Price Paid:  $30.00 from BEST BUY

Summary:
I upgraded to these wires from a tip from a worker at best buy. I went into best buy got my monster sub cable monster optical cable monster speaker cables and the lady that worked there was like here let me save you some money put that speaker wire back and take this and she handed me this wire. She told me if i was unhappy with the way the wire was come back and she'd buy me monster speaker cable. So took it home wired up everything and i was quite impressed great sound great bass and super clear. Needless to say im keeping them.

Strengths:
Good wire. Price

Weaknesses:
Need to go out and buy more for my center speaker

Similar Products Used:
nothing this good cheap junk

Price Paid:  $30.00 from accessories4less

Summary:
Upgraded to the 12AWG AR wire from the 16AWG wire a few days ago. I've been using the 16AWG stuff for about 4 years and it performed adequately at low to mid volumes but at high volumes the seperation and treble was crap. I just think it couldn't hold enough current for my setup. My mains are NHT 1.5s which are superb but require massive juice, and my receiver doesn't have a Sub-Out jack (Onkyo TX8511)so I have to wire from the receiver to the subwoofer control box on my NHT SubTwo and then from the box to the speakers. Anyway, after rewiring my system with the 12AWG higher volumes are much more listenable. Bass, treble, and imaging has improved across the board. My NHT 1.5s can finally suck the juice that is needed for them to sing like they were meant to.

Now...about this wire...it is extremely thick stuff like many reviewers have said before me. It is labeled 12AWG but it's more like 10AWG or even 8AWG. I had to use the 8AWG notch on my strippers and it still took a few pieces of wire with it. It is damn near impossible to squeeze this wire into the pins that come with it. I gave up after rubbing my fingers raw trying to twist the wire thin enough to fit into the pins. You are better off tossing the stock pins and buying some wire screw pins. If you have spring clips on your receiver (like I do) you are in for one heck of a time getting this wire in there. I got the bare wire in there eventually, but it wasn't easy.

This stuff might be a PITA to get hooked up to your system, but it's worth it once you hear the difference. Good luck.

-Onkyo TX8511
-Panasonic RV31 DVD
-NHT 1.5s
-NHT SubTwo
-Kimber PBJ
-AR 12AWG

Similar Products Used:
AR 16AWG, Monster

Price Paid:  $25.00 from accessories4less

Summary:
These are a great upgrade to the wimpy standard wires that come with HTIB systems or the 16-18G Rat-Shack wires many use. Got mine for $25 for 50ft roll at accessories4less.com. VERY THICK wire, need atleast 10G wire cutters to manipulate. Produces clear sound, especially with sound turned up. Also recommend AR ht153 subwoofer wire to round out the setup.

Strengths:
Thick, oxygen free, cheap!!(compared to identical Monster wire)

Weaknesses:
? Piantable(the insulation is clear), need fat cutters to manipulate, the attached gold pins SUCK(throw them away, or you may make the mistake of being tempted of using them)

Price Paid:  $90.00 from abc warehouse

Summary:
For 90 cents a foot it is a much better bargain than monster. The first thing I noticed was at LOUD volumes on my reciever the bass was very tight, precise ,and deeeep! It was at much lower volumes that I noticedthe bass to be not as noticable as with my previous cable? Maybe it is because it was tighter and more precise? But I have only had them less than a week and I intend to put some serious playing hours with various differents types of movies and music. I dont know much about speaker cable, but from what I have been reading these cables should keep up with the best in this price range. It appears that there may be a long break in period! Based on the reviews here. The mids improved and treble stayed pretty much the same.

Strengths:
performance for price

Weaknesses:
its to soon to tell I will follow up If there are any changes!

Similar Products Used:
monster original 14 and 16 gauge wire

Price Paid:  $169.00 from lowe''s

Summary:
I bought this 12 gauge cable from Lowe's in a 250 ft. spool for 169.00 bucks. I used the whole thing for my rear surrounds and rear back surrounds plus center speaker and front/left speakers. It took me 50 hours to break them in, once broken in they sounded so good and gave me a tight bass using Paradigm Titan speakers for the front. This wire is tightly wound and has a deep copper color not like the 12 gauge from Monster that looks cheap. This cable really rocks and when I watched "Joyride" on DVD, when it came to the part where the guys at the hotel parking lot and it was raining hard and there's thunder and lightning in the background, I felt like it was really raining inside the house. Bottom line is, this cable is perfect for those people with a budget home theater.
My system:
Paradigm Studio 20 (I replaced the Titan)fronts
Paradigm Studio CC Center Channel
Paradigm ADP 170 Rear Surrounds
Paradigm ADP 70 Rear back surrounds
Paradigm PDR 10 Subwoofer
Marantz CD 6000ose CD player
Audioquest Copperhead interconnects
DVP 700 Sony DVD Player

Strengths:
strong tight bass, cheap .80 cent per ft.

Weaknesses:
thick insulation, almost like 10 gauge copper in thickness

Similar Products Used:
monster 12 gauge, rat shack 12 gauge