Best Place to buy : audio cables/wire
 

I've got quite a bit of general automotive wiring to do, as well as wiring in some amps and speakers.

What is the best place to purchase the following:
Car Audio RCA cables
Car Audio speaker wire
Automotive (twisted strands) wire - in multiple colors and gauges

Is there a one stop shop online that has quality stuff at good pricing? Or am I better off just going to best buy or home depot?

Thanks.

Oh god,you just named the two worst places you can possibly go. Those places are spendy as hell. Retail is not the way to go. I had two jobs and bought in bulk from ebay and saved a ton vs. any place in town. Got the quality rca's for half of what a stereo shop charges. Bought a 25ft section of 4 gauge and distribution blocks, terminal ends, interior 14 gauge, the works. If you dont have an ebay account I would check out woofersetc.com or hifisoundconnection. I have dealt with woofersetc for years and they are a great place to deal with. And you dont have to go to 3 places to get all the stuff you need.

Awesome, I have an ebay account, which seller or brand do you typically use?

I just don't want to end up buying a ton of wire that is low quality.

Also, is 14 gauge speaker wire good enough for my amp that will be putting out 50w x 4 RMS to the front and rear speakers? Or should I go with 12 gauge?

if you can fit the 12 ga. go for it. for highs i normally stay at 14 for ease of install and you really dont need to go bigger. for cabling if your worried about quality stick with directed, rockford or kicker. rockford makes a very good kit that comes with everything you need for a 2ch amp. all you would need for a 4 ch in addition to the kit is more speaker wire and another set of rca.

Just look at feedback for any of the vendors you are buying from. The listing will tell you if the wire is shielded and all that info also. There are a lot of quality wiring out there besides the bigger names listed above which specialize in wiring/cable which is why they are less expensive, not because of less quality.

Thanks, I'll start looking.

BTW, here is the amp i'll be using:

http://s.ecrater.com/stores/64361/48...68f_64361n.jpg
- 5-channel car amplifier
- Class AB 4-channel amp with 1-channel Class D mono sub channel
- 50 watts RMS x 4 + 150 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms (60 watts RMS x 4 + 300 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms)
- 120 watts RMS x 2 at 4-ohms + 150 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms in 3-channel mode
- variable high- and low-pass filters (32-320 Hz, 12 dB/octave)
- variable bass boost (0-6 dB at 50 Hz)
- MOSFET power supply
- preamp-level inputs and outputs



I'll eventually get a small 8" sub, but I'll wire it like I already have one, so that when I get it I can just pop it in.

Is the shielding on these RCA cables good enough?
Ebay Link

I would go for a twisted and shielded set of RCA's but I'm sure those would work ok as long as you didnt run them with power wires. Thats when you get interference and noise.

Thanks for all the info.

Here is what I ended up getting:

Amp Power Kit (will use to power the amp, and also RCA and speaker wire for the eventual sub)
http://www.jandawholesale.com/images...L-PCS-BEST.jpg

4 channel RCA cable set - will go to the amp and power the front and rear speakers
http://www.jandawholesale.com/images...pion/qtr17.jpg

Speaker Wire for front and rear speakers
http://www.jandawholesale.com/images...n/S14-PACK.jpg

Hopefully others will find the links helpful. Thanks again for the info.

Wiring for a full 5 channel system for less than $70 bucks. I think thats pretty decent.

how about knukonkeptz?

+1, have had great experiences when using them.

so which ebay seller did you get the bulk wire and stuff? im interested in some

Another option is to go to a local welding shop (like air gas). They have low gauge hi strand welding cable that's used for the ground cables on welding machines. You can use that as power cables. Buy it by the foot and cut on site. I went their and bout some 0 gauge cable to do my battery relocation. Welding cable is very hi quality and not that expensive.

Thanks for the info.

And the ebay seller I bought from was jauga82 - Try the links above, that might get you to his store.

And the 12-18 gauge wire I purchased was from http://www.wiringproducts.com/

You can get 15ft lengths pretty cheap, I did a lot of searching and unless you need 100ft of any kind of wire, you can't beat the prices here. It's really non-bulk at bulk type pricing. Plus they have some other good stuff, I bought 2 relays and female relay connectors for my fuel pumps.

That site is great, really like one of their kill switches!