Hi all, This is my 1st post. I have read many of your messages and reviews over Outlaw products. Outlaw can thank you guys for the sale of my 950/770 combo! Now to my question. I am totally in the dark when it comes to home theater. I Usually buy Theaters in a Box.. But I finally had the money to spend of the good stuff. Plus I had to have something good for my new tv 34" hdtv widescreen Sony Wega. Onward to my question. Anyway, I purchased the 950/770 combo. I need some suggestions on some good already spliced/made wires for my speakers. Currently I have 2 Definitive Technology BP2004tl's. I have read that you can wire the speakers different ways (banana, etc.) so what do you guys suggest brand wise and what style do you also suggest. I would say I watch movies 70% to music 30% of the time. Any suggestions of speaker wire and where to get the suggested brands would be extrememly helpful. Also, and other ideas how to better my HT with out having to spend to much more money. I also don't really want to spend a ridiculous amount on the speaker wire, but want great wire that you can tell a difference when using over cheap wire. Thanks Alot and Merry Christmas!

Try these guys:

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

You don't in fact have to spend a ridiculous amount on cables, either for speakers or interconnects. The audio world is full of companies which will inflate the influence on sound quality of some items like cables in order to make money. Don't fall into that trap. In reality, any good speaker wire of sufficient gauge (preferrably 12 gauge) will do the job perfectly well.

I have the same speakers and use these speaker cables. www.cobaltcable.com.

I mean Im really in the DARK! As of right now, I havea the 950/770 combo a digital cable box and a dvd player and 2 bp2004tl deftech speakers. What all wires do I need?? If I were to make the system up and running what all would I need to buy today? Which cables go to 950 -> 770 and which go to 770 -> speakers .. Thanks

Some quality time with the manuals would be a good idea.....

I put together something of an overview on home theater cables here that might help. You'll need to determine your video cabling (what is the best input on your TV), but for audio you'll run a digital audio cable from DVD player to 950 and either analog or digital audio from cable box to 950, analog interconnects from 950 to 770, and speaker cables out to the speakers. If the DefTechs are ones with built-in subs, you may also split the subwoofer output and run to both built-in subs.

Thanks for all your imput, much help indeed!

i think there are more questions about what kind of speaker wire to get or ics to get than any other question. seems like someone is making their money on advertising....

JonIsland, I know how you feel. I was there when I got my 950/770 combo. Soundhound is right. Significant time reading the manual in the beginning helps alot. Also, getting a good understanding of the different kinds of cables as noted in Gonk's help link will be of significant benefit. That said, here is my suggestions. They assume you have RGB (Component) video outputs on both your Cable Box and DVD player.

770 to Speakers:
If any one run of wire is over 25' to a speaker, use 14 gauge speaker wire on all the speakers.

If all the runs from the 770 to your speakers are less than 25', fun 14 gauge.

Forget bi-wiring. You're not there yet in your audiophile expertise. I'm not either and am not convinced it would make that much difference anyway.

770 to 950:
I utilized Outlaw PCA (Analog) cables. They're topnotch.

950 to 7004 subwoofers:
Get an Analog Y-adaptor. Outlaw makes one. Run a decent quality PCA (Analog) cable from the Sub out on the 950 to one of the female ends of the Y adaptor. Plug the male end of the Y-adaptor to the LFE in on one of your 7004s. Run another PCA cable from the other female end of the Y-adaptor to your other 7004 LFE in. You're done.

950 to TV:
Run one RGB cable (Usually a red, green, blue RCA plugs on a high grade video cable. You could use Outlaw Video cables if you want. Just make sure you match up the right color outputs from the 950 to the right color inputs on your TV.) from the Component Monitor Out on the 950 to a Component Video Input (Probably Video 1) on your TV.

DVD to 950:
Audio:
Run one decent quality (Outlaw, Radio Shack Gold) digital coaxial or digital optical cable (Depends on what outputs you have on your DVD player. You may have both. If so, use an optical cable.) from your DVD digital output to the 950 Coaxial 1 (Orange, not yellow. It's on the right side of the 950.) or Opt 1 input (Also, on the right side of the 950.

Also, run a set of red/white analog (also called composite) cables from your DVD analog outputs to the 950 DVD analog inputs.

Video:
Run an RGB cable from the DVD Component Output to the DVD Component In on the 950.

Cable Box to 950:
Audio:
Same as DVD exactly, but to Coaxial 2 or Opt 2 on the 950. Also, run your R/W analog cables from your cable box to the Video 1 R/W audio inputs on the 950.

Video:
Same as DVD, but run the RGB cable to the Component Video 1 Input on the 950.

After you do this, you are going to tell the 950 what cable is connected to what. This is not hard and is where reading the manual is important. Just make sure you write down what you have assigned to what. The 950 manual gives you a place to do that.

Hope this helps.

Nice overview, grundrc. I'll only offer a couple of additions...

Composite is actually the name for the basic video (the video inputs just below the s-video plugs on the rear of the 950); analog audio is just analog audio.

If your digital cable box doesn't have component video output, you can probably swap it for an HD box that will have them. Since your HDTV is new, I'll guess that you may not have had a chance to make the swap yet.

Thanks for the correction, Gonk. I think I had a brain ____ at 11:00 last night due to all the cables running through my mind.

Another mistake I picked up on, JonIsland. Where I say, at the beginning, if the speaker wire run is over 25', it should be to use 12 gauge wire. Sorry for the typo.

JonIsland, a quick question. What are you using for your Center and Surround speakers?

C/L/R 2300 for center. Onix rockets for 750 sig rears. By the way thanks for the post, very helpful information! I've already ordered the stuff you suggested from Outlaw

also, cable and my hdtv ofer dvi/hdmi. Can you tell a diference in quality of picture when using these cables?

Looks like you're all set. Good luck. After you finish this, you'll be an expert on the various connections and wiring.

By the way, I'm a Def Tech guy too. I've got the 7001s, 3000 and BPVXs. I'm sure you will be very happy with the set up you've got.

I don't know on the DVI/HDMI. There are probably others on the forum who can weighin better on the quality difference. For sure you would lose the video switching aspect of the 950, if you elect to use those connections. I'm using a Component connection on my home theater which features an Infocus 5700 front projector, but I also have an EDTV plasma in the room just to watch TV which utilizes a Composite connection. When I'm watching an HD channel on the plasma, it's hard to imagine the picture being much better, even though it uses the inferior composite connection. I've got two other HD ready TVs in the house, with HD feeds, utilizing the Component cables and their pictures look great, but not dramatically better than the plasma with the supposedly inferior connection.

The people who installed my projector say that they prefer Component because everytime they compared it to DVI, the DVI would be a little softer, less sharp. The advantage of the DVI/HDMI is that it feeds both Video and Audio to your TV. What you might consider, if the TV will allow it, is to use a DVI/HDMI feed from your cable box to the TV to use to just watch TV, without your 950 on. Then run the Component cables from the 950 to a component input on the TV that is different from the input that the DVI/HDMI is plugged into. Then you have some real flexibility and the capability of making a real comparison for yourself by switching between two different video sources on you TV.

I don't know on the DVI/HDMI. There are probably others on the forum who can weighin better on the quality difference. For sure you would lose the video switching aspect of the 950, if you elect to use those connections. I'm using a Component connection on my home theater which features an Infocus 5700 front projector, but I also have an EDTV plasma in the room just to watch TV which utilizes a Composite connection. When I'm watching an HD channel on the plasma, it's hard to imagine the picture being much better, even though it uses the inferior composite connection. I've got two other HD ready TVs in the house, with HD feeds, utilizing the Component cables and their pictures look great, but not dramatically better than the plasma with the supposedly inferior connection.

The people who installed my projector say that they prefer Component because everytime they compared it to DVI, the DVI would be a little softer, less sharp. The advantage of the DVI/HDMI is that it feeds both Video and Audio to your TV. What you might consider, if the TV will allow it, is to use a DVI/HDMI feed from your cable box to the TV to use to just watch TV, without your 950 on. Then run the Component cables from the 950 to a component input on the TV that is different from the input that the DVI/HDMI is plugged into. Then you have some real flexibility and the capability of making a real comparison for yourself by switching between two different video sources on you TV.

The general opinion that I've seen online is that DVI on cable boxes currently offers little or no benefit over component. In some cases, I've heard folks prefer component, but not always. In theory, DVI has the potential to be better, if utilized fully, but the cable boxes and companies are not quite there yet. When I was shopping for my HDTV earlier this year, HDMI was not offered on cable boxes, so I don't know what performance HDMI might offer if available - but I would expect it to be similar to DVI since the boxes would likely produce the digital audio signal the same way. HDMI will carry digital audio, but DVI will not.

For what it's worth, here's what I do: component video from DVD player and DVD recorder to the 950's component inputs with the 950's component output to the HDTV, DVI from HD cable box to HDTV, digital audio from all three sources to 950 plus analog audio from HD cable box to 950. I would probably use component with the HD cable box if I didn't have the DVD recorder in the setup.