[JDUBS]

Hey Guys

I'm setting up an Audio Kinesis Swarm subwoofer grouping (4 passive subs) and need to run speaker wire to them from my sub amp.  I think I'm looking for 12ga twisted pair (shielded?) wire...reasonably priced.  Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jim

[Imperial]

Copper wire, bare ends, at least, NO TELLURIUM connectors at the ends.
A decent wire I've used some years back was Tara labs RSC Prime 500. It really was great for LF!
I know, they don't make it anymore, but I'm sure you could buy some used Prime 1000/1800 cable (it's a shotgun configured prime 500)
Then you just open it up and use the internals (4 wires).
This is a stiff and unwieldy cable. Edit:  ( ... just checked their home page... they still make them it seems  )

Basically the Tara Labs RSC "flat'n wide" type conductor is a great LF wire! 500/1000/1800 or what they called all the types.. 
I don't think the sort of "thin" almost square RSC "Gen 2" ? conductor has the same LF ability, it's also silly difficult to strip!!

For the low price it will cost ya these days, I'm gonna guess that this is a great choice! They are "a tad warmish..." that's all.

Imperial

[Bob in St. Louis]

I've never used it, and I'm not shilling, but it certainly looks cool:
12AWG Shielded, twisted, cryo'd. $7/foot

"Shielded Twisted Pair (12 AWG X 2) is recommended for digital components and is specially manufactured for the Flavor 1 and Flavor 3 DIY Power Cords, by Chris VenHaus. It consists of a tightly twisted pair (one twist per inch) of 12 AWG FEP insulated copper conductors, creating a low inductance/high capacitance configuration prone to reject RFI/EMI. Each 12 AWG conductor is made with 19 strands of 25AWG bare copper, which means excellent contact area when secured to AC plugs. The internal twisted conductors are shielded with a special foil and tinned copper braid, for maximum RFI rejection. Lastly, a clear FEP Teflon jacket encapsulates the shielded pair bundle to keep relative movements of the conductors to a minimum. Deep Cryogenic treatment. Cable is custom made to VH Audio's specifications, and is ONLY available at VH Audio."



{Halfway down the page}
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vhaudio.com/images/shieldedtwistedpairbulk.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vhaudio.com/wire.html&h=434&w=600&sz=48&hl=en&start=7&um=1&usg=__b7qCTJPQ6Fl4NNUxaZL2T7TCHHs=&tbnid=FU2fU5fQ4JP8XM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSHIELDED%2BROMEX%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

[tvyankee]

hey

just use belden 1694a . works great and cost nothing. how long a piece do you need? i think i have a bunch laying around, i'll send you some.

let me know.

[Occam]

Hey Bob,

For subwoofer use, shielding (actually used as shielding) doesn't particularly add anything as subwoofer cable. While shielding as used in the VH cable might be effective against RFI, but it isn't going to much for EMI (60,120Hz fields) as its simply too thin to be effective. If one was going to use the VH cable (I've not used it), one could save $2/ft and use the unshielded version.

FWIW,
Paul

[TONEPUB]

Audioquest SUB3.  Most revealing subwoofer cable I've ever used.
Not super expensive, but not cheap.  I think a 3 meter cable is about
250.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Paul, thanks. Good info!
I've used good ol' fashion 12G Romex with good results too.

bob

[Imperial]

Audioquest SUB3.  Most revealing subwoofer cable I've ever used.
Not super expensive, but not cheap.  I think a 3 meter cable is about
250.

Isn't this a line level cable you connect to the amp of the sub? Or to the amp driving the "passive" subs?
As I understood it, the swarms are passive and they have a rack mounted poweramp.

This here being the swarm + amp + hookup method

Obviously cables must be longer than this example here!

Imperial

[woodsyi]

I am just using Home Depot 14 guage Speaker wires with bare ends.  The way I have them, I need 2 20' wires and I am not going to use (pay) any fancy wires. 

[Bob in St. Louis]

OHHH!  I forgot about my "White Lightning" cables. Perfect for longer distances.
I've got two runs of it for my infinite baffle subs. Good stuff AND cheap too! ($20 total)  aa

Bob

[Daryl]

The most important consideration is that even though freezing, metal type, urine treatment and bogus scientific principals have no bearing upon the performance of a particular wire, the fact that so many of these wires though their price may be inflated 100 times have actual electrical performance that is by far INFERIOR to what you can buy at Wal-Mart does have considerable bearing.

For speaker wires this would include any wire that uses small gauge wire (they likely claim it's better but all you get is resistance) or any wire that allows separation between the + and - conductors (causes high inductance).

For unbalanced interconnects with unbalanced inputs this would include any wire that foregoes heavy shielding in favor of twisted wires.

If the componet on the recieving end has a differential input these wires can offer superior noise immunity but with unbalanced inputs a low resistance and low inductance connection between componet grounds provides a broad band short circuit which minimizes ground loops.

a single conductor as the ground connection has neither the low resistance or low inductance that locks componet grounds to the same potential over a broad frequency range like you would have with a large tubular shaped shield.

Here are some wires that are better than what Wal-Mart has to offer but still reasonably priced.

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

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

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=100-028

[Bob in St. Louis]

That Dayton wire looks just like, and has the same description as the Home Depot wire Woodsyi mentioned. But for more than twice the price. The Depot stuff was like $20 for the same length versus $53 at P.E.
However, it's not twisted like the "Lightning" Woods brand wire that sells for $9 for 40'.

Just a heads up. 

Bob

[Imperial]

Daryl... Make your speeches in "the lab" will you... 

Of course, thanx for the cable tips... 

Imperial

[Daryl]

That Dayton wire looks just like, and has the same description as the Home Depot wire Woodsyi mentioned. But for more than twice the price. The Depot stuff was like $20 for the same length versus $53 at P.E.
However, it's not twisted like the "Lightning" Woods brand wire that sells for $9 for 40'.

Just a heads up. 

Bob

With Home Depot you won't pay shipping.

The Dayton wire I linked was a large 10 awg wire which is expensive.

That same wire is available from 10 awg to 16 awg (I use the 14 awg inside speaker cabinets).

http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?webpage_id=3&CAT_ID=56&ObjectGroup_ID=374

[Double Ugly]

Daryl... Make your speeches in "the lab" will you... 

Good advice.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ok Daryl, thanks for the clarification. That makes Dayton's 14G wire a little closer to twice the price of Depot's as opposed to almost three times the price of the 10G stuff. Although, I was happy to have some large 12G speaker cable last summer when one leg of my air conditioning smoked itself. It came in very handy when the wife said, "It's HOT in here. FIX IT!". 3
Gee.....I couldn't imagine what I could do with some extra ten gauge. Maybe re-wire my electric clothes dryer.  aa

Bob

[lord_glum]

Canare 4S11, it has 2 14 gauge pairs.  Excellent wire for the money.  run it in the old quad star...I run it in all my mains in my HT room and for my sub. 

http://www.performanceaudio.com/cgi/product_view.cgi?products_id=535

Jvo

[JDUBS]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!!  This has been really helpful.  Yes, I have the Swarm pictured above.  I'll be using a Velodyne SC-1250 sub amp with the 4 subs.  Plenty of power and automatic eq at a reasonable price! 

I'd honestly love to get the VH Audio wire, but $5/ft may be a little expensive...need to figure out how many feet I need given the sub arrangement I have in mind.

-Jim

[warnerwh]

Just my opinion but it's extremely unlikely you'll notice any difference between wire for your subwoofers. Get a spool of 12 guage wire at Home Depot and be happy.

[TONEPUB]

Woops, missed that speaker cable thing, sorry!