Speaker cable for 25 foot run


I am looking at various options for speaker cable for a 25 foot run without breaking the bank. Amp is the McIntosh 6600 integrated and speakers are the B&W 805S. Am considering Signal cable, Morrow and Audioquest Rocket 44. All would be in a bi-wire configuration. Anyone with any experience, comments or alternatives would be appreciated. Would like to keep the budget in this price range (say less than $1,000). I know that Morrow has a 60 day audition period, but I know that most manufacturers don't offer this.
conedison8

Showing 1 response by almarg

With a run of that length you'll want to be careful with respect to gauge selection, particularly for the low-frequency cable in your bi-wire arrangement.

The 805s spec sheet recommends a maximum cable resistance of 0.1 ohms (which I think is probably a good target value for most speakers). I assume they are talking about one-way resistance, which would mean 0.2 ohms for the round-trip through both conductors of each of the two bi-wire cables.

Here's a link to a wire gauge/resistance table:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge

A quick calculation from the table shows that you'll want to go no thinner than 16 gauge, and 14 or perhaps even 12 would be preferable.

Regards,
-- Al