Purchasing speaker cable...

BenST

BenST

BenST

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Hi,

Could someone point me in the direction of a good place to buy speaker cable online- or even in the shops if it's cheap enough.

I would like some decent quality cable to run from my amp to the speakers. The speakers are Infinity Reference 5010cs's and the amp is an Alpine F345. Ideally it won't be too expensive and although I know you get what you pay for I'm not that 'in the know' when it comes to cable and am unsure as to when I would be paying over the odds for it or buying the cheap stuff.

I have seen some 'Streetwires' 5 meter cable for £45, to me this seems OTT when compared to 'Stinger' cable that can be bought at £1/meter for the same AWG.. , clarification please? I've also seen a Vibe RCA 5 meter for £40, this seems like an OK price, would you agree?

Advice appreciated, TIA! :)
 
Why not real speaker cable from a hifi shop?

QED Silver Anniversary (about £5 a metre) or if on a budget then some Gale stuff for about £1 a metre.
 
that really is a terrible idea.

have you ever felt that the QED silver stuff in your life? the dielectric is teflon (iirc, not been into hifi for years) but i know that stuff is very rigid and will not be the best cable to use for an in car environment.

cables do make differences, but you have to accept that the in car environment is so compromised that playing about with cables really isnt going to be worth it.

get some reasonable cheap cable that is flexible and reasonably robust so that its unlikely to break the dielectric whilst installing/threading
 
Matt82 said:
that really is a terrible idea.
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It is a much better quality cable than "Streetwires".

Matt82 said:
have you ever felt that the QED silver stuff in your life?
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I run a business which installs the stuff so just once or twice.

Matt82 said:
the dielectric is teflon (iirc, not been into hifi for years) but i know that stuff is very rigid and will not be the best cable to use for an in car environment.
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The dielectric is made from Polyethylene which is weaker than Teflon but more flexible.


Where is your amp situated and where are the speakers?
 
you run a business dealing with what?

most people would find qed silver a PITA to use on their home hifi system due to its rigidity. installing it in a car would, like i said, be a terrible idea.

on top of the near-impossibility of installling the stuff, the audible gain will be almost-zero due to the hopelessly compromised audio environment afforded by the interior of a car.
 
Matt82 said:
you run a business dealing with what?

most people would find qed silver a PITA to use on their home hifi system due to its rigidity. installing it in a car would, like i said, be a terrible idea.
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My business installs home entertainment equipment.

Surely where the cable is being run is a big decisive factor? You shouldnt put any harsh bends in any cables as you will likely damage the cable.
 
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Tesla said:
You shouldnt put any harsh bends in any cables as you will likely damage the cable.
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The following wasn't actaully written for hifi cables, but I see no reason it shouldn't apply to them as much as any other cable

minimum bend radius of 3x cable diameter for cables upto 10mm in overall diameter
mimimum bend radius of 4x cable diameter for cables between 10mm and 25mm in overall diameter.
minimum bend radius of 6x cable diameter for cables greater than 25mm in overall diameter
 
Adam_151 said:
The following wasn't actaully written for hifi cables, but I see no reason it shouldn't apply to them as much as any other cable

minimum bend radius of 3x cable diameter for cables upto 10mm in overall diameter
mimimum bend radius of 4x cable diameter for cables between 10mm and 25mm in overall diameter.
minimum bend radius of 6x cable diameter for cables greater than 25mm in overall diameter
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What I meant by harsh bends was sharp right angles.

What you posted up is actually pretty spot on for almost all cables though :)
 
im sure there are some people who must have put qed silver in their cars (personally i wasnt that wowwed by the sound of the cable anyway).

id like to speak to anyone whos put it in a car cos i bet it was a PITA, if not possible
 
I wouldnt put my QED cable near my car! no way would it be an easy task to run it from my boot to the front of the car and then through into the door, to the crossovers. It's just far too rigid IMHO.

for good cables www.cablesexpress.co.uk its a good site for car audio cables :)
 
I could easily run QED stuff in my Mondeo. Straight along the side valance and into the door.

I wouldn't bother changing any speaker cable in the car.
 
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Well if you don't change the cable in the car, and you amp them, you could quite easily melt the thin thin cable that's normally used. The only speakers you should have in the boot are subs lol.
where else would you have speakers in the car that you want to get decent sound out of?
 
ScoobyDoo69 said:
Well if you don't change the cable in the car, and you amp them, you could quite easily melt the thin thin cable that's normally used. The only speakers you should have in the boot are subs lol.
where else would you have speakers in the car that you want to get decent sound out of?
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I edited my post after realising the model of the speakers had been posted.

In my Rover there are speakers in the boot, either side of the parcel shelf. Lots of cars have speakers in this place.
 
I don't think you see the problem with rigid cable here. With 'car' speaker cable you can run it in any direction, as many bends as you like, and it will stay like that. Whereas with cable like QED it will try to set it self straight again, and the fit won't be tidy or as proper as the flexible car speaker cable. Which can put pressure on the connections at the speaker or crossover. The cable is just too rigid, there is a reason they make car speaker cable and not just speaker cable. Plus I for some reason don't think the QED would be anywhere near as good at coping with weathering in the doors, because you know water comes into the insides of the doors right?
If it was a good idea to run hifi cable in cars I'm sure a lot more people would be doing it, but they're not that daft, and use cable fit for the purpose.
 
ScoobyDoo69 said:
If it was a good idea to run hifi cable in cars I'm sure a lot more people would be doing it, but they're not that daft, and use cable fit for the purpose.
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That is a good point and makes sense.

If water got into doors wouldn't the electrics get a bit wrecked and also things like window regulators and motors corroded?

EDIT - If you are not able to fix the speaker cable then it could prove difficuly getting it to remain in a certain shape. When I did my install in the mondeo though I fixed the cable to the chassis of the car.
 
water does get into the doors, it is why you have the plastic skin around the door before the door card. It prevents the water coming into the car itself. The water doesnt sit anywhere near the top of the door, it all sits at the bottom (very little gets in) and so avoid all the stock electronics which are higher up, but when you put in ICE you're bringing electronics down, and so need to make sure the cables can cope, this is atleast how I see it, not saying it's the gospel truth :)
 
What about all of the people who leave crossovers in the bottom of doors then?

Also, for the water to get to the bottom it must start at the top and run down...

More on topic, would those speakers and amp in question melt the stock speaker cable, my physics is a little rusty but I dont think it would.
 
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