You’re excited to set up your audio system, but before you start, it’s important to know how to properly terminate speaker wire and RCA cables. The first thing we do to a pair of analogue interconnects is run them in by connecting them to our reference system. In our experience, their impact on a system can change over time so we make sure they have a couple of days with an audio signal running through them. For all those doubters out there stop bleating about a multi million pound industry being a load of old cobblers, if it was then by now those that spend vast amounts of money would have just fitted bell wire because if they don't here an improvement then they would look else where, that's because they can afford to.

Speaker cable is the wire used for the electrical connections between speakers and amplifier sources. It has three key electrical properties: resistance, capacitance and inductance. Resistance is by far the most important property to look at. Low-resistance wire allows more of the source’s power through to the speaker coil, meaning more power and more sound. Simple enough. The RCA cable is also used for connecting audio or stereo devices to transmit sound signals. In this case, the cable only transmits audio signals. It is usually of very high quality and should be like that for the signal to be of high quality. It can be combined with video RCA like component to achieve both HD video and audio transfer. Connectors

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A good starting point is to consider getting in touch with the manufacturer of your stereo amplifier and asking if they recommend a particular brand or model of interconnect. After all, engineers will have spent hours experimenting during the development process and you might be told some valuable nuggets of information which might make your job of finding something suitable more simple.

Strip the speaker wire: Expose about 1/2 inch of copper wire on each end by removing the insulation using wire strippersHaving trouble with unwanted noise or poor sound quality in your setup? Don’t worry, it’s a common issue that many audio enthusiasts face. The good news is that there are ways to troubleshoot these problems and prevent them from happening again in the future. They deliver a step-up in quality from the cheaper C-ine mentioned above, but they do cost more and their talents will be heard more obviously in systems that are at mid-level price and above. The original Clearway analogue interconnects have been around for a little while and they were revised in 2022 to introduce a new plating to the plugs. So rather than poking our nose between these two opposing camps and risk getting dragged into the ongoing battle, lets elude the heated quarrel and instead offer up an overview of speaker cable jargon and give you some useful tips on how to buy your own.