buying cables in auckland

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › buying cables in auckland

jamesla

85 posts

Master Geek

#59074 25-Mar-2010 22:39

I have just bought some home theatre gear but need to get some 6ohm speaker cables an hdmi cable and a digital coax cable anyone know where the best place in auckland is to pick these up for cheap from?

smarsden

118 posts

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#311471 25-Mar-2010 23:09

Speaker cable can be bought by the metre at quite a few places, such as Dick Smith, Jaycar, even some of the hardware stores (e.g. Bunnings, Mitre10 etc), and of course electrical wholesalers (e.g. JA Russell, Ideal Electrical etc). It can pay to shop around though to make sure you're getting the best value for money.

The main thing you need to do is work out what guage (thickness) cable you need for the distance you're running. Have a look at this link and it'll give you an idea what guage you need - base it on the longest run you have from your receiver to your furthest speaker. The longer the cable, the thicker it needs to be, which translates to a smaller guage number (i.e. 22AWG is thin, 12AWG is thick).

HDMI cables can be bought from most of the places listed above too, but also somewhere like Playtech. No need to go over-board on expensive ones (i.e. forget Monster ones).

Coax cable from the same kind of places too. You could either buy a pre-terminated one, or buy the required length by the metre, along with some connectors, and terminate them yourself.

richms

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#311486 26-Mar-2010 00:18

terminating speaker cables can be a challenge.

There are plenty of junk banana plugs out there that just have a low quality screw to attach to the cable - you can solder these by removing the screw and using that to get solder into the wire-terminal junction.

I am still looking for some good crimp on ones.

Poking the wire in and doing up the lousy plastic binding post (hey, thanks europe for messing that one up) becomes very old on a 5.1 or 7.1 system every time you move things around.

Richard rich.ms

smarsden

118 posts

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#311496 26-Mar-2010 07:15

richms: terminating speaker cables can be a challenge.

There are plenty of junk banana plugs out there that just have a low quality screw to attach to the cable - you can solder these by removing the screw and using that to get solder into the wire-terminal junction.

I am still looking for some good crimp on ones.

Poking the wire in and doing up the lousy plastic binding post (hey, thanks europe for messing that one up) becomes very old on a 5.1 or 7.1 system every time you move things around.

Very true, although I guess it depends on how much you end up moving/changing things as to whether terminating speaker cables is necessary.

I've probably unwired the speaker cables to my hi-fi probably only 3 or 4 times in the last 10 years, and those to my home theatre have only been unwired once in the last 2 years.

In both systems I'm using the bare wire screwed into the binding post, rather than adding plugs.

SepticSceptic

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#311538 26-Mar-2010 09:48

SurplusTronics at top of Queen Street (by K Rd) are pretty good value. Retail, there isn't too much difference between Jaycar, SurplusTronics etc. If you can get trade prices, there is a significant saving, esp at electrical wholesalers as mentioned above for the likes of speaker cables, Cat6 cables and coax

jamesla

85 posts

Master Geek

#311603 26-Mar-2010 12:38

Sweet as thanks for your help and for that link. I'll pop down to Jarcar on the way home from work and pick them up :)

SepticSceptic

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#311610 26-Mar-2010 12:56

I think you may find surplustronics a bit cheaper, but they only sell by the 100m roll:

801.483R 0.75m² 2 x 26/0.2mm 6.0A max. $55.00 / 100m

http://www.surplustronics.co.nz/shop/product-801.483.html

jaycars equiv:

Heavy Duty Fig 8 Speaker Cable : CAT. NO. WB1708

Suited for speaker systems above 150 watts.
- Colour coded. Size 24/0.2mm.
- Roll length 100 Metres
- Sold per metre

$1.50 /m or $84 per 100m roll

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=WB1708&CATID=22&form=CAT&SUBCATID=248

Don't forget to get some good terminations - like banana plugs or open-ended lugs / forked-spade connectors. Nothing worse than messing around with stranded cables, especially in the cramped confines at the back of the amp. Not to mention the risk of a stray strand shorting things out ...

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bazzer

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#311676 26-Mar-2010 16:17

24 AWG is pretty thin.

SepticSceptic

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#311683 26-Mar-2010 16:39

Tch, 24/0.2 does not equal 24 AWG

24/0.2 means 24 strands of 0.2mm, not 24AWG, and should be good to 150W RMS. 0.2mm is roughly 24AWG, so that's 24 strands of 24AWG

A single 24AWG will just glow ...briefly :-)

70mm

80 posts

Master Geek

#312044 28-Mar-2010 14:11

jamesla: I have just bought some home theatre gear but need to get some 6ohm speaker cables an hdmi cable and a digital coax cable anyone know where the best place in auckland is to pick these up for cheap from?

2M HDMI cables, 1.3b metal connector with braiding $12.95 each here http://www.hdmicable.co.nz/

NZ Agent Oppo BDP-80 & BDP-83 REGION FREE/ZONE FREE Blu-ray Players
One-Stop Online Home Theatre Shop
www.oppo.co.nz www.rapalloav.co.nz www.indigoscreens.co.nz

bazzer

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#312207 28-Mar-2010 21:42

SepticSceptic: Tch, 24/0.2 does not equal 24 AWG

24/0.2 means 24 strands of 0.2mm, not 24AWG, and should be good to 150W RMS. 0.2mm is roughly 24AWG, so that's 24 strands of 24AWG

A single 24AWG will just glow ...briefly :-)

D'oh! My mistake, I was thinking 24 AWG = 0.2mm². Still 24/0.2mm = 0.2mm diameter, right? More like 32 AWG strands. Making 24/0.2 somewhere between 20 and 17 AWG (2^4 < 24 < 2^5).

SepticSceptic

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#312369 29-Mar-2010 12:22

bazzer:
SepticSceptic: Tch, 24/0.2 does not equal 24 AWG

24/0.2 means 24 strands of 0.2mm, not 24AWG, and should be good to 150W RMS. 0.2mm is roughly 24AWG, so that's 24 strands of 24AWG

A single 24AWG will just glow ...briefly :-)

D'oh! My mistake, I was thinking 24 AWG = 0.2mm². Still 24/0.2mm = 0.2mm diameter, right? More like 32 AWG strands. Making 24/0.2 somewhere between 20 and 17 AWG (2^4 < 24 < 2^5).

Yeah, around 18AWG - it's a bit light weight for any decent HT setup - good for 150w or more ? Good ol' marketing stats.. OK for HTIaB setups, or low power surrounds (small, or non-full range)., otherwise that thin wire would just act as a fuse ...

I'd be looking at least 1.5mm sq - between AWG 15 and 16.

http://www.technick.net/public/code/cp_dpage.php?aiocp_dp=guide_awg_to_metric

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buzzy

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#312393 29-Mar-2010 13:33

For what it's worth, JB HiFI in Wellington had some 16 AWG speaker cable for $3 per meter last week. Their stores in Auckland may have the same deal on, which makes them about the same price as the electrical wholesalers.

SepticSceptic

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#312434 29-Mar-2010 15:37

buzzy: For what it's worth, JB HiFI in Wellington had some 16 AWG speaker cable for $3 per meter last week. Their stores in Auckland may have the same deal on, which makes them about the same price as the electrical wholesalers.

That's a good buy - may stock up on some.

No point in quibbling for a few meters of cable, wether it's 1.50 p/m or 3.00 p/m - 10 meters gonna cost you $30 bucks. Woopee ! I have spend 150x more on the rest of the system, an no doubt others have spent around the same, if not substantially more. A few $$ either way for one of the most important connecting bits, I won't worry about it.

smarsden

118 posts

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#312446 29-Mar-2010 15:52

SepticSceptic:
buzzy: For what it's worth, JB HiFI in Wellington had some 16 AWG speaker cable for $3 per meter last week. Their stores in Auckland may have the same deal on, which makes them about the same price as the electrical wholesalers.

That's a good buy - may stock up on some.

No point in quibbling for a few meters of cable, wether it's 1.50 p/m or 3.00 p/m - 10 meters gonna cost you $30 bucks. Woopee ! I have spend 150x more on the rest of the system, an no doubt others have spent around the same, if not substantially more. A few $$ either way for one of the most important connecting bits, I won't worry about it.

For what it's worth, I'm using this stuff from DSE for my system. Not too unreasonable a price and seems to be pretty good quality as far as I'm concerned.