wall wiring, power cable, interconnect and speaker wire

[AMITNOIDA]

I have selected my speaker & power amp (BE 718 + Jaton Operetta). The pre may be from Lyrita. I could not decide yet on the source (CDP or Squeezebox route).

The interconnect + speaker wire may be IC-3 and SC-5 respectively from Audio Art (suggested by Sridhar). As I will go for Pre-power amp, I will perhaps require 2 nos. of interconnects. Is it advisable to use similar interconnects (same type, same brand) for connecting source-Pre and Pre-power?

I am now trying to study and select Wall wiring and power cables. I have dug the previous threads /postings on wall wiring. I am slightly confused between 'solid core' and 'stranded'. People suggested 'solid core' over 'stranded'. Most probably I will have to do the wriing externally , not through concealed pipe. The approx. length is 10-11 M from the Mains. I am planning to do separate wiring from the mains exclusively for my Audio set-up. As my wire length requirement is much less than a box pack, I may not get much options and find difficulty in getting the required length of wire. How is the quality and performance of Havell's wire.

In one of the threads, 7/20 solid core Copper wire was suggested for wall wiring. But how would be a 3 core stranded wire as an alternate? Wiring of stranded wire will be comparatively easier over the solid core.

Regarding power cable, the stock cables supplied along with the equipments are generally replaced with power chord of decent quality. Which brands of power cables make VFM?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

It is the overall cross-section are of your wire that is going to matter more than its type. Of course, I am not a purist about these things, so others may shout about this! It is a matter of current-carrying capacity before things start to get hot.

Unfortunately, when my house was wired, I trusted the engineer --- and am now always finding what a mess they made of it! What I would do now would be to make my own specification, and for sockets, I would follow the UK norm of 2.5 sq mm cable. I have also learnt that the MK "universal" sockets are horrible things. The contact with British-type plugs is very bad, and often requires dismantling the socket and tightening up. I am, when-I-get-around-to-it, going to change all our 'universal' 13-amp sockets to Indian round-pin 16-amp sockets, and use adapters where I have British plugs.

The most esoteric thing I would recommend for your system wiring is a separate earth. You must have an earth, and it can be a source of noisy buzzing.

 

[venkatcr]

It is the overall cross-section are of your wire that is going to matter more than its type. Of course, I am not a purist about these things, so others may shout about this! It is a matter of current-carrying capacity before things start to get hot.

I agree. Finolex Multi stranded cable works exceedingly well. Recently Havells and RR Kable (RAM RATNA GROUP) have also joined the elite club of cable makers. A note of caution. When you get electrical wires, take a little effort and ensure you are buying the genuine article. Small shops seem to make money selling duplicates.

I have also learnt that the MK "universal" sockets are horrible things. The contact with British-type plugs is very bad, and often requires dismantling the socket and tightening up. I am, when-I-get-around-to-it, going to change all our 'universal' 13-amp sockets to Indian round-pin 16-amp sockets, and use adapters where I have British plugs.

I have my whole house fitted with MK sockets and switches. I have found them to work reasonably well, though I regularly change switches and sockets that I think are not OK. MK comes with a 3 pin plug of their own. When I buy any electrical equipment, as much as possible, I replace the stock plugs with MK's own 3 pin plug. This sits very well inside the KM sockets.

All universal sockets are horrible as there are multiple brass connectors inside that are just sitting on small contusions inside the plastic body. After repeated use these connectors, move from their place, lose their rigidity and their use. I have found MX Adapters, particularly MX-864 (MDR Electronics - MX Electronics - Home Theater Cables & Connectors - Computers & Laptop Accessories - Pro Audio / Studio Audio Cables & Connectors - Audio Video Components & Accessories - Fiber Optic Component & Accessories - Cable TV Component & Ac), to be ideal for conversion from any plug type to the standard Indian socket. I keep these in large numbers at home, though I see may adapters disappearing quite regularly. To thwart this, I keep half a dozen adapters hidden from people's view.

The most esoteric thing I would recommend for your system wiring is a separate earth. You must have an earth, and it can be a source of noisy buzzing.

Absolutely! I have mentioned this many times before, but proper earthing is absolutely essential. To do this properly, you have to sink a narrow pit 30 feet in depth, fill the bottom 6 to 10 feet it with salt, coal, water etc., and take a thick copper plate that is 2 to 3 inches wide all the way from the bottom of the pit to your junction box. Your electrician will tell you the exact composition of the materials to be used to fill the pit. The earthing done by builders are pathetically inadequate.

Cheers

 

[skumar]

Absolutely! I have mentioned this many times before, but proper earthing is absolutely essential. To do this properly, you have to sink a narrow pit 30 feet in depth, fill the bottom 6 to 10 feet it with salt, coal, water etc., and take a thick copper plate that is 2 to 3 inches wide all the way from the bottom of the pit to your junction box. Your electrician will tell you the exact composition of the materials to be used to fill the pit. The earthing done by builders are pathetically inadequate.

Is it 30ft or 3ft or 3mt?

 

[AMITNOIDA]

I agree. Finolex Multi stranded cable works exceedingly well. Recently Havells and RR Kable (RAM RATNA GROUP) have also joined the elite club of cable makers. A caution. When you get electrical wires, take a little effort and ensure you are buying the genuine article. Small shops seem to make money selling duplicates.

Actually I am a Havells loyal. My all the switches/wall sockets are of Havell's Crabtree brand. But the dilema is between solid core or stranded.

Absolutely! I have mentioned this many times before, but proper earthing is absolutely essential. To do this properly, you have to sink a narrow pit 30 feet in depth, fill the bottom 6 to 10 feet it with salt, coal, water etc., and take a thick copper plate that is 2 to 3 inches wide all the way from the bottom of the pit to your junction box. Your electrician will tell you the exact composition of the materials to be used to fill the pit. The earthing done by builders are pathetically inadequate.
Cheers

I doubt I can do any separate earthing. I live in 4th floor of our Society housing. It would be impossible to go for a separate earthing. I have to depend on the earthing done in our society. Of course, I may enquire about its properness.

 

[venkatcr]

Is it 30ft or 3ft or 3mt?

30 feet.

Cheers

 

[venkatcr]

Actually I am a Havells loyal. My all the switches/wall sockets are of Havell's Crabtree brand. But the dilema is between solid core or stranded.

I think we have had this topic discussed before where a member mentioned that has used only single core.

The conclusion was, if I remember right, that, particularly for India, single core is not suited for being used inside a house as it will be difficult to bend as well as pull through conduits. Multi stranded ones are more suited for that kind of tasks and you don't lose anything whatsoever.

Cheers

 

[venkatcr]

Depending on where you live. The point is to get it into sufficiently damp soil, for a good connection to ground at all times of the year. In Assam and Rajasthan, the depths would be very different.

Sorry Kumar, I completely forgot about groundwater. The depth has to be, as Cranky said, deep enough to hit damp soil. I remember, in my house we drilled till we hit ground water, filled a few feet of mud to stop the flow of water, then dropped the sand, coal, salt and other combinations along with the copper plate.

Cheers

 

[AMITNOIDA]

I would stick with 7/20. Unless you live in the middle of a jigsaw puzzle, the wire is reasonably easy to pull through a conduit. The insulation of regular stranded wire is not sufficient for installations, and the thinner strands make them prone to fraying and corrosion.

Note that stranded wire usually has higher inductance than solid core, and you could have electrical noise issues if heavily used in house wiring. I usually stay away from it unless absolutely necessary - as in extension boxes or convoluted conduits.

I will try 7/20 cable.

Does it improve in sound quality, if one change the stock power cable, which comes along with equipments with good quality power cable? If so, can you guys suggest few VFM power cable brands for using with equipments?

 

[skumar]

Sorry Kumar, I completely forgot about groundwater. The depth has to be, as Cranky said, deep enough to hit damp soil. I remember, in my house we drilled till we hit ground water, filled a few feet of mud to stop the flow of water, then dropped the sand, coal, salt and other combinations along with the copper plate.

Need to call the electrician who wired my house 4 years ago... was not around when it was done... price of this damn copper has also inflated many times since then :sad:

 

[marsilians]

I have selected my speaker & power amp (BE 718 + Jaton Operetta). The pre may be from Lyrita. I could not decide yet on the source (CDP or Squeezebox route).

The interconnect + speaker wire may be IC-3 and SC-5 respectively from Audio Art (suggested by Sridhar). As I will go for Pre-power amp, I will perhaps require 2 nos. of interconnects. Is it advisable to use similar interconnects (same type, same brand) for connecting source-Pre and Pre-power?

Its absolutely fine to use the same interconnects between the components. Try to keep them short as possible and also dont have to spend megabucks on the brands etc. Decent interconnects will perform as good as expensive ones for almost all standard applications.

I am now trying to study and select Wall wiring and power cables. I have dug the previous threads /postings on wall wiring. I am slightly confused between 'solid core' and 'stranded'. People suggested 'solid core' over 'stranded'. Most probably I will have to do the wriing externally , not through concealed pipe. The approx. length is 10-11 M from the Mains. I am planning to do separate wiring from the mains exclusively for my Audio set-up. As my wire length requirement is much less than a box pack, I may not get much options and find difficulty in getting the required length of wire. How is the quality and performance of Havell's wire.

For electrical wiring and others, I would recommend solid core as its simpler to work with althogh less flexible. Make sure you run it through a conduit of some sort. Also if you happen to use North American equipment, run a 20 amp dedicated circuit so you will be setu when connecting multiple components onto the outlet. I have used Havell's and pretty happy with the products and performance.

In one of the threads, 7/20 solid core Copper wire was suggested for wall wiring. But how would be a 3 core stranded wire as an alternate? Wiring of stranded wire will be comparatively easier over the solid core.

As Cranky and others have noted, solid core for shorter lenghts and where there are not too many 90 degree turns are present, shoudl be good. Similar to Havells's 7/20 is a good brand for such applications.

Regarding power cable, the stock cables supplied along with the equipments are generally replaced with power chord of decent quality. Which brands of power cables make VFM?

This is similar to any cable discussion. For the most part the stock cables are pretty good. One good/cheap alternative I have come across are the cables used in server rooms when connecting the equipment. These are extremely well built and are better than the stock PC power chords and have to abide by "real" ratings than the standard components or desktop PCs.

 

[AMITNOIDA]

Thanks Marsi. Love to know that you are also a satisfied customer of Havell's like me. Do you know, why I like Havell's? Their products (Crabtree brand) are of decent quality and their factory and head office are at Greater Noida / Noida - near my residence. They have few exclusive showroom / shops at Noida. So genuinity is guaranteed.

 

[marsilians]

Thanks Marsi. Love to know that you are also a satisfied customer of Havell's like me. Do you know, why I like Havell's? Their products (Crabtree brand) are of decent quality and their factory and head office are at Greater Noida / Noida - near my residence. They have few exclusive showroom / shops at Noida. So genuinity is guaranteed.

Key is getting genuine products and I think you have a good way of ascertaining the same. There are too many fakes in the world of electrical cabling.

 

[AMITNOIDA]

Went to market yesterday. The Havells 4.0 sq mm single core wire (PVC coated copper wire) comes in box pack of 90 M length at price approx. Rs. 2900. But the problem is that the dealer does not want to sell shorter length (I need about 15 M). In another shop, the shorter length 4 sq mm wire is offered but of the brand 'Kallinga'. Kallinga is a Haryana based manufacturer and has turnover of around Rs. 40 crore. As per report Kallinga wires are exported to various countries including America, Europe, East Asia etc.

Will it be sense to go for 'Kallinga' brand wire? Has anybody used this brand wire?