What is a speaker cable?

Question

what makes a good pair of speaker cable? can i use any electric cables for speakers (connect to amp)?

i heard a brand call Belden build decent cables, do you have any experience with their products? what should i get?

i also heard the "vintage" Belden cable are some of the most high end cable ever produced. since i am into vintage stereo equipments, i like to find out where i can get a 6' pair and how much it will cost?

thank you

Answer 1

It's really "speaker wire".

Like the glass that holds wine - the wires do have a small influence on the taste of the sound.  It makes almost NO difference for the sparse audio content of a Movie, but higher end (read 'sensitive') music systems - they can make a small difference.

(We are talking ... perhaps 1 percent difference here, but lots of companies will sell you $500 cables promising they are the most important part of your system - total bs)

You can get Belden speaker wires with terminators from www.bluejeanscables.com.  A ten ft run will cost about $36.

I would AVOID any "vintage" wires. They are just copper after all and this will oxidize over time and deteriorate. Unlike wine - age does NOT improve things.

HAND CRAFTED WIRES:

There are issues with capacitance where hand-crafting your own wires taking care to wind them can produce a very good speaker cable.  Search the internet for formulas on how to take Cat 5 network wire, strip the outer sheath and braid the inner wires to produce 'audiophile' speaker wires.  It takes a few nights but it's mindless work and can be fun.

MY SUGGESTION:

Get a spool of decent oxygen free speaker wire (12 ga) from www.partsexpress.com or even the "Carol" brand from Home Depot.  Or use 4-wire, 16 ga where you twist 2 wires for plus and the other two wires for minus.

Use these wires for several weeks to get used to the sound. Then try 'auditioning' a different speaker wire and decide if the difference is worth the investment.

(In my opinion - re-positioning the speakers, doing some room treatments or equalization will give you much better results than spending money on expensive copper. But this is a hobby so .. have fun).

  

Answer 2

Cable is cable.  Electrical cable could work though I wonder if maybe its resistance would be a bit off.

Personally, I just went to the electronics aisle and bought some 16 gauge speaker cable.  It was something like $35 for a 100' which was enough to wire up my entire room - including running wires through the walls/ceilings.  Speakers sound great.

Yeah, there are speaker cables out there that can cost hundreds of dollars a foot but seriously, unless your stereo system cost more than the GDP of a small European country and your ears are insured individually for a million dollars, you probably don't need anything like that.