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.