Speaker Cable.. what to get?

atmax1

atmax1

atmax1

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Hey,

I'm getting my room sorted in the next few months and I need to get some speaker cable, I'm going to be hideing the cable in the walls and want to get 50m or 100m as I ant sure how much im going to need as im going to set it up so i can have 5.1 later down the line.

Can you guys spec me and hopefully link me to some good cable?
 
I think I would be willing to spend around £50 - £60 or it it worth spending more? and I was looking at the "flat speaker cable" is it any good? I think i got told once that the diffrence you get with cheap an costly cable is slim? could anybody tell me the diffrence?
 
atmax1 said:
I think I would be willing to spend around £50 - £60 or it it worth spending more? and I was looking at the "flat speaker cable" is it any good? I think i got told once that the diffrence you get with cheap an costly cable is slim? could anybody tell me the diffrence?
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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.
 
I got some QED micro and they seem good quality, £2 per metre. Peanuts compared to the silver anniversary stuff I use for the fronts. Then again, I only need like 3m for the fronts and 17m for the rears.
 
I used QED Micro for my rear speakers, as it was easy stuff to hide under the carpet and around door frames, plus it was cheap at the time (3 years ago).
 
IMO its worth spending once and getting decent stuff rather than getting some cheaper cable then ripping it all out in a years time when you want something better.

I bit the bullett and went with QED silver all round as the cables were going under a wood floor so no chance of getting them out again lol
 
Thanks guys, I think i will grab a few metres of QED Micro and see if I can tell the diffrence, If i can i think ill just save up a bit more and buy some of that xD
 
m3ben said:
IMO its worth spending once and getting decent stuff rather than getting some cheaper cable then ripping it all out in a years time when you want something better.

I bit the bullett and went with QED silver all round as the cables were going under a wood floor so no chance of getting them out again lol
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same as what im going to do then lol, I'll grab the costly stuff then lol
 
QED Silver Anniversary stuff is rather thick though and difficult to bend roudn corners. The Micro stuff is much easier as it is a thinner cable.
 
I've always gone with QED or Chord cables. Never have to buy much, so go with stuff around the £5 a metre range. At one point my old man was running electrical cable as speaker cable under all the floorboards, when we changed it over there was a massive improvement, but it was an absolute pig to do, so definitely worth paying a bit more for decent stuff and not having to worry about doing it again.
 
Raymond Lin said:
QED Silver Anniversary stuff is rather thick though and difficult to bend roudn corners. The Micro stuff is much easier as it is a thinner cable.
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Indeed it is! I got round this problem by putting some thick foam insulation down then laying the cable into that. If thats not an option QED micro is probably your best bet. There are lots of sellers on ebay that sell off the reel much cheaper than any hifi shop iv found
 
Also remember that the rears are only producing a few sound effects - nothing near as much as will be coming out of the fronts and center. If you can tell the difference between £1 a metre and £9 a metre on the rears then you have a set of golden ears.

PLUS remember to cut the wires at the same lengths for both rears, even if the distance is greater for one of them.
 
sHo0sH said:
Also remember that the rears are only producing a few sound effects - nothing near as much as will be coming out of the fronts and center. If you can tell the difference between £1 a metre and £9 a metre on the rears then you have a set of golden ears.

PLUS remember to cut the wires at the same lengths for both rears, even if the distance is greater for one of them.
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Thanks for that, I didnt know about the cable length thing, why is it that it has to be same lengh?

I will take your advice, and go with QED micro for front speakers and then some £1/m cable for the back 2 speakers.
 
atmax1 said:
Thanks for that, I didnt know about the cable length thing, why is it that it has to be same lengh?

I will take your advice, and go with QED micro for front speakers and then some £1/m cable for the back 2 speakers.
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for movies maybe but audio might be different. do you do 5.1/71 stereo for music or pro-logic music setting or just 2.0 stereo?

same length as if not you can get echoes in sound. the longer cable takes a fraction of a second longer to reach its destination.

my denon amp actually sorts out this issue as do most decent amps.
 
If im honest I dont know a great deal about audio/video, I am trying to learn though but this is what I got at the moment..

I have a denon AVR-1910 receaver and will be upgradeing to a 3D receaver once my room is done as I now have a 3DTV, It is pluged into my tv by phono (my room is a mess at the moment why it is done this way plus this was the only way i could use my astro headset to watch movies etc late at night, then my tv has pvr/xbox, ps3 and my mac mini (used as a media centre) pluged into it.. at the moment I use 2 of my old 5.1 speakers Onkyo SKF-528 and the bass speaker pluged into the receaver..

The plan is to buy 2 good bookshelf speakers or floor standing speakers and later down the line maybe buy a centre and use these two speakers for the rear speakers.. I will be getting the new ipad when it is out and that will be pluged in my phono to handle all of my music.
 
After reading AV Forums extensively I went with B&Q regular speaker cable on their recommendation.

Works and sounds nice with my amp and speakers.
 
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