Another speaker wire possibility at Home Depot???


As an alternative to the "decorative" orange and gray stripe 12 guage wire that has been discussed in several previous threads, I am wondering whether anyone has used another 12 guage wire from Home Depot under the brand name Carol Landscape Lighting Cable. It is low voltage for use with 12-volt outdoor lighting systems, black casing with one conductor ribbed for polarity identification and much more flexible than the orange/gray extension cord wire. I intend to give it a try and will report back to this thread at a later date. Meantime, would welcome any comments and/or any experiences others may have encountered with this cable.
wepratt

Showing 2 responses by joeabrams

Just a hint -- try a sniff-test before you buy. If you can detect any PVC (like a new garden hose) smell at all, do not buy the cable for audio. PVC is a not a good-sounding dielectric. ALSO, that PVC smell is actually the out-gassing of chloride gas; guaranteed to corrode copper stranding over time.
"12 ga. is 12 ga" ??
1. the physical distance between the positive and negative legs will determine the capactive and inductive characterics of the cable.
2. the number of strands will affect high frequency response and group delay.
3. the material used in the dielectric will affect apparent speed of the presentation, and will affect ultasonic high frequency extension. That's why manufacturers of quality audio cable use PE, foamed PE, or teflon instead of (much cheaper)PVC.
And those are just easy-to-talk-about factors ...