 3 or type of spools of speaker wire it was something like this http://monstercables.com/productPage.asp?pin=54

i've had stereo systems since my youth and now have a great yamaha reciever with a half-dozen other components. sony and onkyo were a couple of systems that i've had. but anyways, i've learned that unless you are an audiophile and have close to dog-ears to listen, you'll not notice the difference of using thick quality wire instead of expensive (monster) and overated cable. i'd save my money for quality component cables for all of your tv hook ups to for your plasma or lcd display, cuz thats what kind of tv's that people who spend $75 on speaker wire have. oh yeah, that's $75 per channel.

i'm sure you could find a 50 ft spindle of 12 to 8 gauge wire for about $25 - $40 easily.

peace.

how would i know what gauge wires i need?

i'm using 10 gauge wire on my system. the higher the number the thinner the wire. you'd be safe using 14 in my opinion. there's all kinds of stuff to look for; for instance wire thats oxygen free stops the wire from coroding (rusting) soo quickly. copper wire has a tendancy to do that after 5 to 6 years if your home is damp.

i'm sure there are more than a couple of CAG's with good sounding systems that can give you a hand.

drop me a pm letting me know what kind of system you have and i could see what i can see.

A couple tricks for you....

First check Lowes and Home Depot they sell the wire by the foot and its reasonably priced most the time.

Secondly if you cant afford say a 14 or 12 guage wire... it would be possible to use 16 guage and double it up. Run both strands to the positive and both strands to the negative (ie use 2 times the wire).

Are you looking for in-wall wire? I just bought 100' of 12-gauge in-wall for $37 from here:
http://www.accessories4less.com/cgi-bin/item/IXOS612212

If you want some flat stuff here's some 15-gauge for $0.32 per foot:
http://www.accessories4less.com/cgi-bin/item/IXOSXHS203

i actually went ahead and bout 100' of monster 16 gauge speaker wire, i dont know if that was a mistake or not but i'm an amatuer at this stuff and i was eager to get the system hooked up ASAP, i ordered it from amazon with free shipping for $29 so it should be arriving within couple weeks

also snake2715 is it safe to double up the wires like u said? i dont wanna case any problems and have to pay to get a new system, i dont know much about this stuff, all i know is that onkyo is a good speaker company and that i wanted a receiver with optical in so that i could hook up my xbox

and can someone tell me if there is a big difference between coaxil and optical ins? i want to get a new dvd player but none have optical output that arent $70 or more, most have a coaxil output, and i guess they are both considered digital audio

thanks to anyone who can help

I believe optical was desinged so it wouldnt pick up interference from other power supplies etc like the analog (red/white) wires tend to do.

If you buy a good coax wire. And I dont mean you have to spend $40 on Monster but a decent sheilded coax wire you should be happy. Actually I prefer the coax over Optical.

I do know that optical is said to be best left as straight as possible which is not always doable behind an entertainment center. Its light so the more bends the more chance of a loss of data.



As far as doubling up its no problem. And to clarify what I meant:

Typically you will have one piece with two seperate sheilded leads. What I have done and have seen done on other systems is use that whole piece for the positive and then cut another the same length for a negative.

Realistically its not exactly as good as a thicker wire as the smaller the wire the more resistance you get. But you are giving less resistance by offering the current more conductive wire to travel through.

If that makes sense.

What wattage is the receiver and speakers. Also when you read this wattage make sure you give me the ohms stated for the rated watts. As that has a drastic impact.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Onky...sem/rpsm/oid/124130/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do


thats the system i bought, CC website is under maintenance or something so i cant post the specs right now

any opinions if this is a good system? the reviews are great, i'm setting up my system when i get off work today so

also i looked at the denon system at best buy and it had a OHMS of .09% 20-20khz, and i asked if the .01% made a big difference and the guy was like difinitely, so this system has a 0.08% ohms 20-20khz , there was no display to test but i heard onkyo is a great home audio company

and snake i understand what u mean a little bit more now

Yeah the .08% and .09% you are reading is actually the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) @ the rated watts.

Its somewhat contraversy but normally anything under say a .08 or better yet .07% is not audible. When you ge into the .09% or above you can hear the distortion a lot better.

So you made a good choice there.

The OHMS are not listed on that page. Basically its resistance. So in general if you have say 100 watts at 8 ohms... normally you will have say close to 200 watts if you put it into a 4 ohm speaker as the resistance is less. On the other hand normally you will have a higher THD percentage and are more likely to hear distortion.

So what you will sometimes see (less likely now especially on home systems more common on car receivers etc) is an inflated wattage for a home theatre system. They will quote like 150 watts per channel. But when you dig down into it thats at 6 or even 4 ohms rating.

What happens with the above paragraph is it misleads potential customers as they think the onkyo only has say 100 watts and this brand X has 150 watts per channel. Little do people realize that the onkyo is rated at 8 ohms and would push more power than brand X which was rated at 6 ohms.... if put into the same speakers.

So basically since you bought a package you are getting speakers matched to your system and you are getting the full 100 watts (I presume) from the stereo.

Seems like you made a good choice and I have heard lots of good things about Onkyo.

You could even check Epinions or cnet.com for reviews of your system.

Good luck and ask more Q's if you have them. If I dont respond PM me as I might just forget to check back here.

Am I the only one who can't tell the difference between $50 cables and $5 cables?

I tried 12 guage wires on my system and I didn't notice any difference at all... I doubt most people have ears that are trained better to be able to tell the difference. It might sound better on paper but I could care less what the paper says... if my ears tell me that those cheap, thin wires that came with my system and the $50 12 guage wires sound the same, then I could care less to get 'more out of my system'.

Jesus, if you need to use 10-12 guage wire, just use romex. Even standaard 14 gauge wire is plenty for speaker connections. Romex, or regular electrical wire, is cheap, strong, and well insulated, and it's fine for running current throughout every house in the good old USA. Get 14-3 wire so you'll have 4 wires total in the sheath, plenty for running to 2 rear speakers in one convinient pull. I went through the attic and down the top plates in the walls and to a junction box with a nice coverplate, just like a standard wall outlet. No showing wires, no mess.

[quote name='bmulligan']Jesus, if you need to use 10-12 guage wire, just use romex. Even standaard 14 gauge wire is plenty for speaker connections. Romex, or regular electrical wire, is cheap, strong, and well insulated, and it's fine for running current throughout every house in the good old USA. Get 14-3 wire so you'll have 4 wires total in the sheath, plenty for running to 2 rear speakers in one convinient pull. I went through the attic and down the top plates in the walls and to a junction box with a nice coverplate, just like a standard wall outlet. No showing wires, no mess.[/QUOTE]

Make sure its well insulated but yes the attic install is fun especially in my case 2 years ago with that crappy blown insulation up there.... I decided to drill through the header boards on an exterior wall to drop my wires for the plate connection behind the entertainment center... I tried to do it with a standard drill bit and a whole saw.... Needless to say I would have saved more time making a 45 minute trip to pick up the extended spade bit and been done with it...

Oh well I had tracked the blown insulation all through the house etc and now its worth it. Even though the wife brings it up once in a while.

yes 16 should be good if you are worried or want that possibl elittle extra double it up.

i set up my system 2day and i'm very happy, it sounds amazing IMO, i can turn it up pretty loud and it still sounds natural, i didnt even try to use the wires that came with it, i didnt double up the wires either, i went straight to the 16 guage wires and from a review i read the system sounds double what it would from the wires that came with it, i set up my xbox to an optical connection and i was amazed especially in the explosions in burnout revenge, played some ninja gaiden and forza, everything sounds great, i'm not so sure if prologic is working for my gamecube yet i still need to test it

but overall i'm glad i spent the money and got a new home theater system, my 12' by 12' room sounds like a mini theater

all i need now is a new dvd player with progressive scan and optical audio out and i'm gonna be set for a while, i might go a little cheaper and get one with coaxial output but i have about 3 extra optical cables and want to put them to use

i'm thinking of whether to drop $60 on a dvd player or save up for an xbox 360 and hope dvds play in 480p on the system(since the xbox doesnt support 480p)

and today as i was hooking up the onkyo i noticed the 8 ohms on the back of it

Good deal glad you liked it and it all worked out.

Games where 5.1 sound is useful (ie racing, FPs etc) it really helps get you into it when you can hear things coming from behind etc.

Optical is the way to go if your system has an input. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but the PS2 optical output puts any regular audio connection to shame.