I'd like to upgrade my speaker wire


I am fairly new here and still learning.  I have a Yamaha R803 receiver and Vandersteen model 1s.  I'm happy with them for now but I'd like to upgrade my speaker wire. I presently have 14 gauge wire I bought years ago at Best Buy. I need 40 feet.  I've read great reviews about Back Cat but I think 40 feet may be a little pricey for me. I'd greatly appreciate any advice on a good quality wire at a reasonable cost. Maybe under $500?   BTW,  I bought Jim Smith's book as recommended here, great advice, thanks.   Doug
128x128dwhess
40 feet for each speaker? That’s a lot.

For that length, take a long look at Duelund DCA16GA hookup wire. It’s 10 bucks a meter and you would need 160 ft total. That would be about $500.

If you only need 4 x 10 runs then it would be about $130. If you do a forum search here you’ll see lots of raves for it including mine.

Oh, and if you only need 40 ft total, Black Cat does have a new Acme line of hookup wire that is $10/foot, so about 3 times as expensive as the Duelund.


Mogami 3103 from takefiveaudio.  I cannot see how you can do better than that at that price for your system.  Others may not agree.

I have the duelund and it is great but I think the mogami is a better solution in this case.  
Nobody with 40 feet of speaker wire needs better wire. What they need is better speaker placement. Or component placement. Or both.

When you get things situated to where they should be you will need 8 ft per side, if that. At that point then a good $500 speaker cable will have tremendous impact. Right now though it would be throwing money down the toilet.


@millercarbon.............

I would like to know how you came up with no more than an 8 foot pair of wires for the speaker to be optimal?   My speakers are across the room from the audio rack and I have two 23 foot speaker cables going under the floor to the speakers.  Works great and sounds fantastic.  Just because you have your own opinion doesn’t mean it is right or wrong.