What is your first must-have journey to OZ : fine 2-channel music or multi-channel HT ?
If you are settled on in-wall speaker cables, they had better be specifically warranted as fire-rated and explicitly described as such. Otherwise you will most likely automatically void your property insurance, and that is a big, big, FUHBAR step.
The in-wall cable selection is largely more budget-friendly and an easy DIY project that is fine for HT applications, but most won’t match up to the performance capabilities of "normal" 2-channel cables you would put in a high-end 2-channel kit. A budget BELDEN off-the-reel bulk DIY cable compared to a NORDOST VALHALLA , is an extreme comparative. For me, I kept my OEM non-fire-rated NORDOSTs in my high-end 2-channel gear (primary music and direct-passthrough for LF and RF and CC kept out of the wall, but I buried in-wall BELDEN Fire-rated long-run DIY terminated cables with medium quality banana connectors for the surrounds and rears that keeps things neater there, but let’s remember that these are only artificially manufactured fill-in sound channels and less sensitive/critical accordingly) .
Choosing Bananas vs spades is strictly a mix of
(1) the preferred ease of connections of your electronics and to the speakers, and
(2) favouritism towards your personal connector preferences, and,
(2) the quality and build of the connectors themselves, and tempered by that relation to the cables themselves. It makes no sense to put high-end EICHMANN OCC copper bullets or similar top-end Rhodium or gold plated connectors on just cheap entry level cable and expect anything more than an avoidable wasteful drain on your wallet . Conversely, the cheap-as-you-can go stuff will firmly establish themselves as a weak link accordingly. Everything is built to a price-point, and the bottom-end stuff is invariably the cheapest heavy to oxidize inferior nickel-plated or brass available.
If you are settled on in-wall speaker cables, they had better be specifically warranted as fire-rated and explicitly described as such. Otherwise you will most likely automatically void your property insurance, and that is a big, big, FUHBAR step.
The in-wall cable selection is largely more budget-friendly and an easy DIY project that is fine for HT applications, but most won’t match up to the performance capabilities of "normal" 2-channel cables you would put in a high-end 2-channel kit. A budget BELDEN off-the-reel bulk DIY cable compared to a NORDOST VALHALLA , is an extreme comparative. For me, I kept my OEM non-fire-rated NORDOSTs in my high-end 2-channel gear (primary music and direct-passthrough for LF and RF and CC kept out of the wall, but I buried in-wall BELDEN Fire-rated long-run DIY terminated cables with medium quality banana connectors for the surrounds and rears that keeps things neater there, but let’s remember that these are only artificially manufactured fill-in sound channels and less sensitive/critical accordingly) .
Choosing Bananas vs spades is strictly a mix of
(1) the preferred ease of connections of your electronics and to the speakers, and
(2) favouritism towards your personal connector preferences, and,
(2) the quality and build of the connectors themselves, and tempered by that relation to the cables themselves. It makes no sense to put high-end EICHMANN OCC copper bullets or similar top-end Rhodium or gold plated connectors on just cheap entry level cable and expect anything more than an avoidable wasteful drain on your wallet . Conversely, the cheap-as-you-can go stuff will firmly establish themselves as a weak link accordingly. Everything is built to a price-point, and the bottom-end stuff is invariably the cheapest heavy to oxidize inferior nickel-plated or brass available.