Speaker Cable

[suprabrown]

Hi all,

can anyone recomend any speaker cable to buy ....and where from? I'm about to start my install and need some decent stuff, I'm not going mad, just need to power some 6.5" door speakers. I've been looking in the RS catalogue and there are a few different specs, what do I need for car audio?

I also need some phono cables from the head unit to the amp in the boot, if anyone knows where I can get good quality stuff at reasonable prices please shout up :)

thanks in advance

mark

[carl0s]

Maplin do some OK stuff. It's white, on a small reel, relatively inexpensive and quite chunky.

[suprabrown]

thanks for that, any idea what sort of spec I should be looking for in terms of resistance etc?

[carl0s]

No idea, sorry. Obviously the least resistance the better. I'm not a speaker wire person, but I would have thought for the length, power-levels and wire cross-section that we're talking about that resistance would not be soemthing to concern yourself with.

[Rob Davey]

I’ve spent a fortune on car hi-fi over the years and I know you can spend a fortune on cable for no reward. So my advice is who cares what fancy colour the cable is once it’s under your carpets? Don’t believe the blurb, no matter what anyone says – metal conducts electricity! A £2 cable and a £5 cable will sound no different to you. You think you could tell the difference in your extra investment in garish florescent cable whilst doing 70mph down the M4 – I don’t think so!

Just buy an oxygen free cable, it doesn’t need to be really thick, that is only needed for massive power sub woofer setups as low frequencies are more easily lost. Also are you going to drill a new cable into your door or just splice the new cable into the original stuff before it enters the door? The latter is much easier, won't de-value your car and is how I run the power to my front focal components from a top quality phoenix gold amp.

The only benefit you will hear is to not run rca's next to speaker cable and not to run either cables near a power cable, this will eliminate interference (you’ll hear buzzing). Also keep cable runs short to eliminate loss of current and do not coil up excess cable as this creates magnetic fields, just cut them to length!

[carl0s]

Only problem with splicing though is that you're ummm breaking the existing cabling. I'm much happier to know that my original wiring is all intact and unmolested, ready to be plugged back in. I suppose it doesn't really matter at the end of the day though.

[Rob Davey]

You use bullet connectors - unconnect - reconnect, unconnect - reconnect!. You'll be much happier knowing there is no rusty hole in your door!

[carl0s]

You use bullet connectors - unconnect - reconnect, unconnect - reconnect!. You'll be much happier knowing there is no rusty hole in your door!

True, except I pulled the wires through the correct grommets... are you suggesting that some people just drill an additional hole in the metal? :eek:

[ickysupra]

I have just installed some 6.5 componants in my supra (what a pain) but got my speaker cable from C.A.R in sutton surrey, its £10 for 5 meters, oxygen free and its quite thick. i would advise a good amp, my infinity componants are running off a alpine v12 amp 4 channel which kicks out 100 watts rms per channel. good luck

[Matt Harwood]

A lot of people do feel it's necissary to get massive speaker cable. For most applications, it really isn't.
What you may find though, is that some of the cheap cable pretending to be good have thick insulation jackets and inside, the actual cable is puney, and not better than stock! - buy off a roll, and look at a cut section to see how thick the actual cable is. A thick insulator does bugger all. (Unless you're intending on running it somewhere where it may get pinched!)

[suprabrown]

Thanks guys,

just asking cus I didn't want to spend cash on decent speakers/amp etc and then bugger it up with the wrong spec cable!!

cheers
mark