Speaker Cable.. what to get?

Caged said:
Buy the thickest mains flex you can afford (and whatever will fit into the binding posts), job done.

Edit: I bought some Van Damme Blue for my own stuff but that's because it cost only slightly more than mains flex and I needed the extra flexibility of it.
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I got some 2.5mm was about £20 for 25m, so I will most likely grab 50m to do the back 2 speakers, my rooms going to be striped out and angle grinder out so I should be able to fit anything i like in the walls, the plan is to hide every cable I can since its being torn apart.



xrs said:
Just spent £1200 on cable. I can not tell the difference between my £50 a meter Chord Epic, and some cheap 60p a meter unbranded cable. OH GOD WHY
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Fancy giving me some money while your lashing out? xD lol I do tell a diffrence with the 2.5mm cable that I picked up, and would spend £100 on cable if need be but I think its mostly about the speakers?



spudbynight said:
I bought some decent cable on EBAY which ended up being about 1m too short for my needs. I didn't have lots of cash to go and buy some more so I picked up some really cheap cable for my surrounds. The stuff I got sounds perfect without any electrical hum at all.

I have expensive cables for my front and centres - but that was about £4 per meter. I didn't have cash for that around the satellites. I have a big room and I don't have carpet to cabling had to go around the walls.
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It does sound like the back speakers Are not really inportant as very view sounds come out of them, that must have cost a bit then even with cheaper cable to go around the walls.


I'm starting to think i should sound proof my floors so down stirs wont hear me so much lol.
 
Ive just bought some stuff usually £2.49 p/m but at the moment 0.59p p/m for 2 x 2.5mm.

You can find it in the jungle under:

Geftix Professional Studio Grade Clear Series 2 x 2.5mm
 
JAzz said:
http://cpc.farnell.com/van-damme/268-502l/vandamme-hi-fi-spkr-cable-2-5-50m/dp/CB04675

http://cpc.farnell.com/van-damme/26.../dp/CB04669?in_merch=Products From This Range

Personally I'd choose one of the two above, if you want 100m both work out a similar ish price as the first roll is for 50m. I have the first one and it is very good, can't say I have compared it to the cheaper stuff though but as I spent over £2k on my speakers spending another £50 wasn't gonna be the end of the world!
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just ordered myself some of the hi-fi grade one as its supposed to sound better and be more suited to home cinema (more flexy cabling)

i will report back when it all arrives. i needed 60m though so i got one 50m roll from there and 10m from the tatbay, plus 28 banana plugs to save hassle!
 
Cable debates like this will go on and on and on...... Part of the problem is the two camps - those who believe that anything will do and those who believe that only the best is good enough. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and it's a truth that is different from one listener to the next.

My own view is simple: Don't buy cable that isn't oxygen free (it's cheap enough, so why compromise?), and keep things in proportion.

10%-15% of the hardware cost is a sensible amount to budget for speaker cable. An AV system is going to be far less critical of cable choice than a decent Hi-Fi of similar value. That's why so many listeners report hearing no difference. There are differences, but often they're just masked by the limits of the system or the way it is set up.

The VanDamme Blue is decent enough for most AV installs. It's oxygen free and pretty robust - and robust is about all that "studio" or "professional" really means. It has very little to do with technical performance. That's described separately.

Now here's the shocker. Getting your system set up right will have a bigger impact on the sound than doubling, trebling or quadrupling your cable budget.
 
I've been there, and had £60+/metre speaker cables. I now have VD Blue 4mm for my speakers (have had for a few years now), and there's no perceptible difference IME. I have a 'decent' interconnect, but only because it came free with my CD player.
 
jellybeard999 said:
Van Damme Blue is usually recommended as a reasonably priced ceiling, but personally I'd get any decently built 2x4mm2 cable, which you can usually get on a reel for about £25.
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van damme hi-fi grade is actually better cable and slightly cheaper.

google for Van Damme 2x2.5mm UP LCOFC Hi-Fi Speaker Cable

you can get it very cheap and it is (IMO) better than the qed silver anniversary i just replaced it with

you only need 4mm cores for runs over 20m
 
The main things I look for are copper, oxygen free, and a decent gauge, and usually shielded if going in a wall or if the cables are going to be run near electrical cables. However that goes back to installing on yachts where you had little choice and had to run cables along side lots of other cables.

You can go mad and buy uber gauge, individually shielded stranded core cables blah blah blah. However, for a home system I really don't see the point, and my hearing isn't that acute to notice a vast amount if any difference.

I guess you could go round measuring capacitance, impedance and resistance of each type of cable and find the ones that respond better to different currents/signals etc... I just don't care enough to worry about that! :p
 
I can say Van Damme Cable is very good - just bought a VD Ultra sub cable for a 15m run - not quite as good as the Chord Chamelon sub cable I was using before but very close - not quite as textured bass - more smoothed over sounding - very impressed with it though strill for the money.
Also used to run the Blue Real thick 6mm Touring Cable for high end PA Bass Speakers - it was very good for that as well

HOWEVER when it comes to full high fidelity audio I dont think you can beat Chord Cables - I use Epic and it is just that. Odyssey is stunning as well.

I have owned all sorts QED Silver Anniversary / Silver Aniiversary XT, QED Revelation , Russ Andrews 8TC, now Chord Epic.

There are definately better the more you spend there - with Russ Andrews aside - I prefered QED Revelation at half the money

If you did a side by side QED SA against QED Revelation you would clearly hear its the next level on in sound reproduction. QED SA has a nasty treble, the Revelation was much better - but Chord is much better again. You only notice once changing or doing side by sides. Once you have heard better - you know thats what is supposed to sound like and can hear the effect of the lesser cabling

I have QED Silver Anniversary XT for my rears and can hear the difference between that and my fronts - the transaprancy is not there (obviosuly different speakers / room placement but still can hear)

Ignore people say cables make no difference they are talking Rot.

The more you spend the better it is no doubt - I would say it is diss proportionally better against cost. Double cost is not always double better - however it depends on your own mind / wallet and rest of system.

I have seen people running B&W 802's off Chord Oddysey for example - Very high end speakers - mid range cable

Speakers for all my testing B&W 805 - reviewed as extremely neutral - i.e. they give you what you give them - that is 100% true - stunning speakers, not without flaw
 
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out of curiosity - what systems are you guys using with expensive cabling?

ive seen some ****** systems with expensive wiring before and never understood it. £10/m cabling, QED airlocks on a £100 speaker never makes sense to me. (not saying you guys have bad systems, im just curious)
 
realBabelfish said:
out of curiosity - what systems are you guys using with expensive cabling?

ive seen some ****** systems with expensive wiring before and never understood it. £10/m cabling, QED airlocks on a £100 speaker never makes sense to me. (not saying you guys have bad systems, im just curious)
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Currently a full Arcam FMJ setup via AV amp, power amps, DAC etc. All cables are Chord and DIY mains cables (2 Hydras, Buldrin cable, IEC's) and KEF speakers with BK sub
 
pyropetepete said:
Currently a full Arcam FMJ setup via AV amp, power amps, DAC etc. All cables are Chord and DIY mains cables (2 Hydras, Buldrin cable, IEC's) and KEF speakers with BK sub
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in other words not a crap system :)

i am amazed when i see people with budget systems pay hundreds for cables.

i used to have expensive cables (£12/metre) but found the VD UPOFC actually sounded better. which was good as new new build needs 60m of cabling!
 
My Systems is

Meridian 506.24 CD Player with Chord Signature Interconnects to a Pioner LX 83 Amp
Then we have B&W N805 front L&R and B&W HTM4S Centre
These 3 are Wired up with Chord Epic and I have made my own Jumpers using some Odyssey Speaker Cable - its the same cable as Epic, Epic has a very good screen, Odyssey doesnt have a screen its just polythylene coated (the white rubbery coating - owners will know what I mean).

For Rears I have B&W SCMNT Wired with QED Silver XT

Sub is BK Electronics XLS400 with a DSPeaker - Antimode C - I have 2 sub cables - Chord Chamleon sub Cable (with Vee Plugs) wired to the antimode, then the 15m of Van Damme Ultra sub cable wired to the sub.
If you want a great sub cheap - get a BK they are the NUTZ

I have a Pioneer LX54 Blu Ray Player - Pioneer Kuro LX5090 Plasma and I use Chord Active Silver Plus HDMI's throughout and I believe they make a difference - especially to sound (been argued heavily against my comments on this forum about these hdmis)

Most Importantly I have my LX83 setup very well - I will post here in a minute my MCCAC Calibration results

More importantly than this I have my sub setup very well - I have only just recently done this before it was in a shocking place in my room and I was naive to it.
Now I have it nearfield placement and I get a great reponse that is fairly smooth by house (non treated room) standards with only 2 dips in the freq range.
But because its nearfield placed room modes dont get a chance to bloom so my bass is fast and tight.
 
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