wire

I have never personally rewired Vandersteens. Although, I do consider myself a very big fan of the marque. In my opinion, it is one of the premier manufacturers in the business. Witness the owners of the speaker who appear on this site(Sdcampbell, Garfish, etc.), and the quality of sound is obvious. To me, the best low cost copper wire is Axon 1. By far. It is distributed to retailers in North America by OrcaDesign. Please check their website. They are the US parts division of JMlabs, a premier speaker manufacturer. Axon 1 features solid core, dead soft 20 gauge copper wire. Insulation is either PVC or PE(sorry, I forgot). When I used to buy(1993 - 1995), it was a fraction of a dollar per foot(maybe 10 cents/foot). Sound is very good. I would put it up against almost any copper wire in the business. I have come to be a fan of the sound of silver. For the Vandersteens, I feel this would be an excellent opportunity to try silver. HomeGrown Audio features solid core, teflon insulated 22 gauge wire for $1.80/foot. Solid core wire is superior to stranded in the vast majority of cases, in my experience. Please twist(2 wires) or braid(3+) enough wire to get 17 gauge going to the tweeter, and 12 to 13 gauge going to the midrange and woofers. I feel your gains will be worth it. Give the wire one month before coming up with your conclusions on the upgrade. Good Luck!

maybe i phrased that poorly.i meant just plain old speaker wire not rewiring the guts.just from amp to speakers

Oh, I am really sorry. For really cheap speaker wire, you don't need to look at either RadioShack or Monster Wire. There are two that you can buy for $2/foot or less which are more respectable than many in this hobby will admit. The first is Apature AccuFlow. It is 12 gauge OFC. Used to be $1/foot, but then a retailer told me he sells it for $2/foot. It is a fine entry level cable, a good deal superior to both of the cables you are considering. The other is Axon 8. From the same distributor I mentioned in my previous post, OrcaDesign. Let me say this, JMlabs doesn't make anything of low quality(think JMlabs speakers and Focal drivers). While all of their products may not appeal to my ear, I have to admit their parts quality, construction, and service are very good. Axon 8 features 8 of the Axon 1 conductors I previously described. Spiralad together, with a dielectric filler, and a PVC or PE jacket(I forget). Actually, one(the individual conductor or the jacket) is PVC, the other is PE. Consider it a very good knockoff of AudioQuest Indigo/Midnight. It is made by people who would never charge the kind of money for cable that most do. First, they offer cable as just one of many products in their inventory, not their bread and butter. They don't depend on it. Second, it is marketed to speakerbuilders, not audiophiles(read between the lines). When it was introduced, the price was $1/foot. I believe it may be $2/foot. This cable is one of the true sleepers in the cable world. They could easily sell it for $200 - $400/8 foot pair. It does not get embarrassed by the majority of cables in that price range. Personally, I would buy the Axon 8. It sounds very good, and is basically the same price as some companies charge for the connectors on their cable. It's so cheap that you could go with either a run for each amp to speaker leg(+ and -), or a double biwire. I would characterize the cable's sound to be analogous to AudioQuest(as I said, a good knock-off of AQ). Which would be as close to middle of the road(I don't mean quality, I mean warmth/neutrality/coolness). Not emphasizing any part of the musical spectrum, yet allowing no part to take a back seat. I won't say the cable offers the last word(or close to it) in any particular area, but I can say I prefer it over some really expensive wire(from more than one company) I have come across. No cable works in every system, so it surely can be criticized by someone saying it sounded(or didn't sound) like this or that in their setup. But, for what you are looking for, I am not sure you can do better.

Try Romex or another type of solid core wire. I fine 12 gauge is great. I wraped multi-stranded 18 gauge(from radio shack) around the exterior sheathing of the romex. Striping each end of the black and red romex 1.5 inches. I wraped the small gauge wire at the base of the striped section and soldered them into place. It was cheap and a fun weekend project. The whole thing didn't cost more than $15.00 and sounds great.