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S/T I've been whining for speaker cable for a little bit now cuz I moved my A1 and I'm about 2 feet short on the cable I was using before. What I was using before was 4 strands of 20awg and I used 2 strands per wire so it came out in-between 15 and 16awg. It works ok as far as I know. But since I moved the A1, I had to splice in about 2-3ft of 20awg wire (the same stuff I doubled up) to extend it. Although I notice no difference, I don't like that. A spool of 50ft 12awg from monoprice is pretty cheap but I'm even cheaper. I was wandering around, contemplating something I could do when I saw the old extension cord that's shorted out. Now, I've read people using Home Depot 6awg outdoor extension cables for speaker wire so I'm thinking, why not this? It's 3x16awg as far as I can tell and if I can find and cut out the short, I'd have plenty of length and about 5-6awg cable. Thoughts? (I may get anxious and try it before you even see this message )

*EDIT*
The A1 has pretty much 3 ways of connecting speaker wire:
Spade
Banana Plugs
Bare Wire

Seeing that I'm too cheap to buy & solder on spades or banana plugs, I'm limited to bare wire. I've learned that the A1's hole size is 9awg. Using 3x16awg lands somewhere between 5 and 6awg which is too large. 2x16awg (pinch larger than 10awg) would fit but that means stripping off the outer shell of the extension cord and using 2 of the 3 strands inside. 3x18awg (typical computer power cables) would work but I don't have 2 10ft sections and even if I had that much cable, I'd have to solder cables together which sucks. I'm tempted to rip apart the extension cord since it's been sitting un-fixed for months now.

lol Blue I edited my post with a dilemma.

Yea, too much time has been wasted with spontaneous "projects" that I get too eager to work on and rush then they just turn out like crap.

I really see no reason not to use bare wire, as long as it's "tinned". Adding connectors just adds cost, length (banana plugs) and a possible connection issue. I think I need something other than what I'm using, that's not really debatable. The problem is... what? I always prefer not buying anything if I don't have to and just came across the broken extension cord. Is it a totally bad idea? Would it be worse than the bottom-bucket doubled-up crap I'm using now? Here's what I'm eyeballing at Monoprice:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023901&p_id=2747&seq=1&format=2

Dirt cheap and I only need about 10ft per speaker.
Another question that you probably know the answer to and since your jew-ass isn't on AIM: Is it a bad idea to go like 3ft on one speaker and 10ft on the other? I would think you would want as close as possible length on all speakers so the resistance is identical (or close to).

Ok, I think I'm going to use the extension cord. I've read a little bit and while I like buying nice things, it's hard to buy into expensive cables unless they're shielded and that's kinda outside of my price range now.

Someone who's opinion I highly appreciate:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/325061/good-cheap-speaker-wire-for-finishing-project#post_4207565
An interesting article:
http://consumerist.com/2008/03/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables.html

I see it a couple ways here:
Either cables are bullshit and I'm not going to notice a difference. Or, the extension cord (due to quality) will be better than the spool of 20awg I picked up at k-mart like 6-7 years ago that I'm currently using. Even if the extension cord isn't better, I'm still getting 2 things: Larger gauge and proper length needed. To me, that makes it worth it.

Pictures:

Extension cord I ended up not using:


Teflon coated cable I used:




Hooked up:


Old cable, about half the gauge of new:



Thoughts? With literally a couple minutes of listening to 1 album with a fan running in the background I think I hear extended sound (more highs & lows). This could be placebo, it could be the fact that this is my first time listening to this album in FLAC (replaced a old 192kbps MP3 rip). It works, it was free, it looks good, it's larger gauge. The problem is that it wasn't long enough for where I had the A1. I ended up cutting a piece of wood and re-organized equipment so I could use shorter lengths of wire. I'm pleased and happy to have my speakers working again lol. Maybe sometime in the future something "better" will appear.

Spanky, for your money and for your time, I think this is a good solution for you at this time considering your circumstances. I say this will work fine for you for now, though around 6 months down the road i'd recut each contact, strip an inch or two off and hook it up again to get rid of that oxidation which i'm guessing may build up faster on this wire. s/t.

Upon looking closer at the power cable that was replaced, I think I saw what was wrong with it and causing problems with the pump. It looked like the wire closer to the top of the well was clean and shiny yet going down to the end showed wire that was somewhat pitted and looked like it had parts of insulation stuck to it even when stripped. I'm guessing this was heat from resistance or something. So, I snipped about 15ft of 4 strands of the better looking end and brought it inside. After plenty of fighting with tinning and placement (10 gauge solid copper is a pain in the ass to work with) I came up with something that looks good and fits the purpose. As with almost everything I do to my audio setup, it sounds slightly better Psychoacoustics hard at work hehe. At least I don't notice a huge degradation in quality or weird problems. Here's what it looks like:

Speaker on DIY wall stand made from scrap wood:


Cables going to the amp: