Speaker Cables w / Lengthy Runs

[LaserMark4]

My trek with ML and this forum started back in 2005, when we cobbled together our first dedicated listening/theater room. I thought I would give my $.02 worth of experience this past year showcasing the new speaker wiring trek I just completed as part of a total remake of our listening/theatre room in 2022. In addition to tearing down the room to near studs and starting over, we added some new big boys up front (minty used Odyssey's) and expanded from a 5.1 to 7.2, transitioned from a Sony G70 CRT (1080p in early 2000's) to a new 4k Epson PJ (WOW!), boosted the power amps (to 5kw), sound treatments with to-die-for new seating, blacked out the room, installed tons of LED and Nanoleaf lines lighting, etc. Succinctly.... I had a blast with the project!

Perhaps the biggest challenge was wanting to bi-amp all the speakers and the considerable sheer amount of cabling that was required to accomplish all the terminations and connections. In the end, between running three (3) new dedicated 30 amp buffered power circuits (I put all the speakers on a dedicated power leg and 2 separate legs for the equipment racks) and all the speaker runs, we came in at close to 4 1/2 football fields of cables- At the advice of Blue Jean Cable and others, and due to the long lengths of speaker runs, I decided to go with Canare 4S11 cable (see here: Canare 4S11) for all the speakers, which is a 14ga 4-wire that I twisted into two (2) 11ga wire pairs.

I was super pleased with the Canare 4S11's great flexibility and amazing transmission results. I also added some colored jacketing and colored heat shrink terminations at all the bi-amped speakers and amplifiers(s), which I thought added a nice touch and really helped keep all the terminations straight in matching the + plus and - minus (some serious hours of hand work- 30+ terminations). Anyway, I can't say enough about the quality of this speaker wire and how pleased I am with the incredible sound this room is now delivering.

This forum has provided a wealth of information and enjoyment over the years and like all the fans on this site, we continue to be Martin Logan groupies for life!

 

[Brad225]

Great work Mark. That is a lot of wires and patience. That plus, they look really nice.

 

[Robert D]

My trek with ML and this forum started back in 2005, when we cobbled together our first dedicated listening/theater room. I thought I would give my $.02 worth of experience this past year showcasing the new speaker wiring trek I just completed as part of a total remake of our listening/theatre room in 2022. In addition to tearing down the room to near studs and starting over, we added some new big boys up front (minty used Odyssey's) and expanded from a 5.1 to 7.2, transitioned from a Sony G70 CRT (1080p in early 2000's) to a new 4k Epson PJ (WOW!), boosted the power amps (to 5kw), sound treatments with to-die-for new seating, blacked out the room, installed tons of LED and Nanoleaf lines lighting, etc. Succinctly.... I had a blast with the project!

Perhaps the biggest challenge was wanting to bi-amp all the speakers and the considerable sheer amount of cabling that was required to accomplish all the terminations and connections. In the end, between running three (3) new dedicated 30 amp buffered power circuits (I put all the speakers on a dedicated power leg and 2 separate legs for the equipment racks) and all the speaker runs, we came in at close to 4 1/2 football fields of cables- At the advice of Blue Jean Cable and others, and due to the long lengths of speaker runs, I decided to go with Canare 4S11 cable (see here: Canare 4S11) for all the speakers, which is a 14ga 4-wire that I twisted into two (2) 11ga wire pairs.

I was super pleased with the Canare 4S11's great flexibility and amazing transmission results. I also added some colored jacketing and colored heat shrink terminations at all the bi-amped speakers and amplifiers(s), which I thought added a nice touch and really helped keep all the terminations straight in matching the + plus and - minus (some serious hours of hand work- 30+ terminations). Anyway, I can't say enough about the quality of this speaker wire and how pleased I am with the incredible sound this room is now delivering.

This forum has provided a wealth of information and enjoyment over the years and like all the fans on this site, we continue to be Martin Logan groupies for life!

Nice! Everything looks so clean and organized! I really lime the Martin Logan sign. Where did you find that?

 

[LaserMark4]

Nice! Everything looks so clean and organized! I really lime the Martin Logan sign. Where did you find that?

Thanks for the kudo's Robert! Yes, that sign is pretty cool and good quality. I picked it up here:

Martin Logan Audio Home Theater Cinema A17 Dual Color Led Neon Sign

 

[LaserMark4]

For anyone interested in the braided sleeving of the cables, here's some info I posted on AVS Forum a while back:

The product is a heat shrink "sleeving" applied with a simple heat gun and it comes in varying widths, materials, and colors. Amazon is probably the easiest place to score them.

Here's the main "PET Expandable Braid Sleeving" I used- very good quality. You can get this in 3/8" all the way up to 1.5" in width: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B075VRHXSR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I also used simple solid shrinking with a heat gun for the termination between the sleeve and end connector, and there are nice, inexpensive kits with a variety of tubing like here: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0771K1Z7Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Finally, I found these pretty cool 10 ga/3-wire power cords (all my speakers except 2 require120v power) that also come in a few colors: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B074YSCNGN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Check out YouTube for some tips on the techniques of how to thread it on the wires-- you "push" it on like a Chinese finger toy mesh instead of trying to pull it on the wires -- the end product looks great.

 

[Russr]

Awesome job and love that sign!

Matter of interest question: When considering the cable lengths, etc., did you do an analysis on placing the amp(s) with the speakers (almost like an active system) using balanced signal cables from pre/pro to amps? I've been torn about that myself... ended up wiring for both, but have not re-positioned my amps yet, so they're still in my equipment rack.

 

[LaserMark4]

Awesome job and love that sign!

Matter of interest question: When considering the cable lengths, etc., did you do an analysis on placing the amp(s) with the speakers (almost like an active system) using balanced signal cables from pre/pro to amps? I've been torn about that myself... ended up wiring for both, but have not re-positioned my amps yet, so they're still in my equipment rack.

That's a really interesting concept and might definitely lessen the impact of your longer distances one would think. I'm not geek enough to know if long distances between the pre/pro to amp signal is a better trade off than long distances between the amp to the speakers. I know one concern of AVR's is whether there is sufficient power output from the pre-amp outlet to the amp.

My original thought was I could overcome the lack of "speaker signal" to the speakers easier with the addition of good power amps. On the other hand, all the big concerts halls obviously use balanced cables due to huge distances in auditoriums. But maybe some on this tribe have a background to enlighten us on that.

In my personal situation, we wanted the dedicated theater/listening room to be as clean and uncluttered with equipment/wiring as possible and also had the fortune of having a mechanical/storage room for the stack(s) immediately adjacent to the room. So for me, the speaker wires (and plenty of amp power to feed them) were in the crosshairs.

One interesting variable I think many folks don't consider is the quality of the electrical power feeds from the house fuse/disconnect panels all the way to the equipment stacks. Since our ML's are pretty engaged in connecting to power (unlike non-powered speakers, I put that high into my design considerations. As an embellished example, to spend $6K on a 3' power cable connecting your amp to the power conditioner (i.e- the wall outlet), and not consider the Home Depot crap wiring, breakers, etc. that is running 200' from the house panel to the audio equipment, just makes no sense to me. Obviously, some variables are immovable-- you can't tear out all the electrical power wiring in your walls. But dropping dedicated circuits makes a lot of sense (if possible).

One thing I can say is, the day I finally flipped all the speakers and subs "on" with the initial fire-up, it was DEAD silent. And has been ever since. And with a ton of wires, cables, electronics and other potential influences going on, I called that a big win.