Thanks Liese. I found a couple options there.

I dumped my old computer and old stereo at the Alameda County Computer Reuse Center, which runs a program that teaches kids computer/electronic skills while they rehab the equipment, and then it gets shipped overseas for use in third world schools and stuff. It's a great program, and I don't mind at all that I have to pay $20 to cover the monitor recycling.

Question for all you sound people out there -- when shopping for speaker wire, what do the gauge numbers mean? Is 18 better or worse than 16? (I lurve my sound system, but when the source is of poor sound quality -- i.e. Comedy Central -- there's a tiny bit of buzzing, which I think higher quality wires would help fix.)

And wrt the iPod dock vs iPod stereo connector kit, is it worth getting the kit, or should I just buy the dock and get the cables separately?

[eta: And another A/V question -- my DVD player has both composite and component output. My A/V reciever has only composite input, but my TV has component. Would I be crazy to wire the DVD player's audio through the reciever, but run component video directly into the TV? And if I did that, would it so confuse the system that nothing would work, or would I be rewarded with snazzy digital optical surround-sound AND lovely vivid component video?]

The numbers are gauge sizes. The bigger the number, the thinner the wire. I'm not sure what that means in terms of sound quality. I'm pretty sure there are other factors, such as the length of the run and the quality of the shielding.

The bigger the number, the thinner the wire. I'm not sure what that means in terms of sound quality. I'm pretty sure there are other factors, such as the length of the run and the quality of the shielding.

Okay, thanks. I'm working on the assumption that the wires that came in the box were really cheap, and so almost anything I buy will be an upgrade. But phrases like "at least 16-gauge" (which is all over the Amazon reviews) only becomes helpful once you know which direction the numbers are going in. So cool.

The smaller the number of the gauge the better, though once you drop to 12 ga you're in pretty good shape. What this really does for you is help with the damping factor of the speakers, especially at low frequencies. Damping factor is essentially how fast the driver in the speaker can change directions. Also you get better tranmission of low frequency signals on the larger cables.

As for the hum, larger wire won't really help this. Here's what can help. Make sure that you don't have long lengths of wire coiled, and then near some sort of AC line. When you coil the wire like that you are creating a wonderful loop for induction of noise. Given that, speaker signals typically don't pick up that kind of hum. Usually it's the unbalanced line level cables (The ones with the RCA connectors on them). Make sure that they aren't near AC lines and if they must cross do it at a 90 degree angles. They shoudl never run parrallel with AC lines. Also try to buy line level cables that are shielded. You don't need to was money on stuff like monster cable, but a good grade shielded RCA can help.

If there is noise coming in on the speaker lines then the best way to get noise rejection is to use a cable that is a twisted pair. Most speaker cable is just a high grade zip cord which is not twisted. By running a twisted pair you can get very long distance runs with very good noise rejection.

Um, I think I just really gave you way more than you were asking for.

I don't know about Jess, but I'm bookmarking it.

There's also a whole thing about lots of gear having what's called the "Pin 1" problem, which has to do with the manufacturers not properly connecting the audio ground to the chassis of gear. You can often make odd hums go away from running a clean grounding line to a screw on the chassis of the gear. I'm kinda convinced this is going on with my Tivo and may be doing that soon.

Whoot! Good, ita & Laura, glad I could help.

Suela, that sounds like an awesome program. Useful all the way 'round.

ND, you need to come help us design our fantasy studio. You know, when we build the house we're going to build with the money we don't have on the land we can't buy.

As for the hum, larger wire won't really help this. Here's what can help. Make sure that you don't have long lengths of wire coiled, and then near some sort of AC line.

The funny part is, I used to know this, because it's really important on film sets. I've just been in post-production too long.

You don't need to was money on stuff like monster cable

Oh. Well...they weren't that much more than the RadioShack brand ones. And they sound is so much better than what we had before. The hum's gone, probably just because these are so much better shielded than the old ones.

(I also discovered that the reason we weren't getting very good bass out of this system is that I never turned on the subwoofer. Funny how much that helped...)

[eta: Oh, and the guy at the Apple store completely talked me out of getting the stereo connector kit, on the grounds that the dock is basically a $40 piece of plastic, and totally useless for anything except making the iPod stand up. So I just got the cables, which work great.]