Q: What do I shop for when looking at speaker wire?

Speaker wire ranges in price just as loudspeakers themselves do. You can get 50 feet of wire for $15 at your local big-box retailer, or you can get 50 feet for $200,000 through specialty dealers. What do you shop for? Depending on how much power you will be pushing through the line, you're going to be looking at the gauge of the wire and the type of wire, says Ian Bryant of Indiana-based systems installer TriPhase Technologies. The gauge is the thickness of the wire; the smaller the gauge, the thicker the wire. Most speakers are okay with a 16-gauge wire, but once you get into THX systems and large floor standing speakers, you want to start at 14 gauge and up, Bryant says. The most common type of wire is stranded, but there is also solid core, which can help transfer larger amounts of power but is very costly, he adds.

As far as budgeting, renowned industry veteran Bob Carver of Sunfire gives this audiophile perspective: "I'm very passionate about sound, and I like to invest my money where it yields the greatest return. I use high-quality cable and wire big enough to handle the power and the length of the run. Strictly speaking, beyond a certain point, the law of diminishing returns kicks in, and we no longer get much bang for the buck. My advice: Use good wire, and put most of your money into components that will provide real benefits, like speakers and amplifiers."