What Wiring should i use for my home theatre?

[Shav]

Okay, so i have a Sony Muteki 7.4 downstairs in the main living room.. only problem is that my Subs don't reach its full potential, I have tried tuning it but theres no improvement, I thought about thicker wiring cables so i think ill give that a go. i have read that they best range from 16 - 18 Guage.. i dont want to spend money on something that will work the same as a lower grade one..

my surround speakers are spread out, i would say, 5-6 metres from the receiver to the speaker. Even though they rant 5 - 6 Meters apart, the cable that runs through the roof is around that length. I also want to look at something that is safe, and wont be a hazard, esp when these wires run through my roof.

i also read that, to make sure the quality of the cable matches the quality of the home theatre system, i'll include a link to the sound system and its specs below...

http://www.sony.com.au/product/ht-ddw8600


Is there any recommendations to what sought of speaker cable i'll be looking at, and how much? depending on the price, ill look into upgrading all of the wires but, my main concern is my Subwoofer and Surround..thanks !
Thanks for all the help, it will be too late to return this as my parents bought it starting of the year.. i guess they'll just have to bare with it. I have my own theatre in my room, just wanted my parents to feel the cinema experience in the living room for them..

 

[Maniac]

As you can see from his response AVDADDY tends to be very vague, he holds back and doesn't tell you what he really thinks. He sugar coats it!

Not sure where to start... The problem with brands like Sony and most of the popular brands is that they lie about specs. Example: Total Power Output (1kHz, 6Ohms, 10%THD) 185W x 7 + 200W x 4 = 2095W is a lie. Measured power jumps dramatically once you go into clipping because you are adding harmonic content. The 185 watts @ 10% distortion is probably around 120 watts in reality which is ok, that's plenty. The simple addition is where the big lie comes in. The photos in the link you provided do not have the resolution to see the back of the unity well enough to read the power input requirement buy perhaps you can read it and post it for us. Unless it states otherwise in the manual this will be a class AB amplifier. Class AB amplifiers are about 50% efficient so you can take the voltage/current input requirement and calculate the highest possible total continuous power output. You will find that it is not 2095 watts because this would require about 4200 watts off your AC line. Assuming 220 VAC that's 19 amps. Your amplifier can possibly do about 120 watts single channel driven but more likely about 30 ~ 35 watts all channels driven. You can't just add the channel powers they way they did. 30 watts is still ok as long as you have very efficient speakers or don't want to play very loud.

Another lie by manufacturers is to imply that "watts" is a measure of system output. It isn't. Output is measured in SPL (Sound Pressure Level) and the unit is dB, not watts. Watts is what is required to attain this just like gas is what your car uses in fuel. The more miles per gallon the better and the more SPL per watt the better. If you want to know how fast a car will go or how fast it will accelerate you don't ask about gallons of gas, you ask about HP or Torque. Likewise if you want to know how loud an audio system will play you don't ask about watts you ask about SPL in dB. Later, regarding the car you may ask how much gas it uses but you hope for a small number and similarly, an ideal audio system would not need many watts of input power to get a lot of output SPL. Manufacturers however like bragging about huge wattage numbers and they continue to let the mass market believe these big numbers are a good thing. They even go so far as to lie about the numbers making them much bigger than they really are.

Don't get me wrong, you do need a certain amount of power to attain high output levels but this power is not a means of measurement of output. A typical home speaker has a sensitivity of about 87 dB with 1 watt input. To calculate increases in volume use 10Log(P/1) Example 10Log(100/1) calculates the increase in output with 100 watts. This is +20 dB.

Better cables is not going to help your system. We don't know the sensitivity rating of your speakers and we don't know how the 10" woofers are tuned, the excursion capability of the woofers, the quality of the woofers... We just don't have much to go on other than the brand name Sony and that's not a good sign. I wouldn't expect much out of a Sony woofer. Four 10" woofers is not much for a decent size room, you really need bigger cones and much better quality cones than Sony.

Your surround speakers and center speaker use very small cones. Typically smaller speakers have lower sensitivity meaning they produce less sound output (SPL) per watt and they can also handle fewer watts. Better cables are not going to help any of this.

So, sorry but I'm afraid I'm going to have to try to clarify what AVDADDY was trying to say and ask you if it's too late to take this product back to the store. You will be far better served to buy a system one piece at a time starting with a good AVR then adding speakers, subwoofers etc all from different companies so you can find the best for the money in each component. Prepackaged systems like this are never a good idea. If it's not too late to return it I would suggest doing that and then starting over. There are a number of products that can be recommended although I'm not sure about availability in Australia.

Sorry for the bad news.

mk