CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

What is your longest speaker cable/wire run? This is from the point the signal is amplified to the drivers themselves.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:30 pm Post subject:

All 5 of my speakers are 50' from the amp(s). I use 2 parallel runs of 12 ga home depot in-wall rated CL2 wiring to bi-wire.

Kal

ecrabb · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject:

Kal, did you coil a bunch of wire up somewhere to make the runs all equal length? I resisted the urge to do that, since I could find nothing of any reliable sort that indicated there was any good reason whatsoever to make all the speaker wire lengths equal. My right-front main is probably a 35-foot piece, while my left-rear surround which is only 5 feet from the rack is probably only 15-feet. Then, there's everything in-between.

It's all Blue Jeans Twelve White (Belden 5000UE) in-wall.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/index.htm

SC

**kal** · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:28 pm Post subject:

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Well, I found a 1000' reel for $364, but I do not need 1000'. Since the 5000UE product is actually Belden and not BJC I am looking for a better price. Time to hit up the local suppliers. Smile

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:32 pm Post subject:

How much do you need? Can't you just pay a little extra and buy it from BJC? Their price really isn't bad at .57/ft. I mean... the price you found is only 36 cents/ft, but add in the $50 for ground shipping and you're up to $.41/ft.

Markertek has a 500-ft spool for $195... That would probably bring you in for under $.50/ft.
http://tinyurl.com/77l69m

But... even for .57/ft from BJC... What do you need... maybe 150-200 ft? You're talking $85-115... I understand wanting to save a few bucks, but how much are willing to spend to save a few bucks? Even if you need 200 feet, you're talking about a difference of $15-30. Are you really going to spend an hour on the phone calling wholesalers, and an hour driving across town and back to save $14? BJC will send the box to your doorstep in a few days! Wink

Every time I start looking for local suppliers of commercial stuff, I realize how great the prices are from internet sellers.

SC

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

I thought BJC's price was $0.61/foot.

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:16 pm Post subject:

The .61 price is their "especially made for BJC" white-jacketed version - hence the "BJC Twelve White" moniker. The standard off-the-shelf Belden 5000UE in a gray jacket is .57, and is the same as what you'd get from Markertek or off the other spool you were looking at.

Some people think the gray looks a little "utilitarian", while the white looks a little more "audio". I agree - especially for .04/ft. I think I bought 150' or so, so about $6.00 worth.

If were all going in the wall, I wouldn't care, but mine goes right into my rack...

Looking at it here, my rack is pretty utilitarian, anyway - gray probably would have looked just as good. Damn. $6 down the tubes. Wink

SC

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

I think my longest run is about 3 feet.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

SC, what kind of Crown amps are you using? I actually paid the electrician to install outlets on a dedicated circuit to each speak location. I wanted to cover myself in case I went with per-channel amplification at the speaker location. That may prove to be overkill, or just expensive. Very Happy

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

~40' here for my three across the front.

ecrabb · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:19 pm Post subject:

Wow, you wired it for active speakers? Did you really do a dedicated circuit to EACH speaker location - i.e. each on its own breaker? Or, do you mean a dedicated circuit for all the speakers?

My Crowns are XLS-202D's. I thought about going to 402's, since it seems like a lot more guys use them... But, price jumps $100, so about $1200 for the three amps instead of $900. The 202's are already at 300wpc into my 4-ohm M&K's (I was upgrading from 120wpc AVR!). That gives me enough clean power to run to about 105dB - in the back row! I haven't even tested it from my listening location, but I know it's louder. The 402's are 450w into 4-ohms, and I just didn't need that for my room size or speakers. Larger room or bigger room, and the 402's would be great, though.

SC

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Nah, I wired one circuit specific for all speakers with outlets at each location. I thought to install amps up front, in back, and a couple of small amps for the surrounds. But this was only if resources were available otherwise I'd run cables for AVR amplification only.

Gary M. · Guest

shielded speaker cable is one of the best things I ever did for my theater

at the amplifier end I took the ground/drain wires from all the runs and bundled them up and drained it to a ground on one of my outlets, the noise floor/hiss of my speakers vanished completely

I forget the Belden part # (something shielded in the 5000 series) for this stuff, but it is unreal

-Gary

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

And in the next stage of speaker cabling questions ... how are you guys terminating your stiff? Several years ago I tried the banana plugs like the ones on BJC website. I noticed that after a handful of months the assembly needed repeat tightening. I didn't know if this was do to the flexing of the conductor material as it went through warming and cooling stages, or just that the terminators simply sucked.

kschmit2 · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:25 pm Post subject:

There are only shielded cabels in my theater:

I use the predecessor of this cable for my mains and center (Lapp Unitronic FD CP (TP) 5x2x1, 18 AWG)
Note that this is 10 cores of 18 AWG, i.e. 5 pairs of 2 twisted 18 AWG cables Smile

Mains are biwired.

Rears use the predecessor of this cable (Lapp Ölflex FD 850 CY, 7G 0.75, 20 AWG)
In this case it is 7 cores of 20 AWG wire, IIRC I used only 6 of them in 2x3 configuration.

Kai