Might as well take advantage of this new forum to ask a question that I've wondered about an answer for some time.

I finally used up the last of my spool of 12 gauge Sound King speaker wire a while back and have noticed that Parts Express, the formerly easiest to use supplier of Sound King products no longer carries the line. Sure, I could order it from other suppliers, but I figure it's best to take advantage of this minor opportunity to try something new.

-- I've tried the 12 gauge Carol brand cable as available at Home Depot, but my experiences in the quality control and sound have been less than satisfactory. The wires are not centered in the coating, the coating wildly varies in thickness and placement creating a great many kinks, and the strands seem to come partially oxidized in the first place (blackish tine and very fragile). Side by side, I preferred the sound of my Sound King cables to the Carol brand of equal length, the same banana terminals (Dayton), and the same speakers. So, this isn't an option. --

As I'm going to be in need of some more, good, but cheap speaker wire, I would like some suggestions for 12-10 gauge alternatives costing less than $1 per foot, available in smaller quantities (such as 50' spools), but sound as good or better than my existing Sound King wires.


Thanks,
- JP

Rat Shack sells a flat braided 16ga. that works quite well. I believe it was $25 for 50ft.

Well, I was looking for 12 gauge or larger wire that performs as well or better than my Sound King cables. Thanks for the recommendation anyways.

- JP

Just got some flat 10 or 12 gauge from a friend of mine. He buys it wholesale and and gets a heck of a great deal on it. Will get the specs for you tonight. Will add a review of it as soon as I get something to compare it to! :D

Will add a review of it as soon as I get something to compare it to! :D
If you want, I've a pair of cables made up just under 6' long with Radio Shack dual-sized gold-plated spades sorta crimped on the ends that I'd trade you for the equivalents made out of some of that cable. Then we'll both have something to compare.

- JP

Which Carol wire were you using? I'm just asking because my experience was the opposite of yours. I'm currently using Carol 14-3 with the third wire clipped in my SS rig. For my tube rig I'm using either Carol 12-2 or 12-4 in a star/quad configuration to bi-wire my Mission's. Audioquest Banana plugs and either bare wire or gold plated copper spades at the amplifiers. Carol uses very high quality machine wire and decent insulation. I find them to be very neutral and balanced. While the differences were subtle they sounded better to me than either Sound King or Monster 14ga. They sounded much better to me than either some very high end Monster or some mid-line (but still expensive!) Kimber cables. From my experience, good 14-12ga copper is about the most honest cable out there. Smaller gauge silver can be very good but the advantage is more due to the smaller wire size and less inductance and capacitance for a given current handling ability than any difference in materials. You don't "hear " silver. When you get in to higher end cable basically your are deciding what brand of capacitor you want between your amp and speakers. Different high end cables do sound different but it is due to what they are taking away from your signal not what they are adding or revealing. This can be usefull if you are fine tuning your system. Just my opinion...but one backed by science and common sense.

Which Carol wire were you using?
The Carol brand I was using is the standard fare 12 gauge speaker wire I've seen in five different Home Depots: Carol Brand Premium Grade Speaker Wire. It looks like a browner (SK uses pink tinted coating) pirated version of Sound King (looks and feels like much less quality) and possesses similarly sized and numerous wires rope would the same. Considering that this is similarly priced as Sound King used to be and the quality is so much lower, I'd be hard pressed to get it again. As I've said, I've put them up side-by-side with Sound King and the sound was found lacking -- more like my 6 gauge gag speaker wires I made a while back (not good sounding at all, but impressive to look at).

- JP

If you want, I've a pair of cables made up just under 6' long with Radio Shack dual-sized gold-plated spades sorta crimped on the ends that I'd trade you for the equivalents made out of some of that cable. Then we'll both have something to compare.

- JP

Got home WAY too late last night to do anything with it. Will take a look on the weekend and get the info to you. Maybe even have my friend in Erie ship it to you so that customs is not an issue.

Sorry, I misunderstood when you said Carol 12ga I assumed you meant Carol extension cable not speaker wire. The wire they use in the speaker cable is not the same as their heavy duty power cable. I can see where the Sound King may be better than the Carol "Speaker Wire". Do yourself a favor and try the power cable. Different wire and much better insulation...very good sounding cable!!! Check out the pics of the Carol 12-4 bi-wire cables below to see what i mean.
Peace!

No prob, Zintkala, I figured that by mentioning the Home Depot speaker wire that it automatically meant the "speaker wire" rather than the other products that have been used for the purpose.

I must admit, I'm rather liking this forum. This thread has spawned a few good suggestions that I look forward to trying out.

Bigerik, if it's too much trouble, then don't worry about it. The connections on the wire aren't of the highest quality -- I threw them together when I needed another run in short order for my tube amp.

- JP

I must admit, I'm rather liking this forum. This thread has spawned a few good suggestions that I look forward to trying out.

Bigerik, if it's too much trouble, then don't worry about it. The connections on the wire aren't of the highest quality -- I threw them together when I needed another run in short order for my tube amp.

- JP

Glad to hear you are enjoying it. I am looking forward to this being a great place to get those final, but oh so important details right.

Should not be too much trouble. This is half the fun of it! :)

Since you like Soundking wire so much (I do, too!) Why not just get it from www.mcmelectronics.com ? They are even in the same city as Parts Express. I'm pretty sure Parts Express was started by someone who used to work at MCM, their old catalogs were very similar, they used to have similar items, and the part numbering system is similar.
http://www.mcminone.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=MCMProducts&product%5Fid=24%2D1125

I use 2 runs of 12 ga speaker wire to each speaker and tie both (of one ) together and connect it to one side of the speaker. The wires are then run on the floor. If they touch or cross it is random.

Now back to rolling on the floor.....

Just another cheap option to try (and something I use) is the outdoor lighting wire
12ga stuff from the likes of home depot and such that is LARGE strands of copper
in a very well insulated outer coating to withstand the elements and sounds really good.

Just A cheap FYI!

JP? Kegger's right! Get on back to HD and take a good hard look at the 12 gauge outdoor low-voltage landscape lighting wire. Less than 50 cents a foot, flexible, non-porous, top-notch stuff. I got it in a premade package of 50ft. I used that clear Carol speaker wire myself and it turned green after a couple of years. I switched to the lighting wire and immediately noticed treble improvement and cooler amp operation. Very much overlooked and underestimated stuff, IMHO. Try it, you won't be sorry.
Tom

I switched to the lighting wire and immediately noticed treble improvement and cooler amp operation. Very much overlooked and underestimated stuff, IMHO. Try it, you won't be sorry.
Tom

Sounds like a good alternative but I just had to comment on the "cooler amp operation." Unless you had a short in your speaker wires I don't see how the amp could be running cooler now. Think about it; if your old speaker wires had high resistance, it would load your amp LESS not more. :scratch2: I think the temperature has to do with something else.

Isn't Sound King just another Monster Cable clone? (With the Clear Plastic covering?)

I'm in a similar situation myself right now, in which I'm looking to upgrade to a cable, and cable terminations that won't break the Bank.

I've currently discussed this with some other audiophiles, and many have recommended Canare 4S11 Starquad Cable as a great sounding cable that sells for peanuts. This cable is a well insulated four conductor cable using OFC Copper, and is specifically made as Speaker Wire. Each Conductor is 14ga, and when paired either by crimping, or soldering becomes 11ga. Outer case dia is said to be .491, and I have found the best deal for this Cable at Markertek (www.markertek.com) for .69/ft.

One can buy as much, or as little as they choose, and they do sell large bulk spools, but I believe begin at about 200', so I'm sure most of us won't need that much, unless you're deciding to go into the cable making business.

From there what I think I am going to do, is order my Spades, whcih are Vampire Spades from Welborne Labs, and here again, the costs are very reasonable.

Sure, I'd love to have Cardas, or WBT Spades, but just the cost of a few Spades will cost more than the Cable I'll need (About 50')

The Canare is a Grey Cable, which looks attractive all by itself, and once trimmed out with nice heatshrink, would look nice.

I think with the money saved by going this route, I just might buy some pretty flex braided sheathing, and finish these out to look like those $1000.00+ Boutique Cables!

To find the Canare 4S11 cable at Markertek's site, just punch in 4S11 in the search box at the top of the page. One can google, and find lots of info about this Canare cable. I've yet to read any bad reviews of it myeslf, and I look forward to purchasing mysself some very soon. Mark

Sounds like a good alternative but I just had to comment on the "cooler amp operation." Unless you had a short in your speaker wires I don't see how the amp could be running cooler now. Think about it; if your old speaker wires had high resistance, it would load your amp LESS not more. :scratch2: I think the temperature has to do with something else.
I agree, Warren. But I can't figure out for the life of me precisely why it's running cooler now. :dunno:
Tom

I did think of a possible reason; maybe the cables and speakers presented enough of a capacitive load that the amp was oscillating. That would heat it up all right.

I have some Carol wire that is in a blue jacket. Haven't noticed any problems. I've also bought a couple hundred feet of Sound King wire and like it, too. Have some Vampire (IIRC) wire and it is quite good.
Of course, I have some of the best Monster imitation wire from RS that works fine.

.....for those so inclined....it's higher than it used to be, but here it is.....

http://cell-phone-accessories-wholesale.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=18700

Here is another choice and has very good wire. I use the 10ga. for 100ft runs
for outside parties http://www.knukonceptz.com/productMaster.cfm?category=Klear%20Speaker%20Kable