Hookup Wire as Speaker Cable

Hi,
I was looking for Hookup Wire online and found the Carol Brand(General Cable) hookup wire from Amazon.com for cheap. Its 14 AWG copper conductor wire.

Does anybody have experience with this brand? I heard for the first time. Below is the link. I got 500 feet for just $15. I checked online the brand seems fine. Didn't understand the configuration much though.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007IAQPZ4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Spec Sheet - https://www.masterelectronics.com/datasheet/76812.r8.03.aspx?p=10924804


I was just wondering if I can use this hookup wire as a Speaker Cable. I can wound two wires together to create a single wire out of it to get a lesser AWG. Is it fine?

Thanks,
Simar
 
The 14 gauge is fine for most systems. Use equal lengths for both sides, no longer than needed.
A price of 0.03 per foot is very cheap for this. Lightly twist the two wires of the pair so they remain
close together, to minimize their inductance and loop area.
 
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...the Carol Brand (General Cable) ..... experience with this brand? I heard for the first time. .... I got 500 feet for just $15. ....

General Cable is older than most of us. It merged several even older wiremakers in 1927.
General Cable - Wikipedia

The company is fine. The wire business is cut-throat.

That price is "wrong". Note that they sell Black for about 4 times that price. It could be an Amazon slip-up; it could be they have way too much red wire in stock and need money bad. Good buy, if you need 500 feet of a stiffer single red wire.

"Twinlead" is often more convenient and usually marked for polarity.

Not sure why I would ever want 500 feet (250 loop-feet) of speaker wire in real life. Even when I maintained classroom stereos I never quite used-up the 500 foot spool of zipcord that I bought.
 
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Hookup wire = copper wire with plastic coat to keep it warm.

It conducts that thar mystical thing called the electric fluid. You can use it for speaker wire. Just ensure gauge is sufficient to keep voltage drop minimal for the loop-length and you don't use some daft geometry that will cause excessive inductance or capacitance. Job-jibbed.
 
Last Year I bought 300 feet of Mic cable. They had red & black and the red was near double the price. The cable is the same from the same vendor, just the outer sleeve color is different. Perhaps the red ink is more expensive.
 
Hello Nigel,

Have you used 3-core mains cable? I have a reel but was wondering what would be the best thing to do with the extra wire, should I use it in parallel with one of the others or leave in unconnected?

Thanks.
You could strip it out and do a Kimber style braid with the 3 wires but don’t connect the ground wire at all. This will lower the capacitance and inductance of the wire.
 
Yes I agree with everyone else. Carol brand has been around for a long time. The cable business is cut throat and a rip off if your a sucker for the hype. I know a company that does install all the time of spool wire. They us west penn 14 gauge wire. That’s what the used for our school under the gym floor to the sound room. I asked why not another brand like mogami or canare and so on? The tech told me this is the brand we buy and it’s never failed us and works well and does the Job it’s intended to do. He said plus it’s .29 cents a foot. It’s one of the best ones out there? I know they are awesome to deal with.👍. I did try mono price speaker cable equal to mogami w3103 cables and mono price cables sounded very harsh and Sterile. I have heard a few Gothem cables very nice sounding. It’s all up to you. I can say from past experience that switching from off brand cables to 16 gauge Original RCA brand high Fidelity clear cables. It made a world of a difference and all the issues in our P.A. system at work. Good luck. Let us know how it works out? Cheers Jeff
 
Yes I almost for got I try only to buy OFC at the least and silver coated OFC. Supra is one of my favorite wires to buy. No nonsense crazy good and it never Tarnishes. I have bought my dad the 1.6 or 2.5 over 12 years ago and it has not done anything but, sound nice.
 
So I had a friend of the family’s who wrote paper on high current amplifier systems for the Army. The friend of the family’s tested all kinds of cables gauge and widths and lengths. The test was to see how hard you could push the amplifier with the cable before it quite. We’ll the twisted pairs never failed and never shut down. That’s the only reason I would use this type of cables. With a high current and amplifier system. I’m not saying braided cables are bad but, again I only use what I need to for the task at hand. I hope this makes sense? Jeff