Is it safe to run cheap wires?

sorry to disagree with bulldogger but this ain't a good idea, perfectimage. you should think of cables as plumbing. instead of supplying or draining fluids, tho, the wires supply "happy" and "powerful" electrons and dissipate "used" and "flaccid" ones. the monsters have been known to "backup," sorta like a sewer. if that happens your classes' caps may get filled with all them impotent electrons and never sound the same!

No brainer: go down to Radio Shadk and buy the 16 or 18 gauge wire and enjoy it. There are exceptions (e.g. Spectral threatens you with fire and brimstone if you run anything except MIT cable) but I am currently using good old Radio Shack wire as my stopgap speaker cable, and between my VTL monoblocks and Virgo speakers, it ain't half bad. Certainly there's no damage! Wire that costs $18 for 50 feet can do for the moment as I audition the high price spread wires that cost $1,000 for 10 feet. By the way, have you discoverd The CAble Company? www.fatwyre.com. They will lend you wires to audition.

K525: r u a pimp 4 fatwyre?

Perfectimage; I know that it's safe to run cheap speaker cables, eg even though you have very powerful amps, it's likely that you're only using a few watts at any given time. I would like to ask you about your experience with your super high powered Classe' amps because I am planning on doing the same thing with 300 wpc McCormack DNA-2DX amps, ie bridge the channels and have them turned into monos. The DNA2s will then put out 1200 wpc. What kind of changes did you notice in your music with the increased power, and do you feel it was worth it? Any downsides? I'd sure like your opinions/observations. BTW, Dave Reich was a designer for Classe' for awhile and was later with McCormack while the DNA-2s were being designed and produced, and I think he may have had some influence on the DNA2s design, but the basics were done by Steve McCormack. Cheers. Craig.

I agree with the Radio Shack suggestion with one caveat...terminate with something other than twisting the wire. Spades, bananas, or pins. Using heat shrink is a good idea also. Protecting the binding posts from eachother is a bigger concern than the speaker cable you select. Happy listening, Jeff