Speaker Wire Suggestions for Surrounds and Ceilings

[dr.arun]

Looking for speaker cables for my surrounds and Ceiling speakers . LCR I'm going with Belden . I was planning to go for 14AWG Amazon basics but isn't available . What are the best alternatives ?
Finolex or Polycab speaker cables 2.5sqmm also I can't find online ?
Will check offline stores for them .
Any other way out ?

 

[Kevano]

What are the best alternatives ?
Finolex or Polycab speaker cables 2.5sqmm also I can't find online ?
Will check offline stores for them .
Any other way out ?

I was looking for Polycab/Finolex 2.5sqmm speaker wire by the meter. Only 90meter rolls are available online and its really had to find Finolex or Polycab 'speaker' cables offline. Spent the last 3 weeks visiting close to 30-35 electric shops in 5 market areas in Andheri, Vile Parle and Santacruz and only found Polycab 0.5sqmm 'speaker' wire in one shop and Polycab 1sqmm 'speaker' wire in another shop.

I found this brand called Stackfine. 2.5 sqmm @ 70/mtr in Santacruz west station area. I checked the diameter of the copper conductor and is looks like its 1.78mm( for 2.5sqmm the diameter is 1.78mm). I don't have Vernier but did it by eye.

If you don't want to take a chance and save yourself the trouble of looking for Polycab/Finolex speaker wire you could by 2 core electric wire from a reputed brand. I bought Polycab 2 core electric wire @ Rs68/meter.

 

[Rjoshi]

Looking for speaker cables for my surrounds and Ceiling speakers . LCR I'm going with Belden . I was planning to go for 14AWG Amazon basics but isn't available . What are the best alternatives ?
Finolex or Polycab speaker cables 2.5sqmm also I can't find online ?
Will check offline stores for them .
Any other way out ?

I just ordered 14 AWG amazon basics 100 mtrs today morning. Please check again. It was not showing at first and had to search hard for while....

 

[dr.arun]

I just ordered 14 AWG amazon basics 100 mtrs today morning. Please check again. It was not showing at first and had to search hard for while....

Can you pls share product link ?

 

[Rjoshi]

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B01D5H8YNO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

does show unavailable now that i checked for the link !! sorry for the confusion, should have checked first !!

 

[Shanmugam]

I was looking for Polycab/Finolex 2.5sqmm speaker wire by the meter. Only 90meter rolls are available online and its really had to find Finolex or Polycab 'speaker' cables offline. Spent the last 3 weeks visiting close to 30-35 electric shops in 5 market areas in Andheri, Vile Parle and Santacruz and only found Polycab 0.5sqmm 'speaker' wire in one shop and Polycab 1sqmm 'speaker' wire in another shop.

I found this brand called Stackfine. 2.5 sqmm @ 70/mtr in Santacruz west station area. I checked the diameter of the copper conductor and is looks like its 1.78mm( for 2.5sqmm the diameter is 1.78mm). I don't have Vernier but did it by eye.

If you don't want to take a chance and save yourself the trouble of looking for Polycab/Finolex speaker wire you could by 2 core electric wire from a reputed brand. I bought Polycab 2 core electric wire @ Rs68/meter.

Finolex speaker wire are not available offline and those available online are not original. Go for regular 2.5 sqmm electric cable. This is full copper, Amazonbasics are copper coated aluminium cable. Finolex electric cable are more superior than Amazonbasics

 

[dr.arun]

is regular electric cables sufficient ?

 

[Kevano]

is regular electric cables sufficient ?

Absolutely.

For the length of wire that we need to connect the speaker to the amp, the only parameter that matters is resistance. Thicker the conductor, lesser the resistance and vice versa. So getting a wire thick enough for the length required gets to job done.

 

[dr.arun]

Planning to get Finolex or Polycab 2 Core 2.5 sqmm Electric cables . Does that sound feasible . Colour coding will be there too then .

 

[skumar]

Absolutely.

For the length of wire that we need to connect the speaker to the amp, the only parameter that matters is resistance. Thicker the conductor, lesser the resistance and vice versa. So getting a wire thick enough for the length required gets to job done.

Going by this, shouldn't we get the thickest wire that we could afford? i.e., 12 AWG for surrounds as well?

 

[jbkar]

Going by this, shouldn't we get the thickest wire that we could afford? i.e., 12 AWG for surrounds as well?

Fully Agree. Better to use thicker cables for surround as the required cable length is usually more for these speakers. 2 X 4.0 mm single core good branded cable should not cost more than Rs 90 per mtr. So why settle for less?

 

[raghupb]

Planning to get Finolex or Polycab 2 Core 2.5 sqmm Electric cables . Does that sound feasible . Colour coding will be there too then .

Should work fine. 2.5 sqmm is about 14AWG. The max run length is about 100 feet for 240V circuits.
Speaker signals are in order of magnitude smaller. 4 sq mm is very difficult to work with due to stiffness.
To color code them, you may use heat-shrink tubing or different colored insulation tape.

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[Kevano]

Use this calculator to estimate the wire guage you need - https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/cableloss

 

[Shanmugam]

Going by this, shouldn't we get the thickest wire that we could afford? i.e., 12 AWG for surrounds as well?

Cost and flexibility in routing stops us from using thicker cables.

 

[dr.arun]

Purchased Finolex 2.5Sqmm 2 core electrical cables . 100mtrs at 4800Rs

 

[haricps]

Purchased Finolex 2.5Sqmm 2 core electrical cables . 100mtrs at 4800Rs

is the cable any good?

 

[dr.arun]

is the cable any good?

Yes .they are sufficient for the purpose . Using for rear and atmos channels only . LCR is belden 12G

 

[haricps]

Yes .they are sufficient for the purpose . Using for rear and atmos channels only . LCR is belden 12G

thank you , should i use 12 awg or 14awg to atmos and rear?

 

[nagbbv]

12-Gauge OFC cable

elevn flex Cu121 12-Gauge 100 feet (30.5m) Audio Speaker Wire 99.9% Oxygen-Free Copper - Professional Stereo Audio Speaker Wire & Cable For Hifi Speakers, Car Audio, Home Theatre Systems with Polarity Markings (Made in India) : Amazon.in: Industrial

elevn flex Cu121 12-Gauge 100 feet (30.5m) Audio Speaker Wire 99.9% Oxygen-Free Copper - Professional Stereo Audio Speaker Wire & Cable For Hifi Speakers, Car Audio, Home Theatre Systems with Polarity Markings (Made in India) : Amazon.in: Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.in

16-Gauge Copper coated

https://www.amazon.in/elevn-flex-Al50-16-Gauge-Speaker/dp/B08RJ2P14L?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1

 

[SwaroopKS]

thank you , should i use 12 awg or 14awg to atmos and rear?

It depends on length of cable runs. 16 awg should more than suffice, 14 awg would be picky unless the distance is 50feet and 12awg is overkill.

Note that amazonbasics is not pure copper, its copper coated aluminium. Some of elevn are also the same but they also have fully copper so you need to choose.

While many here stand by finolex and other electric cables, I did experiment with them as well as ethernet/cat cables but suggest to go with speaker cables. There are some good ones which do not cost much but are really good. Found the Bandridge cable available on diyaudiocart to be really good as well as the DAC cables on hifimart. Dac are slightly expensive but not much difference between bandridge and the power cables.