Bulk Speaker Wire Price/source?

[autonomous_unit]

Not sure whether to post this here in the electronics forum or over in the home ownership one where the builder type discussions happen...

Our builder who is doing some remodeling has said he would build in some speaker wires for me, but he doesn't seem to have any idea where to get a roll of suitable wire.

I am fully resistant to the speaker wire myths and snake oil. I just want some heavy, stranded, and polarized two-conductor wire or "lamp cord", e.g. around or better than 16 A.W.G. (about 1.5mm diameter conductors).

Could anyone suggest a place to go around BKK to buy a roll of 50m or 100m for a good price? And what is the magic phrase to describe this to the sales people?

I am not interested in paying more so that someone can write "speaker" on the package, but nobody I've talked to seems to be able to comprehend the idea of regular electrical wire of a specific guage!!

[lopburi3]

If you are looking for the normal US style zip cord do not believe you will find it here as at 220v they do not need or use nearly as much copper so most of the wires are much smaller.

If you are in Bangkok a trip to Ban Mar (one block west of Old Siam Shopping Plaza) in the Chinatown area is the center for speakers and electronics.

Home Pro stores have bulk wire for sale but not sure if the size will be right. You tell them how much and they will reel it off. Almost all lighting and electric stores will have reels available and you can take a look to see if it is what you want.

[astral]

Check to see if there is an electronic component shop in your area

as he will probably have cable and be able to sell you a whole reel

[phuketsiam]

Just go to home pro and buy the thickness of normal electrical wire you want, I'm sure I have seen lamp cord in homepro, not sure if the thickness you want though.

BTW I am and advocate of proper speaker wire as it should be of very low resistance, doesn't need to be solid copper, IMO, but you can get 'decent' speaker wire in UK for not much more than electrical wire, in LOS its very expensive 'speaker' wire or normal electrical cable. Be carefull where you run the cable, if its close to any power cables you will get induced hum

[solo siam]

You can buy rolls of proper speaker cable for around 1200 Baht or so for I think 60/80 metres. Best place to look would be a specialist electrical store, I would recommend using conduit for the speaker cable, just to help isolate it from mains etc...

[autonomous_unit]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We just rummaged around in Ban Moh today and eventually settled on some reasonably thick but generic speaker wire, 1200 THB for 50 meters. I looked at several and picked the one that looked to be a nice heavy guage, all copper, and not already corroding under the insulation. Maybe I'll buy a soldering iron and tin the leads if I get really bored.

To the people talking about fancy wire, I'm one of those old school types who would take pride in cranking his tube amp through some surplus lamp cord in the US. But, I didn't ship that aging space heater, so I'm actually just talking about running a middle of the road Yamaha AV receiver to some 8 ohm speakers. The built-in wires are going to be about 10 meters maximum and just for the rear channels, so what I bought is probably overkill.

There might be some unavoidable power hum, because my compromise with my wife is to make it look nice and not go crazy. So, I'll have the builder route the wires where he can, rather than ripping everything up to run the power and audio down opposite sides of the room with 90-degree intersection points. Besides, I should probably smother the tile floors and sliding glass with sound absorbers first.