Advice on upgrading speaker cables

[Juventino]

Hi Everyone, Hope to get some help and advice regarding speaker cabling for my home theatre. I am situated in South Africa so bear in mind what is cost effective in the uk is pricey here. I currently have the below system:Yamaha Aventage RX-A820 used to have Onkyo Tx-sr605B & W 685 in the front - approx 2.5m cable required per speakerWharfdale diamond 10 centre - approx 60cm cable requiredWharfdale diamond 10.1 in the rear - approx 6m cable required per speakerlooking to get a sub but for now not required. I am currently using cheap 1mm cable from an old HTIB system for the rear that I had. For the front 1.5mm Monster cable that i bought 8 yrs ago that needs changing as well. I have been lookin at the below cables and would like advice and suggestions on which cable to get, also which cable thickness for the front and rears. Sommer SC Meridian 2.5mm or 4mm speaker cableMogami w3103 2.5mmHicon ambience - subsidiary of Sommer I have looked at the QED silver anniversary xt and AUDIOQUEST FLX DB 14/4 but they are so pricey (approx GBP 13 per m) and are they really worth the price. Should I bite the bullet and spend extra on the front speakers getting a quality cable considering the short length? For the rear go for no name OFC cable but making sure I get correct thickness?Is it worth putting connectors at the end of the cables or just put the bare wire at the termination points on the amp and speakers.last question....the cable running to the left rear speaker will be sharing a conduit that carries the main power extension cable as there was no mains plug put on the side of the room where the tv and home theatre system is located, will this have any effect on that speaker cable? Thanks

 

[JamesMellor]

Hi Juventino ,

In my humble opinion copper is copper and alot of speaker cable and interconnects are "bling" , and i've bought some bling <S> , i'd say any no name 79 strand cable will do , what you need is a good clean tight connection , using connectors makes life easier , alot easier, so put your money there .

As for more money buy another run of cunduit for the left speaker I think you shouldn't have mains running with the speaker cable as the mains will "vibrate" at 50 or 60 hz the low end of the speaker response , select an input with no source and wack the volume up , see if you can hear " noise " from the left speaker

 

[abacus]

Electrical regulations in most countries do not allow low voltage and mains cable to be run in the same conduit due to safety reasons.

Go for 2.5mm sq. OFC for the front and 4mm sq. OFC for the rear, (Just get the cheapest you can find) and you should be good to go. (Forget exotic cables)

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Juventino]

Hi James

Thanks so much for the advice will definitely not waste money on the so called high end cables.

have a good one.

Cheers

 

[Juventino]

Hi Bill

Managed to find the meridian 4mm cheap so will go for that.

I will be chasing the power cable into the wall at a later stage so for temp measure the 2 cables will be in the same conduit. I will make sure to separate the 2 cables with a smaller conduit just to be safe.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers