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16 gauge or 18 gauge speaker wire? any difference?

89grand said:
Recently, I wanted to replace my 16 gauge wire in my main setup. The reason, because I wanted something that laid down better, as the particular 16 gauge was sort of stiff.

I bought some 12 gauge wire from a car audio shop that looks to be of decent quality.

Anyway, when I first swapped it out I thought "man, my speakers seem a little more forward than before". I'm not a believer in speaker wire sounding different, but it sure seemed to. My amp has A/B outputs, so I put the old 16 gauge wire in the B outputs and simply A/B'd them a number of times. Guess what, it was all in my head, both wires sounded identical to me.

With that said, you may as well just get 16 gauge.
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Not doubting what you hear, but comparing wires (especially in such a forum) must be done with some qualification. I don't doubt two different sizes (size alone) will produce different and possibly better results. However, without taking into consideration actual quality, one could very well diminish the quality of sound going from a good 14-ga up (in size) to a cheaper 12-ga.

Multi strand isn't all the same, honest. Take a look at how fine the individual wires are. You can easily have a 16-ga wire with more strands than a 12-ga. What difference that makes, based on various opinions, can be nothing to substantial.

So, anyone taking in the advice posted here, just keep in mind Gauge alone is NOT the answer or solution. At the same time beware over hyped wires.
 
16-18 gauge

They're both crap.
16 is maybe ok for lamps. 18 is good for nothing.
Just set your mind on 14 and be done with it. Don't be cheap.

Paul
 
Go for the 12...

Go to EBay and do a search for 12 gauge speaker wire and then pick you poison.
 
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Does any one know what guage a cat 5 cable is. with the wires summed up?

I ask because that is what im using on my MX 400. Have yet to hear a detriment. Ive got one cable split between the pos. and the neg. terminals.
 
budgetaudio6 said:
Does any one know what guage a cat 5 cable is. with the wires summed up?

I ask because that is what im using on my MX 400. Have yet to hear a detriment. Ive got one cable split between the pos. and the neg. terminals.
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CAT5 cable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable) has eight wires each 24 AWG which has a resistance of 0.02567 ohms per foot (for copper wire) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge).

If you use 2 wires for the negative speaker terminal and 2 wires for the positive terminal on the left channel and likewise on the right channel, you'll use all eight wires in one CAT5 cable. That gives a total resistance (down and back) of 0.02567 ohms per foot for each channel. For comparison, 12 AWG wire has a total resistance of 0.003176 ohms per foot.

To keep speaker cable resistance lower than 5 % (http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#nominal) of 8 ohms speakers, the CAT5 cable run should be less than about 15 feet. If you have two CAT5 cables in the run and use both cables, then you can go to about 30 feet.

Found the simple answer using the below linked calculator. CAT 5 cable is equivalent to 15ga wire.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~rgs/awgcalculator.html

Last edit for more info. :yes:

Check out this link for more info on building CAT 5 speaker cables.
http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html
 
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pdm4606 said:
They're both crap.
16 is maybe ok for lamps. 18 is good for nothing.
Just set your mind on 14 and be done with it. Don't be cheap.

Paul
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Basic electronics suggests otherwise. If 16 gauge was "crap" by your own admission, why risk it with barely larger 14 gauge?

I'd think, if I believed as you, that if 16 gauge was "crap", 14 gauge would be teetering on crap as well.
 
what is a good brand of 14 gauge speaker wire?

Thanks to all who commented to my earlire post this morning about what gauge speaker wire I should get. I have decided, according to majority opinion, to go with 14 gauge wire. The problem now is that 14 gauge seems to be a lot harder to find for some reason.

Please let me know what brand of 14 gauge speaker wire would be good and also where I can locate it.

I went to my local Radio Shack and they do not carry 14 gauge wire at all.
I also checked Amazon for Monster Cable, which seems to get very good reviews and, while they have 16 gauge wire for sale on Amazon, I cannot find Monster Cable in 14 gauge on Amazon. And, when I do a google search of Monster 14 gauge wire, I cannot find much and what I find are very expensive wires.

I'd apprerciate any recommendations on what brand of 14 gauge wire would be best and where I can find it (my budget is in the $30 - $40 range, I guess).

I do not need much wire - about 20-30 feet would be fine.

Thanks,
 
I'm not surprised that recommendations on gauge vary. I am, however, surprised that few are recommending boutique speaker cables. I find that refreshing.
 
One thing I would warn about - get wire with polyethylene insulator rather than clear PVC. They look the same, but over time chlorine from PVC will corrode wire inside it. Visible sign of it - copper will look almost black. This process will worsen electrical parameters too.
 
pglbook said:
Thanks to all who commented to my earlire post this morning about what gauge speaker wire I should get. I have decided, according to majority opinion, to go with 14 gauge wire. The problem now is that 14 gauge seems to be a lot harder to find for some reason.

Please let me know what brand of 14 gauge speaker wire would be good and also where I can locate it.

I went to my local Radio Shack and they do not carry 14 gauge wire at all.
I also checked Amazon for Monster Cable, which seems to get very good reviews and, while they have 16 gauge wire for sale on Amazon, I cannot find Monster Cable in 14 gauge on Amazon. And, when I do a google search of Monster 14 gauge wire, I cannot find much and what I find are very expensive wires.

I'd apprerciate any recommendations on what brand of 14 gauge wire would be best and where I can find it (my budget is in the $30 - $40 range, I guess).

I do not need much wire - about 20-30 feet would be fine.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

You can find Monster speaker wire even at hardware stores, and at Best-Buy type stores. This should be quite satisfactory. 16 gauge should be fine.
 
pglbook said:
Thanks to all who commented to my earlire post this morning about what gauge speaker wire I should get. I have decided, according to majority opinion, to go with 14 gauge wire. The problem now is that 14 gauge seems to be a lot harder to find for some reason.

Please let me know what brand of 14 gauge speaker wire would be good and also where I can locate it.

I went to my local Radio Shack and they do not carry 14 gauge wire at all.
I also checked Amazon for Monster Cable, which seems to get very good reviews and, while they have 16 gauge wire for sale on Amazon, I cannot find Monster Cable in 14 gauge on Amazon. And, when I do a google search of Monster 14 gauge wire, I cannot find much and what I find are very expensive wires.

I'd apprerciate any recommendations on what brand of 14 gauge wire would be best and where I can find it (my budget is in the $30 - $40 range, I guess).

I do not need much wire - about 20-30 feet would be fine.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Any home improvement center such as Home Depot will carry 14 gauge stranded wire.
 
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