Speaker Wire

Guest2 · 30 Dec 2009 at 00:32

I am going to buy 5metres x2 of speaker cable tomorrow and dont really know what I should get. At the moment I am using 1metre of Gale 315 and 1 metre of XL 189? (unsure why, i thought they were both the same!)

Having read a bit of article on speaker wire (below) and also loads of places on the net is it really worth me spending a fair amount of money on speaker wire?

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

Whats the difference between the Symphony 100 and 200? Apart from the fact symphony 200 used to be 99p a metre and is now £1.50 and says 'deal'

http://www.richersounds.com/products/hi-fi-separates/accessories/speaker-cables

Has speaker wire ever made a difference to you?

Edit - It says this about the symphony 400 "Fans of the XL315 will be pleased to hear that the bass depth and impact that made the old cable so popular, remain."

Bass depth and impact? Surely thats just a load of ****

Guest2 · 30 Dec 2009 at 00:44

alexhull24 said:
I'm using the same as you are atm and am perfectly happy with it on my entry level system. Why are you extending it and what route will it take?

Just found out i am using one length of Gale XL 315 (symphony 400) to one speaker and XL 189 (symphony 200) to the other speaker.

My setup is mid range id say - Nad C352, B&W 603, Xonar Essence soundcard playing FLAC. Extending it because I will be shifting my speakers from bedroom to front room for a new years party (my room is next to front room) Hmmm, i might just get 10 metres of symphony 100 and 1 metre of symphony 400 to match my Gale XL 315

Guest2 · 30 Dec 2009 at 00:53

lol no. i dont think it would make a difference unless i had a 50 foot reel of bell wire next to 1 metre of thick wire and played some loud music.

Think it has been proven that network cables are crap for speaker wire and takes too much time/effort turning them into speaker cables anyway

Guest2 · 30 Dec 2009 at 01:10

I have a 15 metre cat 5 cable. So all i need to do it chop the ends off, open them out into whites and colours, twist together and then poke into + and - on speakers and amp?

Sure i read somewhere on the net a while ago it was better to just buy £1 a metre speaker cable

Guest2 · 30 Dec 2009 at 01:22

That looks like hard work. do you have to pleat all the cable as above? Just check my 2 different cables and the plastic is certainly thicker on the more expensive one. Copper looks the same though, maylook bigger due to optical illusion (as on the link in my first post)

Guest2 · 30 Dec 2009 at 10:36

Minstadave said:
I just use some thick orange 2-core power cable from B&Q, does the job nicely. Costs next to nothing.

Like this sort of stuff?

Tower Flex 2 Core 437833 Orange 1mm x 10m

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.j...refview=search&ts=1262169243864&isSearch=true

I tried cutting the end off a cat5 cable. What i am left with is 8 strands of covered, very thin wire. So now i need to strip these individual cables then do this with loads of them, twice?

Think ill just go to richer sounds and get spend £15 on 10 metres of cable instead

Guest2 · 30 Dec 2009 at 12:35

I have checked and the Gale XL315 (Similar to symphony 400) is definately thicker than the other Gale XL 189 (Symphony 200) I have.

Im just going to get 10 metres of Symphony 400 from Richer sounds for £25. I also have 2 2.5 metre lenths of Cable talk 3.1 but this is not long enough. That is about the same thickness of the Symphony 400.

Suppose i could twist the ends of the Gale cables onto the ends of the Cable talk. Would this make much of a difference as it would be unshielded on the parts where i join 2 different cable types.

Also, would it make a difference if the cable talk (better cable) was in the amp end or speaker end?