Recommend cheap speaker cable

I have just got out my old separates, which in their day were pretty good kit.

I’ve just been looking at speaker cable on ebay and it looks very random as to quality, but I can get 10m for approx £6.

Can anyone recommend some cheap cable, or at that price, is it just a case of taking pot luck?

Ta

240v mains flex is a cheap alternative.

QED 79 strand used to be the default cheap cable.

QED 79-strand FTW.

I’ve just bought some of the 79 strand flat cable from ebay, oxygen free etc etc. Seems good.

Afaik, telephone/ Ethernet rj45 can be recycled as speaker cable?

Maplin do a cheap flat speaker cable, I’ve used it in my system and I like it.

How much do you need F_D? I’ve got some cable you can have for the price of postage, probably about 6m (2 x 3)

Thanks for the offer Woody, I need one of the lengths to be just under 5m.

I have bought some of the flat stuff from ebay for less than £10

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CASPEAK79.html

60p a metre. Half that if you buy a roll of 100m.

^ +1 on the tlc link.

Any multistrand cable large enough to do the job is fine.

I’ve got this cambridge audio cable,, seems decent without being silly expensive (£2 per meter):

symphony 300

Just got it working again 20yrs after it was last used! Sounds surprisingly good, not the punchy base of newer systems, but beautifuly clear smooth sound

Go as cheap as possible so there’s cash left over for ceramic cable elevators. Ceramic cable elevators have a modern and sleek design, and offer great performance. Made out of special ceramic material, the ceramic cable elevator is perfect for de-coupling your cables from the ground. The ceramic will absorb small vibrations which will cause distortion in your sound, and shields against static electricity. Your cable’s are de-coupled; aren’t they? Please tell me they’re de-coupled…

[currently listening to music on an iPhone speaker amplified using a 50cm cone made out of cardboard]

Rockhopper – Member
240v mains flex is a cheap alternative.

To what? Ramming a fork in your ear? 🙄

Afaik, telephone/ Ethernet rj45 can be recycled as speaker cable?

Only for cheap nasty speakers.

To what? Ramming a fork in your ear?

No, he’s right.

To what? Ramming a fork in your ear?

I’m willing to bet a large sum that you have never heard speakers wired in that way 😆

And of course, you need to have your wires running in the right direction…

2 core mains cable. Seriously. Available anywhere, cheap and really decent quality. Just try not to buy it in orange if its going to be on display!

2 core mains cable. Seriously. Available anywhere, cheap and really decent quality. Just try not to buy it in orange if its going to be on display!

This! For years I’ve used 2 core mains. I recently tried some “expensive” cable and it made absolutely no difference.

Make sure you get the directional version.

it made absolutely no difference.

Oh no no no… you quite clearly haven’t got the trained earoles of a serious audiophile 😉

Many years ago there was a new HiFi magazine published – its name escapes me at the moment but its premise was affordable hifi – they advocated the use of main cable as cheap speaker cable (and it seems that quite a few on here do as well!)
That was a good magazine – wish I could remember its name.

Oh no no no… you quite clearly haven’t got the trained earoles of a serious audiophile

Clearly not 😉

But seriously, I’m picky when it comes to all things AV and over-priced cables, connectors, etc that promise better quality is usually just utter tosh.

Go as cheap as possible so there’s cash left over for ceramic cable elevators. Ceramic cable elevators have a modern and sleek design, and offer great performance. Made out of special ceramic material, the ceramic cable elevator is perfect for de-coupling your cables from the ground. The ceramic will absorb small vibrations which will cause distortion in your sound, and shields against static electricity. Your cable’s are de-coupled; aren’t they? Please tell me they’re de-coupled…

Those things sound great. What are they made from ?

I read about decent mains cables making an improvement to sound. I was sceptical but for a tenner I bought a DIY kit off eBay and made a new amp mains. I played a record with my old cable, swapped it over and played it again. I was quite shocked at how different the sound was.

I’ve also recently changed my pre to amp interconnects, I had atlas equator on and now have chord cobra. The sound is nowhere near as good now.

All snake oil some say, but either way, it’s fun to play.

P.s I’ll go find a post I made asking similar to the op and post the cables I was recommended. None of them expensive, but right now qed silver anniversary is the only one I can recall.

I’m using some highly-rated speaker cable, bi-wired on some Monitor Audio GR60s.

I heard no difference when I used some regular-wired 2.5mm CSA T&E with the same speakers. As long as you have a good quality conductor that can carry the current your amp can deliver you’ll be fine. For most non-nerd amps something like 79-strand should be fine.

Given a lot of artists use mains cable to wire up heads to cabs – I wouldn’t be overly worried about using it as speaker cable 😉

TBH I think a LOT of HiFi is snakeoil though 😉

qed xt40

van damme blue

sommer cable

TBH I think a LOT of HiFi is snakeoil though

I find it very difficult to argue against this. For most applications, two-core solid, not stranded, mains cable is as good as anything costing very much more, it’s certainly as good as QED, just a bit less easy to manipulate, being pretty stiff.

Interesting.. is there any science behind solid cable Vs twisted strands?

Presumably twisted strands would cope with more abuse as they’d be more flexible, but ignoring that as most speaker cable doesn’t need to move much once installed.

What sort of metal is used in standard mains cables?

Genuine question

I’m willing to bet a large sum that you have never heard speakers wired in that way

How would you like to pay, cash or transfer?

What sort of metal is used in standard mains cables?

Copper.

Permanent, in wall, cabling is solid core. Cheaper to make but won’t cope with being repeatedly bent without weakening.

Trailing/accessible cables are made of stranded cable.

Seems any hi fi thread on here brings out the scoffers.

So many experts…

Yeah no one likes experts, especially when they’re talking about thier area of expertise.

Copper.

Permanent, in wall, cabling is solid core. Cheaper to make but won’t cope with being repeatedly bent without weakening.

Trailing/accessible cables are made of stranded cable.

So unless the quality/purity of copper is in question, would it be safe to assume that a sloid copper cable is more fragile, or does a twisted strand cable, presumably more versatile, possibly more expensive due to being over engineered, but provides a more consistent signal?

Again, im not taking the mick I just don’t understand the apparent disparity

a solid copper cable is more fragile

It’s not fragile if you don’t bend it repeatedly.

mattyfez – Member
Yeah no one likes experts, especially when they’re talking about thier area of expertise.

Youre new here right?

Tellurium Q Black is a great budget option at £50 per meter. Well recommended!

a LOT of HiFi is snakeoil

I’ll just leave this here…

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hificritic/vol5_no3/listening_to_storage.htm

Interestingly I could hear the difference going from mains 2+e to proper speaker cable – but it was only the £1/ m stuff from richer sounds

Proper speaker cable is worth it but you are very soon into diminishing returns ie cheap speaker cable over bell wire – easy improvement. going to expensive stuff – very little if any improvement for your money