Speaker cable wiring 1rst fix for house

iplogger1

I was with the electrician the other day marking out socket/lighting locations
ahead of him doing wall chasing for 1rst fix on Tuesday.

In the living room he suggested 4 positions where he could wire speakers
back to a central point within the room. I'm guessing this would work
for a 5:1 system with a sub speaker on the floor close to the tuner/av decoder box,etc.

As it happens I have a decent set of hifi separates which I purchased
about 5-6 yrs ago now - basically a pair of B&W 602 speakers, a Denon
amplifier, a denon tuner an arcam cd player and a Sony minidisc deck
(minidisc is a bit date now unfortunately so I may ditch that).

My question is with regards to adequate speaker cable specs. When
I purchased the B&W speakers the shop gave me KEF high definition
speaker cables (approx 10mm diameter with a rugged rubber sheathing)
I think the amp can do biwire but I rigged up the speakers using regular
uniwire configuration. Now I'm reading stuff that says that a lot of hifi
speaker marketing is a bit overblown. Those KEF speaker cables are bulky
to say the least. In reality I'd suspect I'd get away with a much more
modest speaker cable.

What would folks suggest. I heard that figure of 8, 21 strand ordinary
pvc/pvc cable should be fine. I'd prefer to have this running behind my
walls than the cumbersome KEF stuff I bought all those years ago.
Maybe I need to go up-spec. Any suggestions.

How about something as simple as this ?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?TabID=1&criteria=Speaker%20Cable&ModuleNo=34616&doy=8m9

iplogger1

My original post was over-wordy.

All I am asking here is can someone recommend a nuts and bolts
minimum spec for speaker cable/wire ?

I have this thick 10mm diameter rugged KEF OFC cable but I think
it is overkill for short speaker runs. My electrician is wiring on Tuesday.
What is a more practical and less bulky speaker wire which will give
good enough match. My separates are budget but quite decent...
eg Rotel 35W per channel stereo amp, Arcam CD player, B&W DM601 S2
speakers,etc.

I've heard suggestions that domestic 2 core electric wire which has
21 strands or so is good enough for most purposes ..

Sparky

Yeah you could use 2 core 2.5sqmm and 4 core 2.5mm flex for speakers, but I have never really tried it out. I always installed speaker cable.

If you are, you would need to make sure they are clearly marked and away from other mains cables.

furlong

I agree use speaker cable. 79 strand, 14 awg or 16 awg should be fine. (AWG is an american measurement but lots of speaker cable here is imported from the US so you will find it used in some places)

HTH
M

iplogger1

Is this something I could get (the 79 strand copper cable) in Maplin ?

Have you an approx feel for what the diameter of the coated cable
is roughly speaking ?

thanks furlong,sparks,etc

furlong

Maplin do some speaker cable ...whether it is in stock or not is another matter.

Howitzer

I'm trying to decide on speaker cable at the moment also.

Mine's just for a general wiring of speakers in various rooms in the house.

have chosen: 4 core individually screened (€1.15 per m) from maplin
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=4%20core&source=15&SD=Y

Is this any good for iplogger1's query?

Any good for my sittuation?

overall size 5mm
conduct area: .055mm2
capacitance: 95pF/m

half price for a 50m reel