Upgrade of speakers and speaker cable for Home Cinema

[whitters23]

Hi,

Bit of a noob style question here, but I'm looking to upgrade the speakers I have for my home cinema. From the What HiFi 2012 awards and some sounds test I've had in a couple shops I’d like to upgrade to the B&W MT-50 package and use the AudioQuest FLX-SLiP 14/4 cable to attach my amp (Yamaha RX-V1067) to the speakers.

Looking online at the manual for the speakers, the M-1 speaker that's used in the MT-50 package appears to have 2 terminals on it, while the AudioQuest cable has 4 wires (coated in Red, black, green and white plastic) running through the outer dark grey plastic coating.

Is this cable suitable for use with those speakers and if so what's the best way to connect the cable to the amp/speakers.

Do you only use 2 out of the 4 wires available - e.g. just connect the red wire in the speaker cable to the red socket on the amp and to the red terminal on the speaker and the black speaker wire to the black amp terminal and the black speaker terminal?

Or is it better to combine the red/black speaker wire and put that in the red amp/speaker terminals and combine the green/white speaker cables and attach that to the black amp/speaker terminal?

Thanks in advance

Whitters

 

[jjbomber]

I have 4 wire Chord Odyssey going into the naim n-Vi. I had my local dealer to solder speaker plugs on the end, two cables per plug.

 

[Frank Harvey]

It is technically a bi-wire cable, but like all bi-wire cables, you can twist two of the cores together (make sure it is the same ones twisted together at both ends!). This cable should be fine for the MT50 package. You can also look at the Chord Carnival Silver Screen.

 

[whitters23]

Thanks both for your responses. I'll probably go down the route of combining cores if I get that cable.

 

[whitters23]

Hi - Just a quick follow-up question - as far as the performance/quality goes, is there any benefit in combining 2 cores in the Audioquest cable when compared to using just the 2 core Carnival Silver Screen cable? As part of the run of the new cables will be under the floor I'm look to lay the cables once only and want to go with something that I won't have to touch again for a good few years.

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

There is no benefit in using just two of the four cores and if you are installing under the floor you shoudl find the Audioquest a lot easier to work with. You would connect the red and white cables and the black and green.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi whitters23

I feel that you should also consider using standard 79 strand OFC or 500 strand OFC speaker cables with the RX-V1067/MT-50 combination.

Btw, what speakers are you currently using with the RX-V1067 please?

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[whitters23]

Hi Rick - as you can tell I'm not overly up to date on the in's and out's of all the various types of speaker cables available - what are the pro's and con's of the 2 types of cable you've suggested?

Due to budget limitations at the time, I bought the Boston Acoustics XS 5.1 package and for the last 18 months or so they have been great little speakers - can't really fault them for the price/size (very inconspicuous in the living room) but now it's tme for a change.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi whitters23

Thanks for your reply.

Standard 79 and 500 strand speaker cables are simple designs which are very flexible and therefore are easy to use, robust and ones which also cost very little money. Fwiw, i only use and i have also only used standard 79 & 500 strand speaker cables with components such as Chord Electronics DSP8000/SPM3005, Yamaha DSP-Z11, Monitor Audio Apex, etc.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[Frank Harvey]

...what are the pro's and con's of the 2 types of cable...

The 79 strand type cable is more common, but not so the 500 strand type cables, like the Supras of this world. I generally find them quite soft and tizzy in the top end, and not particularly clean.