Please help with wiring and interconnects. What...

...

Please provide a direct quote from him that says that.

...

I do not understand. Tom Nousaine ( The definitive expert in Physics!!! )
claims that "wire = wire" and that there are *NO* audible differences
between wires!!!

That is what I keep saying.. but the snake-oil, anti science folk keep on
objecting to!

...

Speaker cable is not all the same. You need to match the gauge of the wire
to your application. See the end of this post for a detailed procedure for
doing that.

interconnects I should get, optical or coax for the audio,

If you are talking digital audio, your best choce depends on what your
signal source uses for output. Since you did not specify what your digital
front end piece is, and what kind of digital output it has, that will be up
to you. If you use copper (as opposed to optical) for this, then good
quality 75 ohm video cable will work fine.

If you've got a s-video output from your video front end, then its a
no-brainer, use the s-video.

may upgrade later but I can't

You should not have a problem coming well within this budget.

Here is a reasonable rule for sizing speaker wire:

Obtain the minimum impedance of your speaker. Some manufacturers like
NHT specify it, If you don't know it, use 75% of the rated
impedance. For example, NHT says that the minimum impedance of a
SuperZero is 7.5 ohms.

Take the desired length of your speaker cable and multiply by 200. For
example, if your speaker cable is 20 feet long, then the result would
be 4000.

Divide the minimum impedance of your speaker by the number just
calculated. In the case of NHT SZ's, we would now have the number
7.5/4000 or 0.001875.

Look on the following table for the proper wire size. Pick a wire
whose resistance per foot is less than the number you just calculated:

Wire Gauge Resistance per foot
4 .000292
6 .000465
8 .000739
10 .00118
12 .00187
14 .00297
16 .00473
18 .00751
20 .0119
22 .0190
24 .0302
26 .0480
28 .0764

This chart gives a clue about attaching large wires to short terminals
- use an inch or so of smaller gauge wire, and solder or otherwise
splice it to the large wire. An inch of #22 adds only 0.0016 ohms -
about the same as a foot of #12.

If you have a speaker with impedance that decreases, (rather then the
usual increase) with frequency, (Martin-Logan's for example) then
some of the highly conductive #8, #10, or #13 center conductor coax
that Belden shows on their web site would be recommended because of
its low inductance.

If you want to have thin speaker cable for under the rug, then say,
60 (or more) conductor computer ribbon cable with the strands
connected into two bundles at each end, soldered to say, some 12 gauge for
termination, is an option.

Vader:

The video cables are going to give you the most noticable difference,
so I'd suggest you look into the Monster Cable silver cables here. As
for speaker wire and interconnects I really like Kimber and Nordost
for good price/performance, although you should compare the speaker
sound to 12 guage stranded zip cord from Home Depot before commiting.
If you can't tell a difference, the cheaper wires are better. :)

Nigel



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Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

Try Home Depot for the speaker cable. Get something shielded.

Buy a coax digital interconnect. Make sure the cable and the connectors are 75
ohm.

Use an S-Video cable, not RCA, if it is an option for video.

I love Nordost, but I think even their cheapest stuff is out of your price
range. Call you local hi-fi stores and ask what they have for the digital and
s-video cables. Shop til you meet you budget.

Gary