Entry Level Cables

I would second Blindjim's recommendation of Canare 4s11 or even 4s8 cable for your situation. You can buy either in bulk and either terminate them yourself or just use bare wire. The 4s11 is $1.17 a foot from markertek.com. It's flexible and easy to work with and comes in a nice, neutral gray color. The 4s8 is only $.55 a foot and should be fine unless you get a really powerful amp and some speakers that will pull a lot of juice. I've used both alongside the entry level Cardas and Dh Labs cables and couldn't hear anything that made the extra cost seem worthwhile.

Thanks for all of the recommendations. I'm going to take a look at these different cables and see what may work for my budget.

Other than budget concerns, what specifics do I need to look for in a cable to help make a determination of the quality?

Oh, and right now I'm debating the Anticables and the Canare 4s11. Is there any particular termination that is preferred or "better?" Or does it just come down to personal preference?

Thanks again!

Bare wire is best, IMO, but most people choose spades or bananas out of convenience, or to provide a little more contact surface area with binding posts.

Having owned both Anti Cables and Canare 4S11, I think the Canare is a little more conducive to bare wire installation because the wire itself is more flexible, and because it's multi stranded it will spread under pressure and give you more contact area on the binding posts.

Put a little CAIG ProGold on the bare wire and install them. You're good to go.

The Anti Cables may work better with spades for the reason of increased contact surface area.

It's down to personal preferences.

I might help to understand that for most people (especially the gearheads) this hobby is a journey - you start somewhere and go from there as your tastes, listening skills and budget evolve (not necessarily in that order but you get the idea)

Little known fact but a very few manufacturers make most of the wire used by the entire industry. It's an expensive undertaking. Some companies have custom runs done with their own "formulation" but there are minimum orders...

Companies buy from them, then add various combinations of insulation (teflon, cotton, PTFE) cosmetics (techflex and shrinkwrap in fancy colors) and nice connectors...For instance single pair of RCA males can cost from about $2 to $400.

There are a lot of people who think that a bare wire is the best possible amp to speaker connection - all you have to be able to do is strip insulation...

There is also a very strong DIY tradition in a portion of the community. Lots of info and what are called "recipes" around. Go to Audioasylum dot come and vhaudio dot com

In all fairness the anti-cables are a legitimate design alternative - I have never heard them but they have stood the test of a few years on this board which is generally flavor of the month oriented

And you can't get hurt with 30 or 60 day moneyback guarantees - worth it to learn to hear the differences - its kind of backwards but the less difference you hear, the less you have to worry about it. There are a ton of factors that determine your sound in your room - cable is nowhere near the top of the list.

So start with one or the other, or roll your own. markertek and partsexpress are both good resources, there are many others.