Speaker Wire Help

Length is determined by how much you need.

An 8 foot pair of Analysis Plus Clear Oval is $99 brand new, terminated with spades or bananas. 10 foot $115. Can be purchased online at various lengths at AudioAdvisor.com

$149 will also get you an 8 foot pair of new old stock MIT Terminator 2 speaker cables at AudioAdvisor. These are the old models that sold for $252. They are a good value at $149.

I agree with Sugar in terms of length. If it is not too long, 8 to 10 foot per side is a very common length for most systems. Obviously, this will vary quite drastically depending on how things are set-up.

As far as speaker cables go, i would look for cables that are known for being either neutral or somewhat warm and smooth while avoiding anything that is known for sounding bright or "etched". This type of cable should compliment your electronics and speaker selection. Some Axon 8 arranged in a low inductance pattern or similarly configured Audioquest cables might be a good starting point. Both are readily available and very reasonably priced. I would avoid the lower priced Kimber 4PR or 8PR as they tend to sound somewhat lean and have a "zingy" top end, which would not be a good match for a metal dome tweeter. I personally do not like the Analysis Plus speaker cables but the MIT's might also work in this situation. As you've seen though, there are a lot of different cables and opinions out here, so use your own ears and judgment whenever possible. Sean
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For $150 on 8-10ft lenght of cables, you can look at some "DIY cable " on sale. SignalCable's(Frank) 10 ft single run wire with gold spades will only cost you around $110 and you will be blown away what this cable can do for the money. In my system, this cable bettered known brands like Kimber 4TC and 8TC, Analysis Plus Oval 9's, Monster Z2 and Alpha Cores. It is as good as my Acoustic Zen Satori. Search for SignalCable's site and call Frank and get ready for a rude awakening in the audio cable world.

With that price range and setup I highly suggest DH Labs T-14 speaker wire, which can be had single run for about $75, biwire or shotgun about twice that. I GREATLY preferred the DH Labls cables over the Analysis Plus Oval 12's and various AudioQuest cables that I tried. The DH labs interconnects are also very good and very cheap.

I would suggest using spades for best contact and alway run the shortest length of speaker cable you can, more only degrades sound. Cables only degrade/color the sound, the less cable the more pure the sound will be (assuming you can hear difference in cables, as many do not)....

You might care to review this article written by the former McIntosh Laboratories engineer on the topic of speaker wire; quite interesting.

http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/wire.htm

This compares, with measurements and blind listening tests, various speaker wires from zip cord to high end wire. The results are not good for the high end wire industry.

Sheesh, here we go again... Sean
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