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Speaker Wire

Huey

Well-Known Member
Famous
I know we don't need a thread on speaker wire, but I wanted to ask about some wire I picked up at home depot awhile back. When I bought my SVS speakers awhile back, I needed new wire, and home depot had 12 gauge audio/video wire, only thing it was solid copper wire, not twisted strands like we normally see. It was considerably cheaper than normal 12 gauge speaker wire, and being smaller in size, was easier to work with as well. Any problems with using wire like this? I've been using it for almost 9 years and haven't had any problems.
 
Any problems with using wire like this? I've been using it for almost 9 years and haven't had any problems.

Did you not answer your own question?
Solid copper wire at 12 AWG is rather stiff. Regardless if you’ve been using it for a decade...
 
Solid wire only works properly when treated with authentic, patented Soundhound Piss.
 
Nothing wrong with solid wire. One weakness is the interconnection point where it is slightly harder to get lots of "weld-point" area, but if it works that's fine until corrosion eventually interrupts the tiny weld point. Simply cleaning or scraping the corrosion off solves that problem.

With stranded wire, you can easily get dozens of weld points making it more stable over time, but with more surface area corrosion can ruin the entire exposed wire area requiring you cut it off when it eventually fails.
 
One problem I've found with Home Depot type stranded speaker wire (the type with clear jacket) is that green corrosion starts forming on the wire and its almost impossible to scrape off. This makes getting a good connection impossible. I throw the stuff in the trash.
 
One problem I've found with Home Depot type stranded speaker wire (the type with clear jacket) is that green corrosion starts forming on the wire and its almost impossible to scrape off. This makes getting a good connection impossible. I throw the stuff in the trash.

That’s precisely what happened to my Home Depot speaker wires. The last time I needed speaker wires I cut the connector off a section of 14 AWG pro-style speaker cable. I kinda like the different look of the black jacket.
 
Yeah, it seems some brands of speaker wire has an insulation jacket which somehow corrodes the wire faster than it should. I have had the same problems with Home Depot wire - I even tossed out approximately half a spool of 14 AWG speaker wire I had in my attic which corroded all along the wire. That shouldn't happen.

None of the wire I purchased from Parts Express or from a local Belden dealer had similar issues.
 
I think some of these products, the jacket of the speaker wire are being manufactured with corn oil or soybean oil into plastic. This would lead to why mice and rodents like to chew up the wires also.
I think it might be fun for a chemist like Paul to review the chemical and breakdown on the copper. Should we coat the dissimilar materials with Anti-seize compound like a spark plug?
 
I think some of these products, the jacket of the speaker wire are being manufactured with corn oil or soybean oil into plastic. This would lead to why mice and rodents like to chew up the wires also.
I think it might be fun for a chemist like Paul to review the chemical and breakdown on the copper. Should we coat the dissimilar materials with Anti-seize compound like a spark plug?
I imagine there's probably some shortcuts being made in the quality and composition of the ingredients of the plastic covering; I think I remember some article about this somewhere in the past but I can't remember where or when exactly. In any event, I've not seen this type of corrosion with any covering except for clear for what its worth, and I've certainly never seen it with any higher quality wire like Mogami or some brand like that. Also, I've never seen it with tinned wire like the Belden 12 gauge stranded I run for my subs. I think the moral is that Home Depot is not the audiophile choice for speaker wire..... :thumbsdown:
 
Thanks for the answers guys, figured it was ok, and it truly was the easiest option for me since I was using wire hider things on the walls. I've terminated all of the wires with pegs, but not having strands makes it easier to get the wire into the holes to secure it. I don't remember the price difference, but it seemed to be quite a bit between that and the strand wire.
 
I also believe I have heard that the rodents, mice, rat, squirrel have been known to eat wire jackets and coverings on Auto's.
 
I also believe I have heard that the rodents, mice, rat, squirrel have been known to eat wire jackets and coverings on Auto's.

We just had a squirrel get into one of our police officers brand new Ford Explorer and ate the wiring out of it. About a $3k repair and it obviously wasn't covered by the warranty and our insurance refused to cover it.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled program.
 
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