I think I know of a few: the shorter the better; never use an instrument cable as a speaker cable; speaker cables use larger wires have no shielding.

What are other considerations? Reliable design/brands? Reasons for malfunction? How long is too long?

I don't think there's much to speaker cables. As long as you have Copper of the right guage for the power/impedence of your speakers/amp combo and length of run, you're probably fine. I would (and have) just order a roll of 14awg from Monoprice and call it a day. Speaker wire isn't worth fussing over or over-spending on. Ignore the "oxygen free virgin copper blahblahblah" $10K for 10ft of speaker wire audiophile crowd. Use $ not wasted here on something cool.

thecr4ne wrote: Sun Jul 16, 2023 10:46 am I don't think there's much to speaker cables. As long as you have Copper of the right guage for the power/impedence of your speakers/amp combo and length of run, you're probably fine. I would (and have) just order a roll of 14awg from Monoprice and call it a day. Speaker wire isn't worth fussing over or over-spending on. Ignore the "oxygen free virgin copper blahblahblah" $10K for 10ft of speaker wire audiophile crowd. Use $ not wasted here on something cool.

+100

Only thing I would add is some connectors are better than others and depending on what you're using it for (band with tendency to knock over rigs) that might be desirable?
I found the D'Addario planet waves cables held up to a LOT of abuse but were unfortunately not easy to repair because of the molded covering on the connector.
But they had a no-fault warranty so made it worth it. I broke a lot of patch cables, few speaker cables.

I keep a roll of speaker wire and some Switchcraft connectors in our van. Occasionally have been a hero at a show I attended and that's a better feeling than solving my own problems.

I make all my speaker cable out of 2 conductor lamp wire you can buy at the hardware store in bulk for mega cheap. Just attach banana, quarter, or speak on and bobs your uncle. It is also effortless to discerit form instrument cable.

Don't let anybody tell you that twisting speaker wire is necessary. It doesn't have any audible benefit at shorter lengths (i.e. less than maybe 100 m). Sure, it lowers mutual inductance and raises capacitance, which can reduce EMI, but for the lengths that most of us deal with, it's not measurably helpful.

Kniferide wrote: Sun Jul 16, 2023 1:45 pm I make all my speaker cable out of 2 conductor lamp wire you can buy at the hardware store in bulk for mega cheap. Just attach banana, quarter, or speak on and bobs your uncle. It is also effortless to discerit form instrument cable.

+1

More than suitable for the job and is ubiquitous/cheap.

lamp cord probably fine for guitar but at the risk of embarrassing myself I am wondering if it might be worth going with a higher gauge cable for say SVT > 8x10 or some other very high-powered bass rig since bass and volume are certainly two higher demand needs. I guess now that I think about it though, some of the bigger sound reinforcement rigs I've worked with are doing very long runs to subs w/ 12 gauge I believe...so I may have answered my own question in that it's probably overkill.

As FM thecr4ne mentioned, that Monoprice 14 gauge is $20 for 50 ft. 50 ft should last someone a life time & is also the exact route I went. Maybe I paid slightly more than lamp cord out of being overly cautious...but we're also only talking like several dollars vs some of the insane prices you frequently see audiophiles getting hornswaggled over.

When stuff shits out, check the cables first!

Garth wrote: Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:32 am lamp cord probably fine for guitar but at the risk of embarrassing myself I am wondering if it might be worth going with a higher gauge cable for say SVT > 8x10 or some other very high-powered bass rig since bass and volume are certainly two higher demand needs.

4 sure! I was just talking for regular people amp heads. Wouldn't want to run a PA on Lamp cable. Anything under 100 watts lamp cable is probably fine.

now that I think about it, most larger speaker cable jacks might accommodate two strands of lamp cord doubled up. It might look a little wonky but if it's that much cheaper, that might be a good way to double the amount of copper or save someone from having to buy a spool of 14 or 12 awg & just use what you have lying around