$1 a foot cable: 10awg no-name or 14awg brand?


If you had to run extra long speaker cables (40 ft) and were given the choice between a $1/ft 10awg no-name DIY-store copper in clear jacket OR say a $1/ft 14-16awg Audioquest GLC or similar from well-known brands, which way would you go? system is say entry hi-fi ($3k per component, total $10k).
cheapo176a
Inside every brand name cable there is a core of wire that come from the same plant (give and take) as the one in the DIY spool. A 99.9997 OFC copper is what it is. Then it is the treatment, strand wrapping, twisting then packaging and merchandising that differ. At $1 a foot, companies like AQ or VdH are probably not spending time with fancy treatment. They likely take some good old core wire and tube them into a protective jacket, a helix or cross twist may be and that's it. Whatever they do with it, a 14 awg will be a 14 awg with limitations in the lower register and loss factor for long runs. Copper for copper, a 10 awg "pure" OFC copper cannot be a bad choice I presume and that would be mine if budget was limited to $1-2 a foot. At least, you pay for copper, not branding and the rest of the marketing gimmick.
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10-gauge, though 12 should suffice for less than 50 feet. BTW, a buck a foot is a rip-off.
big cable is probably best value if you don't mind that they are more obtrusive
I have a 36 foot run for the garage. I used 12 ga. lamp cord at about 39. foot from the hardware store. Ran it up through the rafters to a pair of KLH 5 speakers I got from a flea market. Since the 10" woofers have a cloth roll suspension, they are still fine, although the cabinets have seen 40 years of abuse. I don't complain since they were 10 bucks. They are up high.... Over 100 degrees in the summer and below zero in the winter, year after year. They WORK GREAT!

Read: roger-russell.com/wire/wire/htm

There is a lot of truth there.