where is the best place to buy home theater speaker wire?

I'm rewiring my home theater equipment. And I need around 150 ft of speaker wire.

Monoprice [monoprice.com] for the highest quality and lowest prices.

You can also check your local Wal-Mart depending on what gauge you're looking for.

Monoprice! Otherwise head down to your local hardware warehouse to the lighting section and look for lamp cord.

+1 for monoprice. just ordered 50' of 14gauge for $12 (i think) plus shipping.

Does the speaker wire quality matter? I just got a new sound system and was wondering if i need to upgrade my wires too.

No, speaker wire quality doesn't really matter. As long as it's decently thick and a good gauge, then you're fine. The big two things are that true copper is a better conductor, but because of prices people are using copper covered aluminum a lot (no big deal, just buy 1 gauge larger wire) and many of the really crappy companies screw you on the actual wire. Make sure to look at reviews, because while a wire may be marked as 14 or 16 gauge, they could just be using thicker insulation, and only have as many metal strands as another company's 20 gauge.

But, going for triple-wound, mega-directional blah blah blah marketing terms is a waste of money. This is as good as you'd need:
http://www.monoprice.com/products...1&format=2

Also, I recommend buying yourself banana plugs, if your speakers and receiver have the capability. They're about $2/pair over there at monoprice. They don't do jack for sound quality, but they're so convenient.

Quote from frankrizzo1 : Does the speaker wire quality matter? I just got a new sound system and was wondering if i need to upgrade my wires too.

As long as your current wire isn't damaged or you're not daisy-chaining multiple wires together, your current wires will be fine - as long as they're the proper gauge for your new equipment.

monoprice is the best, but dont buy the cheapest wire out there. if you do, youll notice that its quarter as thick as it should be and some systems have problems when wire is to thin

mono mono mono mono priceeeeeeeeee.

I'll find out what gauge they are. Should be written on the wire correct?

Quote from Brian1 : As long as your current wire isn't damaged or you're not daisy-chaining multiple wires together, your current wires will be fine - as long as they're the proper gauge for your new equipment.

Quote from frankrizzo1 : I'll find out what gauge they are. Should be written on the wire correct?

It should, but oftentimes it's very small, almost unreadable writing.

It might be easier to simply cut off about an inch of the wire and take it to Home Depot and match it with the wire they have on their giant, mechanical ferris wheel of wire.

My initial knee-jerk reaction was to sit down and start typing -
Monoprice... Monoprice... Monoprice.

However, I went to the monoprice.com web site and priced out 150 feet of 12 guage speaker wire.
Your two cheapest options are 3-50' spools or 1-50' spool and 1-100' spool.
Either choice will cost you almost $55 if you're shipping to the east coast.

I happened to be in Home Depot the other day and was surprised to find that they have spools of speaker wire in their electrical department (I assume that Lowes also has it).

Unfortunately I didn't write down the prices since i wasn't in the market for speaker wire.
My recollection is that the prices were very low and possibly lower than Monoprice.
I would suggest that you at least check out both HD and Lowes before you order on-line.

On last point.
All things being equal,the smaller the wire gage number, the better (and thicker) the speaker wire will be.
The longer the length of speaker wire you are looking for, the thicker it should be.
The smaller the gauge number is the better/thicker the speaker wire is - e.g. , 12 guage is thicker than 14 guage, which is thicker than 16 guage.