Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Hello, new Axiom owner with a question

Greetings,

I've been lurking this web site for quite a while now from the suggestion of a co-worker who highly recommended Axiom speakers. Well, after careful research and reading many reviews, I hit the purchase button on a pair of M60s and a VP100 center, all of which will be arriving tomorrow.

Now I want to use decent quality speaker wire, and like an idiot, did not purchase the wire or banana plugs offered from Axiom. If I order the wire and plugs now, it'll be another week before I can set everything up, and well...that's really a painful idea. I can of course buy wire locally; I found Monster cable (16-gauge) at Circuit City, and found 14-gauge wire at Lowes, which I believe is manufactured by Phillips/Magnavox.

With price not being a purchasing/deciding factor, I guess what I'd really like to know is: what is the gauge of wire that I should consider with the Axioms? Also, I'll be purchasing the surrounds (QS4 or 8's) and EP350 sub in a few months.

Are the two brands I mentioned decent? Am I wasting my time with either? Or should I simply be patient for another week and immediately order the bulk 12-gauge cable and banana plugs from Axiom? Feel free to suggest another brand that I may be able to locate in the metro-Portland, Oregon area.

Many thanks for your replies.

Regards,

Steve

Steve welcome, Don't worry about the plugs or the wire, banana plugs are mainly used for convenience, You can use any wire from 12 to 16 gauge and you won't hear an audible differnce no matter the brand. Get the wire from Lowes and hook those babies up.

Thank you very much for your reply. While reading another thread here about bi-wiring, I found a link inside which led to an external website talking about copper speaker wire. Great site, I now understand where wire gauge comes into play. What you said was pretty much identical to what was on that site. It looks like I get to hear music after work tomorrow after all!

This is good news, as there is nothing more sad or dreadful to look at than a new home theater with no Axiom speakers - lol!

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

Steve

Depending on your electronics, I think you may need decent speaker cables for 2 channel, and you can skip a little with the surrounds when you get them. This is what I use for my M60s from Signal Cable You can also try cobaltcable.com. Several people here suggest monoprice.com or bluejeanscable.com Congratulations on your purchas and good luck with the rest.

Buy from Lowes. You'll do just fine. Hit bluejeanscable or monoprice for video cables, but for speakers, just go with a good gauge (lower number) wire and you will be happy. Plugs and ends are more for convenience and looks, so you can always add those later.

Yes, get your speaker cable from Lowes, Home Depot or any other discout company. I would suggest #12, but #14 will probably do just as well.

Every once in a while you can get a good deal on "oxygen free" #12 wire on EBAY. You might check it out, but be careful, all is not what it is made out to be on EBAY.

Copper is copper.

I just use 12 gauge all the way around. I bought most of it as a big spool from partsexpress, but I know I've just bought bulk cable from the local home improvement store, too. Shipping on speaker wire can be expensive since it is so heavy.

Welcome!

tom: well, not exactly. I bought some speaker wire from Home Depot, Lowes or somewhere else, the clear see-through type. It turned GREEN over time. So, I am not exactly sure what happened, but you can guess that the coating reacted with the copper. I threw it away.

Congrats on the Axioms - I don't think you'll be dissapointed! Kudos to your buddy at work.

Speaker wire is at the very top of the audio superstitions chart. Some folks will tell you that only $500+/foot cable will do, while others say it makes no difference. You will get lots of opinions on way or the other.

I personally use 16 gauge Acoustic Research cables that I bought at the local Best Buy a few years back. Something like $40 for a 100 foot spool. It came with a few pairs of pin plugs, which are nicer than bare wire but can be a pain to position in the binding posts. It's held up just fine over several years - no discolorations, etc.

I bought a couple sets of bananna plugs for my mains, and I really like the ease of hookup with them. Another project will be to someday replace all of the ends with banannas. They make a nice and neat connection.

That said, I am thinking that my next upgrade might be beefier cables for my fronts, and the reason is just for cosmetic purposes. I do like the look of Axiom's cables, and their prices seem pretty reasonable so I may go that route.

Another note: You might want to tell Axiom that your co-worker recommended them. Axiom does have some kind of unofficial referral program - your buddy might get a small check from Axiom.