ok thats more like a statement. I am wondering what is the best budget style/model cable to get and what guage. thinking about skipping ebay & deal hunting to just get a 100' spool of monster cable standard 16 guage from buy.com for $30. is that smart? i am getting a harman kardon avr220 and jbl nsp1 for a budget system with sound i'm still happy with.
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~bri
What distances are you running these cables? If you are running them to your rears, you might want a thicker cable. I am personally using some 12 gauge Recoton cheapies that I picked up at a sale. Works just fine.
make sure to get oxygen-free wires.
i got Acoustic Research Pro 16-ga. works fine, but Leon is right -- go up to 14 or 12 ga for your rears (unfortunately, i didn't know that until AFTER i put together my system)
btw, good choice on the NSP-1s
wait...so, 16 gauge on rears are bad???
freakin circuit city losers...
and do they HAVE to be monster?
what other brands are decent?
BTW, home depot carries excellent 12 gauge (and 14, 16, 18) wires. They're CL rated for in wall use, which is nice, and they're oxygen free. They're cheap too.
agreed, i buy most of my cables from home depot.Originally posted by Apex
BTW, home depot carries excellent 12 gauge (and 14, 16, 18) wires. They're CL rated for in wall use, which is nice, and they're oxygen free. They're cheap too.
hmmm....i checked out home depot when i was putting my system together and their prices were actually higher for non-OF wires than i could find online for Acoustic Research Pro OF wiresOriginally posted by Apex
BTW, home depot carries excellent 12 gauge (and 14, 16, 18) wires. They're CL rated for in wall use, which is nice, and they're oxygen free. They're cheap too.
maybe i have a crappy home depot
where'd you find those prices?Originally posted by whitak24
hmmm....i checked out home depot when i was putting my system together and their prices were actually higher for non-OF wires than i could find online for Acoustic Research Pro OF wires
maybe i have a crappy home depot
and where did you eventually get them from?
three places i ordered a lot of stuff from:Originally posted by attgig
where'd you find those prices?
and where did you eventually get them from?
www.hitmenow.com - their site looks somewhat amature, but they're a huge ebay/half.com seller and they were actually really good to work with. here is their speaker cable: 16ga, OF, 30 ft, $6.60. as i mentioned in an earlier thread (i don't feel like digging it up right now), the 30 feet was too short for my longest rear run, so make sure you take that into consideration before you order 30-foot rolls (although as Leon mentioned, you're best off with a larger wire if you're doing such long runs).
hitmenow's shipping is fairly steep (i think i ordered around $45 of stuff and s&h was around $10), but it's fedex standard, so it's fast.
they have really low prices on other acoustic research pro cables, but a limited selection.
www.accessories4less.com - i HIGHLY recommend this site. they have a good selection, and EXCELLENT customer service. i ended up ordering about $250 worth of stuff from them (cables and a Marantz refurb CD changer). there was a problem with my credit card going through on their website (it went through, but the site thought it didn't). i called them to take care of it, and they were extremely good about solving the problem. it's just a couple guys who run the place in florida, but they are good. i was very happy with their service and all of the stuff they sent me. they don't have a great selection of speaker wire right now, however.
www.partsexpress.com - their website seems to be down right now, but this is another good company i found. they have some "house brand" speaker wire for pretty cheap there. i got speaker stands from them for about $25 per pair. they fit my NSP-1s great, and i couldn't find anything else comparable for under $50. if you can't get their website, you can call them at (800) 338-0531 (they are traditionally a catalogue company, so their phone service is good). anyway, this is another company i would highly recommend.
ok, have a babbled enough?
Strange, 12 gauge CL rated wires are 30 cents a foot here at Home Depot.
hmmmmmm.....at the home depot i went to, they had 16-ga, non-OF 100' rolls for ~$20. they didn't seem to have any "by-the-foot" spools or anything like that.Originally posted by Apex
Strange, 12 gauge CL rated wires are 30 cents a foot here at Home Depot.
i'm thinking maybe my HD doesn't really stock that stuff much....maybe not as many people are putting together HT systems out here
at the home depot by me, you can get most cable by the foot. if they dont have any spools availible they will open one up.Originally posted by whitak24
hmmmmmm.....at the home depot i went to, they had 16-ga, non-OF 100' rolls for ~$20. they didn't seem to have any "by-the-foot" spools or anything like that.
i'm thinking maybe my HD doesn't really stock that stuff much....maybe not as many people are putting together HT systems out here
just went to home depot today.
got some 14 gauge for ... 18 cents per foot...
and they had some prepackaged "premium grade" wire that we couldn't figure out the price to, so he just gave it to me for their spool price. returning the monster wires now - stinkin 60 bucks back in my pocket.
thanks for all the info. I went to Home depot last week but couldn't decide what to get because the 18 gauge was REALLY cheap on yellow tag sale, is that too thin?
my rears will probably be about 15-20 ft, do i still need 14 gauge for that?
the home depot cables didn't say whether they were oxygen free or not. there was some RCA brand cable for a lil bit more but that would probably be a waste of money huh..
Darkfury: Doesn't a thicker cable have MORE resistance over the same distance since there is more material?
Whitak24: I couldn't find $25 speaker stands at Partsexpress. could you give me a model or part number? how high are they? That is really cheap.
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~bri
well im not DF and Im not gonna explain the physics of it, but the smaller the gauge (ie. thicker the wire) the less resistanceOriginally posted by bri
Darkfury: Doesn't a thicker cable have MORE resistance over the same distance since there is more material?
Am I alone here? Is that it?
Am I the only one who sees.
Maybe we can learn to be just like him.
Wear a little uniform.
Yes, sir.
No, sir.
Thank you, sir.
speaker standsOriginally posted by bri
Whitak24: I couldn't find $25 speaker stands at Partsexpress. could you give me a model or part number? how high are they? That is really cheap.
the model number is #240-762. unfortunately, it appears that they are now $40 -- i think they were on sale when i got them.
even at $40, they are a decent price, but you may be able to find something cheaper.....
Looking at stuff like this makes me wanna be in high school woodshop (or have my own garage with some tools).Originally posted by whitak24
speaker stands
the model number is #240-762. unfortunately, it appears that they are now $40 -- i think they were on sale when i got them.
even at $40, they are a decent price, but you may be able to find something cheaper.....
frickin 40 bucks......
oh, and DF, good job on the physics....xplained very well
hey guys,
update... (yea i know it's 8 months later)
i put off buying the NSP1 (kept on buying car stuff hehe) and used two speakers from my logitech Z560 in the meantime. now i just bought the SuperZeroes on the deal page from 6th Ave since it seemed like they were significantly better than the NSP1 for just $100 more. man they are a LOT LOT better than the Z560 speakers, but now i'm kindacause it the NSP1 are a bit cheaper now on ebay ($230) and the savings would be $140. oh well, i'm still happy with them and they're a good investment for the majority of my lifetime.
now about the speaker cable (finally have a use for them), i was about to head to home depot like most of you guys suggested but then saw this monster cable on buy.com
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...048458&loc=111
which is only a couple bucks more than i would expect to pay at home depot but is monster branded. is it worth it? free shipping too. the only thing that concerns me is it says 'unshielded' but most of the other lines from monster do too.
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~bri
All speaker wire is unshielded. So that's not an issue.
Is it worth extra for the monster brand? Not to me. Its all the same stuff. A lot of ppl seem to think that if something is more expensive, or has a name brand, it must be "better", and then pay extra because they wanna play it safe. (Intel vs. AMD, IBM vs. Dell)Is there something specifically better about monster cables? I don't think so. (But I may be wrong.)
BTW, In case anyone cares, heres the basics about thick cable = low resistance. Basically, electrons travel at one the very outer edge of the cable. (Its called the skin effect, and it's most pronounced at higher frequencies.) They do it because they hate each other. The larger the cable, the more room they have, the happier they are.
YVAN EHT NIOJ
Here is a place you can buy 12-Guage or 18-Guage speaker cables for cheap. 100 Foot Roll of 12-Guage goes for $28.95 or if you need less than 100 Foot they sell it for $.40/Ft (http://www.rogerssystems.com/store/m...roduct_ID=1010). 18-Guage goes for $3.50 for a 50 Foot Roll (http://www.rogerssystems.com/store/m...Product_ID=325) or $.08/Ft (http://www.rogerssystems.com/store/m...Product_ID=324). I'm not sure how much shipping goes for if you order online since I bought my 100 Foot Roll of 12-Guage @ the Computer Show.
Bri,
I think that stuff from monstercable there at buy.com is 16 gauge. Save your money, look elsewhere.
thanks. i figured if 16 gauge was ok it would be worth the $30 100 ft monster vs. $20 at home depot (besides making the trip) but i can 14 gauge for $20 at home depot so i'll go with 14 gauge as recommended earlier. the rears won't be a huge distance but it will be safer i guess
looks like those stands are on sale at $29 so i think i'll get those if shipping isn't outrageous.
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~bri
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