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In Reply to: RE: home depot thermostat wire posted by BRab on June 29, 2016 at 08:36:59
Since you are now using a 4-conductor cable, the wires should be cross-connected (star quad), if so, the inductance has been lowered with better noise rejection vs. a 2-conductor 18 AWG twisted pair, and the cable cross section has been doubled to 15 AWG aggregate gauge, which is still a moderate gauge cable for a speaker cable application. Based on my experience of a similar solid core copper hardware store product, you can certainly find higher performance via entry-level audiophile speaker cables such as AudioQuest solid core speaker cable products, but what you currently have is a better option than typical stranded zip cord speaker wire, IME.
Make sure the conductors with the same polarity are opposed to each other within the cable bundle (cross-connected) rather than side-by-side (see image above of a stranded conductor star quad cable wired cross-connected).
Follow Ups:
Thanks for the useful information. I'm curious why the similar Audioquest product improves on the hardware store product.
An additional question. The wire I'm using has 5 leads. I only used 4 but I'm wondering if there's any advantage to using the 5th. If so, should I add it to the positive or negative side? Thanks.
Edits: 07/01/16
Most notable is the purity of the conductor, how it's annealed, the design of the dielectric (insulation), and how a particular cable geometry is better optimized for audio applications, with understanding of LCR, cable resonance control, and RFI/EMI noise rejection/suppression issues. Designing products that simply sound better from a sophisticated perspective (delivers audiophile listening cues) is a primary goal.
Cables intended for audiophile use tend to sound better than hardware store wire which simply passes safe voltage and amperage ratings. Audio cable applications tend to be very sensitive to various subjective issues, which makes the audiophile quest so fascinating if you're not too afraid of slipping down the rabbit hole. It's a great hobby if you appreciate listening to good audio playback.
Cheers, Duster
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