Speaker wire recommendation needed

Nice one. I recently procured 160 mtrs of Belden 8473 14awg 2.5 sqmm for my entire living home theatre and bedroom. Got it for a really competitive price at 67 rs per meter. Incredible value given that is almost finolex pricing and the price performance ratio. If anyone has similar requirement and is interested, I can share contact.
 
Hi, I am keeping a budget of 1500-2500 for 25-30m OFC speaker wire. Based on the budget I have shortlisted few

1. DAC 16awg OFC speaker wire 30m cost- 3100
2. Amazon Basic 14 Awg 30m cost -2600
3. C&E 16 AWG wire 30m cost 2700

Please suggest something from the above. Also open for any better suggestions you might have. Please dont suggest anything that's above the mentioned budget. I don't want to spend a bomb on speaker wires.

Is it okay to use different brands speaker wires.
For reference I am using Stackfine 16AWG OFC speaker wire for the front which I got free with the speakers. Is it okay if I use a different brand wire for the center and rear speakers?
I have used C&E 14awg wires, infact twice I ordered it. Thought there were good but not anymore. When I came to home town due to pandemic, I took some of those wires with me to connect to my speakers at home (onkyo calibrino 265, Boston acoustics soundware 2.1). When connected on onkyo the clarity and bass got reduced compared to the supplied wire with onkyo, same for Boston acoustics also. Then ordered DAC 16 gauge wire and immediately noticed the difference. Sound was very clear, good bass and very open much better than c&e and supplied onkyo cables.

So my suggestion is not to buy the C&E cables.. they have very less number of strands as well for a 14awg. I have wasted around 5k for those C&E as my current HT system uses those. I will change those once I will be back to Bangalore.

Regarding Amazon basic cables I don't have any idea.
Certainly cables do affect the sound. A big thumbs up for DAC cables.
 
Don't spend much on speaker wire. I have a branded speaker wire (pure oxygen free copper) and Finolex 14 AWG copper wire and I feel that the finolex one has a higher output even though its used for rear speakers which are 15 ft from the receiver. If you have a really expensive system (10 lakhs or up) then you can think of branded speaker cables. The difference is very minute and you might not even notice it.
 
If we just compare copper of 14awg copper electric wire of any reputed brand with lower priced 14awg speaker wire no doubt we get more copper in electric wire but what about insulation? Do electric wire provides similar level?
 
Try some of the tinned silver (Teflon shielded) 14 /16 AWG. Should be fine for 30ft. You can go overboard with double shield terminated at the source end. Works just fine - DIY'ed - braided. I think it is Rs.24 or 28 per metre in Bangalore - SP road.
 
Nice one. I recently procured 160 mtrs of Belden 8473 14awg 2.5 sqmm for my entire living home theatre and bedroom. Got it for a really competitive price at 67 rs per meter. Incredible value given that is almost finolex pricing and the price performance ratio. If anyone has similar requirement and is interested, I can share contact.
May you please share contact?
 
Try some of the tinned silver (Teflon shielded) 14 /16 AWG. Should be fine for 30ft. You can go overboard with double shield terminated at the source end. Works just fine - DIY'ed - braided. I think it is Rs.24 or 28 per metre in Bangalore - SP road.
Can you please elaborate further on the wires and details/contact of shops
 
Inspired by @raghupb a while back, but executed only recently, experimented with some spare 14awg monoprice cable and 1.5 sqmm polycab cable for my 2ch setup. Prior to this, I have used Belden, Norstone, DAC, Qed, Chord, Kimber, VDH, WE magnet wire and few more and I am now sticking with the polycab wires. Great synergy with my chain.

Twisted 2 x 1.5 sq mm clockwise, repeat process for 2 x 1.5 sq mm and then twist these 2 anti-clockwise to give it a very Kimber look. Trimmed the tips and dressed the ends with banana plugs.

Did the same with 14 awg monoprice cables. I am calling them Polytwist and Monotwist. Thanks @raghupb, my speaker cable journey ends here. After twisting, they certainly look good. Nice braided sleeve and some heat shrink jackets and viola its on another level.

Polytwist.jpeg
Monotwist.jpeg
 
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It’s a rule of thumb in that you want the wires to roughly be the same length.
This is done to ensure that resistive losses remain approx equal so that one speaker doesn’t sound louder than the other.

It’s ok to have say 5 meters for L and 6 for R.
What you don’t want is say 1 meter for L and 25 m for R.

Having said that , any differences on account of unequal cable lengths will be very subtle and can always be corrected through the gain control on your AVR.
So if someone has already wired with unequal lengths and put the cables in a conduit, it would not be worthwhile to re-wire but for a fresh setup, you might as well keep ém equal

And no for the latter, you can keep your cable lengths as short as you want
No, same length is not requiredml. This is not true now. It was true 20 years back. Now processors in avr are much better to handle all these.
All questions related to length of wire should be seen from resistance perspective. Resistance depends on wire thickness, wire length and impedence of spekaers.
 
Can we use the electrical wires as speaker wires?? Are those better than the ones that are sold as Speaker wires? If that’s the case, I have couple of meters of Polycab wires lying around and I would be glad to try them out.
Sure Som, just did today. Try them you wont be disappointed!
 
I am using Polycab 1.5sqmm but 2 core wires. I prefer them more in HT than music.Those are cheap solution with good perfornance. 2.5sqmm improves soundstage ,but details are down. Monoprice is good one.Comparing to Polycabe, Monoprice 16awg sounded smooth and little forward. Polycab on other hand, slightly better instrument seoeration. I preferred them in movies and using it currently.
(I have supra class4, Audioquest 14 awg, DAC 11awg,)
 
Where can I find Polycab/Finolex speaker cables in and around Andheri, Mumbai by the meter ?

Did some online esearch here:
Polycab 1.5 sqmm OFC Speaker Wire - ₹ 3,363.86 / Coil of 90 Metre

Havells 1.5 sqmm OFC Speaker Wire - MRP Rs.: ₹ 6301.00 / 100 Meter

Havells is 67% more expensive than Polycab. Any idea why ?
 
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Local Hardware shop sell by meters.
The four electric shops in Marol, Andheri East I checked told me it's only possible to buy full 90 or 100 meter rolls of Polycab and Finolex and they dint even have them. Two of them had some Made in Taiwan wire (I forgot the name) and one had this brand Oshin. The quality of the wire looked good thought. Both were Rs 28/meter for 1.5sqmm.

Is Oshin a good brand?

Which area in Mumbai did you find Polycab/Finolex? May be if I'm in that area I could check it out.
 
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Available in Khar and Santacruz
Ohhh, that's great. I can cycle it to these areas. If you could tell me which particular part of Santa Cruz and Khar that would be of great help.And this would be by meter right?

Currently in the process of my first DIY build and building 5.1 HT speakers. It's been taking quite a lot of time researching and procuring the components. It's very satisfyingly but gets overwhelming at times when you get stuck trying to figure out something. So if someone has already figure out stuff that I need then I could really use that help. Hence trying to get as much detailed information as possible.
 
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Which area in Mumbai did you find
I got in Mulund. They used to sell for 35/mtr around 2 yr back.I got 2 core black wire. If you can make DIY twisted speaker wire, it may sound better.
 
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Hi, I am keeping a budget of 1500-2500 for 25-30m OFC speaker wire. Based on the budget I have shortlisted few

1. DAC 16awg OFC speaker wire 30m cost- 3100
2. Amazon Basic 14 Awg 30m cost -2600
3. C&E 16 AWG wire 30m cost 2700

Please suggest something from the above. Also open for any better suggestions you might have. Please dont suggest anything that's above the mentioned budget. I don't want to spend a bomb on speaker wires.

Is it okay to use different brands speaker wires.
For reference I am using Stackfine 16AWG OFC speaker wire for the front which I got free with the speakers. Is it okay if I use a different brand wire for the center and rear speakers?
Amazon Basic 14 Awg 30m cost -2600 is better, go with this
 
Looking for a electric shop in the Khar-Goregaon belt the sells Polycab or Finolex speaker wire by the meter.

Requirement:
1sqmm - 11 meters
1.5sqmm - 25 meters
2.5sqmm - 13 meters

PS: Had made another trip in Sakinaka area this evening. No luck. Looks like finding some simple pure copper wire of the correct gauge for the required length seems to a really hard task.
 
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