Philips Spooled Speaker Wire - 100ft - 16 gauge by Philips Peripherals and Accessories
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Digital camera reviews of Philips Spooled Speaker Wire - 100ft - 16 gauge
Digital camera Review: No Suprises, good price, good wire.
Summary: 5 Stars
A fair price for a good product. 16-AWG wire came in good condition with standard super-saver shipping option. It arrived before estimated date. This is a good price for 16AWG wire in such a small roll, and beats Radio Shack prices by far... same size and brand at R-Shack is $24.99 as of this date. You need wire?...order it.Digital camera Review: No color coding
Summary: 3 Stars
While there are some reviewers who could make out some sort of line indicating the difference between the ground and hot wires I sure couldn't. Thinking that perhaps I was getting too long in the tooth and starting to suffer from eye failure, I called several friends. We looked and looked and looked under several different lights and could not find any difference between the two wires. So, while this does the trick sound wise, you get what you pay for. It was a huge pain to have to track and mark almost 100 feet of wire using a black magic marker.Digital camera Review: No excuse for indistinguishable strands.
Summary: 1 Stars
Speaker wires come with two strands. The strand going to the + or - pole on the receiver MUST go to the same pole (+ or -) on the speaker, which means that you MUST be able to identify each strand at each end. This is the way speaker wiring has worked for well over 50 years (since the inception of stereo).
So how on earth can a company be lazy/stupid/careless/sloppy enough to market a 100' long spool of "speaker wire" with no way of distinguishing the two strands at each end? That's what I got when I ordered this product. The picture on the spool I received actually shows the two strands as being different colors - one dark and one light - but they were not.
If you do not happen to own an Ohm meter, you must first cut the wire to length, split the strands into two at each end, wrap one wire/strand with tape, then manually track that strand all the way (as much as 100') to the other end and mark it with tape so that you can be sure of connecting your speakers in phase (assuming you didn't miss a twist in the wire somewhere along the line).
Since the quality of wire has to be pretty much the same in different brands' plain rolls of basic 16-guage speaker wire, I have to downgrade this to 1 star for this inexcusable omission. I agree with the person who said to buy from Home Depot or Lowes so that you can see what you are getting.
Digital camera Review: Not 16 Gauge - More Like 18
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought much better quality Phillips brand 16 Ga. wire at Wal-Mart for about the same price. This is cheap 18 Ga. wire.Digital camera Review: Philips Makes It Difficult
Summary: 2 Stars
Who would've thought speaker wire could be difficult to use? But that's exactly what Philps (practically the inventor of "all things stereo for the home") has done with this product.
I've used all types of speaker wire for many years (for many different applications). All wire I have seen is in someway marked - so that the user can determine which of the two wires will be used for negative and positive on the speaker end and the receiver/power amp end. Usually the wires are recognizable as being two different colors - one is silver and one is red for example. Or sometimes the plastic casing around the wires help the user determine which wire is which - sometimes one has text printed on it.
In the case with the Philips Spooled Wire - they have done neither. You may think this is not a big deal - and it isn't if you are running a foot or two of wire - but if you are running 50 plus feet of wire - this becomes an annoyance. Both wires (and the casing they are in) look exactly alike. There is no way to visually tell them apart.
I dealt with it by choosing one wire, peeling back the casing to expose the bare wire, and then meticulously tracing that particular wire to its end - and then marking it. It would have been easier to just choose silver or red, make the connection - find the other end and do the same.
Had I known this is what the product was like - I would have never purchased it. It's the same as if Philips came out with a DVD player ... and none of the buttons were marked for their functions!