InstallGear 14 Gauge Speaker Wire Cable (500ft), 14 AWG Speaker Wire Cable, True Spec Soft Touch Cables - Use for Car Speakers Stereos, Home Theater Speakers, Surround Sound, Radio Wiring

INITIAL REVIEW:Advertising:This speaker wire comes exactly as described and pictured.Shipping & Item condition:Arrived on time and in good working condition with no damaging.Price:$15.99 - This wire, for the gauge and amount of feet you receive, appeared to be some of (if not the) cheapest priced speaker wire I could find.Build Quality/Durability:The wire is true to size and has a nice thick sleeve that has a good feel to it. I was considering getting those fancy-looking braided sleeves, but the quality is good enough that they are unnecessary. They split and removed easily as well (though I had a wire stripper, which helped to get a clean strip/cut).Performance:I have not yet seen any performance issues with these wires. I'm not an audiophile, nor do I have special audio tools to measure their performance. Considering, however, that I ran about 20 feet around my room, and under my carpet, and still hear no issues with my surround speakers, I'd say they are up to par.Design/Features:Not much to say in this department. They're speaker wires. What you see is what you get.Overall:Very impressed with the quality-to-price ratio you get with these wires. They look good, feel good, sound good. No complaints here!1 Year review UPDATE:I've had these wires for about a year now, and I have had zero issues with them. I've had speakers get knocked down and the wires ripped out from the connections, yet they still work fine. They're just plain speaker wires, after all, so there's not much to complain about. Still a great product producing great sound!

This is CCA (copper clad aluminum) wire. It is a flexible, 14 gauge stranded wire that works very well for many applications. I use it as hookup wire for low level electronics such as gauges and switches to relays. It's easy to work with and looks good when installed. I have no problem soldering this and any other CCA wire, if you are having soldering problems, you're doing something wrong, too cold of solder joint, wrong solder, crappy equipment etc. When doing any kind of electrical soldering it is best to use solder designed for electrical applications (rosin core 60/40 blend is most common) Do not use solder for plumbing copper pipes or joints which requires an acid flux. You are asking for trouble and problems using that type of product on electrical connections (corrosion, wire and joint break down, high resistance, and it's prone to failure) I also use a higher silver content solder for fine electrical soldering where less resistance is required for the solder joint (battery packs, battery connectors, 12v electrical motors etc.) Check the label of your solder and look for the temp range, if you don't get it to that temp or higher it will act like cold hard butter and not flow into your solder joints. I've attached two photos showing a cold solder joint (which I come across a lot of from people that don't know how to properly solder and they wonder why it failed) and a proper solder joint. The cold solder is a blob, no strength or good characteristics what so ever. The second pic shows a proper solder joint. It's shiny, has great solder flow and a strong joint connection. Practice your soldering skills before blaming the wire. If you are looking for better wire, don't buy the cheapest stuff you can find. Spend the money and purchase OFC (oxygen free copper) stranded wire, it is much more expensive, has better conductivity and is stronger than CCA. Hope this review is helpful.

Did not yet use. Keeping it for future use. 14AWG wire is excellent for moderate to longer runs of wire for high quality sound reproduction especially with 'vintage' stereo components from the 1970's like Pioneer, Kenwood , Marantz receivers and integrated amplifiers connecting to good quality two way and three way speaker systems. I am currently using 16 AWG wire (one diameter smaller) for my Pioneer SA- 9500-2 integrated amplifier rated @ 80 watts per channel RMS continuous power output from 20hz-20,000 hz into 8 ohms with 0.05 % THD ( Total Harmonic Distortion) using 4 Technics 3 way speaker systems with bass ported 12" woofers. (hz=hertz same as cps= cycles per second) : how many vibrations a particular tone or frequency makes in one second from positive to negative creating the sound you hear and enjoy. My stereo system is vintage 1977 and works perfectly. It is well made. Try finding that today! Heavier wire means less resistance resulting in less power being wasted in friction producing heat allowing for more efficient power transfer used for reproducing the music rather than being wasted away in extra resistance producing friction that generates heat. 14AWG & 16 AWG wire is good for most applications where distance is moderate between speakers and amplifiers or receivers. Receivers are amplifiers containing an AM-FM tuner on the same chassis. Integrated amplifiers contain a Preamplifier for turntables that use magnetic phonograph cartridges in the tonearm and a separate power amplifier on the same chassis then relying on a separate AM-FM tuner connected to it for radio broadcasts. Receivers combine all three units together on one chassis. Technically separating them out into separate units is theoretically better as each unit can concentrate on what it was designed to do. I prefer separate integrated amplifier and AM-FM tuner combos over one unit receivers. But practically speaking there is no degradation or detectable difference in sound quality. Both arraangements work well.