40ft: speaker cable or interconnect?

This comes up pretty regularly here at Audiogon. I have seen posts answering both ways.

In my opinion you are better off with low loss interconnect as that signal fairs well in long runs, compared to high power through speaker wire. A good example of long interconnect is microphone cables in recording studio's, 100 feet and longer is not uncommon.

Too, long interconnect is much cheaper than equal length of speaker if your using any popular name brand cables found here at Audiogon. Personally I run nearly 40 foot runs of interconnect in my own system with short speaker and my performance is excellent.

Old Brass Ear Albert we call him.... :-) Good to see you around the old campus Albert, your vast experience gives you a level of expertise that really makes a difference for many audiophiles on this site. Thanks for that!

Still, I don't many A'philes from Texas that don't have Brass Ears!

To Albert's point the expense alone in a high quality speaker cable makes a 40 ft run cost prohibitive in most cases, go with the IC.

What would be a good low cost interconnect, say under $750 for a 30 ft run?

Not worthy of Albert's system, but I used Neutrik connectors and Canare wire from Markertek to make 40' balanced cable for well under $100 (I forget what it cost exactly). I followed DIY directions that were posted and discussed here. The DIY aspect worked well -- I would have had a hard time running pre-terminated cables through the spaces I had. I was relieved and pleased with the results. It sounds at least as good as the unbalanced interconnects had before.

Albert's advice seems to be pretty much the consensus view here, which is why I went this route. I also found that getting the amps out of the listening area (and into the basement) freed up some space.

In the YMMV department -- I had previously listened to several $100 to $300 short unbalanced interconnects in my system, and not been able to discern a signficant difference in my system vs. "Radio Shack Gold" unbalanced interconnects (I could hear a difference between truly cheapo interconnects -- the kind you get free -- but not between the "Gold" and the more expensive ones). So I am not a cable expert, but again, I was relieved and pleased at how good the DIY cables sound.

I'll find and post the link if you're interested. Only relevant if you have the option of doing balanced connections, of course.

Cordially,

Eric

Mogami and Canare are two of the best sounding budget and DIY options. Lots of places will build them to desired length w/your choice of termination.
Frank can certainly make you Signal Cables within your budget.
If you switch amps, going to balanced configuration is worth serious consideration. Balanced longer runs are quieter if the gear is truly balanced. Not all gear w/XLR connections is really balanced, but that's a story for another thread. Cheers,
Spencer