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Speaker cable gauges

Valvetype

Valvetype

Active Member
G'day all,
I'm about to lash out and buy a 50 metre roll of speaker wire and wondering about 'overkill' in wire gauges..
I'm using low powered (12 watt ) tube amplifiers,a Cd player and vintage speakers... 8 ohm impedence.
Lengthwise,I would'nt be going more than 5 metres on each side of the amp..
I'm thinking 16 gauge (1.31 mm thick) or 14 gauge (2.08 mm thick) ..
Are these good sizes for me ? Would I gain anything soundwise by going thicker ? ..
Cheers from OZ... Charlie.
P.S. When I'm setting things up,should I keep both sides equal cable length ? Does this make any difference ?
 
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Hi Mate,

Here is a good page showing recommended gauge for the length of runs you will use for the least loss in signal etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_wire

By the chart you can user 20AWG wire up to 6m with no ill effects :)

I dont think itm atters too much on mis-matched cable lenghts unless you are comparing a 1m length of cable to a 100m length but I try to keep mine eqaul "just incase"

Hope this helps you.
 
Thanks for the link Bonkas...some good info there.I'll go back to Mr Ebay and have a look at his 16 or 18 g offerings...
Cheers.. Charlie.
 
6mm²

6mm², not less !:thmbsp:
Forget basics from electrotechnical school like shown on Wikipedia !:thumbsdn:
 
What I can tell you is that you won't know what will work best in your system and.to your ears until you try. On one shopping trip salesman swapped 16 and 12 awg speaker wire for me on a few system in different price ranges and amplifier wattage ratings. In every case, I could hear a huge improvement using 12 over 16. Some people say that they can't hear a difference. Others say that it depends on the system. If you can borrow some runs of different guage speaker wire or if you have some lying around, I'd try different sizes and go with the largest size that you can hear a difference with. IE, if 14 sounds better than 16, but you hear no improvement with 12, save some coin and stay with 14.

Another thing to be mindful of is the "burn in" period, usually a couple of days. I don't know if this is a matter of the wire breaking in, a person's ears adjusting to the new wire or a combo of the two, but when I upgrade speaker wire, I usually notice an immediate improvement. However, after a couple of days, the improvement seems to have increased. At this point, I listen again to the 1st recording I tested with and sure enough, I'll hear further improvement. Again, I don't know if it's the wire, my ears or both, but that is what I have experinced.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply Superjazzy.
Where I listen to my Music,in the shed or in the house,is not you'd call an optimum,dedicated listening environment :-)... house = furniture clutter and the shed shed has all manner of shed clutter so I dont suppose I'd be able to tell in a 'fine tuned ' way .... so I've gone for 50 metres of 14 gauge for AUS$63.00,that should keep me amused for a while !
Cheers for now...
 
Does depend on the system :-)
Some amps when fitted with a wee additional resistance either at the speaker posts or by hi resistance speaker wires, gives more/better bass... true.
This imo is ...the... basis in fact spurring legions of sales types to pushing Foolish priced speaker wires ad nauseum.
Usually going in the opposite direction: Less resistance is touted as being 'Gooder' .
We certainly live in a complex world :-)
 
Valvetype said:
Thanks for the detailed reply Superjazzy.
Where I listen to my Music,in the shed or in the house,is not you'd call an optimum,dedicated listening environment :-)... house = furniture clutter and the shed shed has all manner of shed clutter so I dont suppose I'd be able to tell in a 'fine tuned ' way .... so I've gone for 50 metres of 14 gauge for AUS$63.00,that should keep me amused for a while !
Cheers for now...
Click to expand...

You're very welcome. Sounds like you are off to a good start. Enjoy.
 
bare said:
This imo is ...the... basis in fact spurring legions of sales types to pushing Foolish priced speaker wires ad nauseum.
Usually going in the opposite direction: Less resistance is touted as being 'Gooder' .
We certainly live in a complex world :-)
Click to expand...

I agree that sales REPs like Best Buy flunkies do this because they don't know any better. A salesperson who has his/her customer's best interest at heart will take the time to demonstrate as many options as is reasonably possible. The store carried the same receiver, but not the speakers I have. So, he used the same receiver and as similar speakers as he could find. He also used 14 awg for this demo which I forgot to include b4.
 
I like to buy 14 gauge wire for almost all of my speakers, not because that gauge sound "better", but because that size wire crimps very well in the BFA banana jacks that I use.

So yes, the 14 gauge is way overkill, but the physical need because of connector type makes it a common sense thing.

Wayner
 
There's no harm, and possible benefit, to going as large as will fit your connectors.

Why stop at "sufficient"?

I buy cheap outdoor extension cords and cut them into speaker cables for my extra speaker cable needs. You can get 50 feet of heavy 14 gauge for under $20 at a hardware store.
 
WaynerN said:
I like to buy 14 gauge wire for almost all of my speakers, not because that gauge sound "better", but because that size wire crimps very well in the BFA banana jacks that I use.

So yes, the 14 gauge is way overkill, but the physical need because of connector type makes it a common sense thing.

Wayner
Click to expand...

I don't agree that 14 is necessarily overkill, at least it's not so with every system and pair of ears. However, too large is USUALLY better than too small and your reason of 14 being easily crimped into your connectors works for me.
 
I have run nearly 50 feet on left channel and 25 feet for right channel using 18 guage. It works, but sound is only OK.

I have used 10 gauge at 8 feet length to each speaker, and compared 24 feet of 12 gauge to same speakers. I could hear a difference, with the 10 gauge being better.
 
I have compulsive tendencies that cause me to go waaaay overboard on things, such as speaker wire. Having a heavier gauge wire certainly isn't going to hurt anyone's application. And with decent wire, such as Canare 4S11 costing $1.35 per foot or Belden 5T00UP costing $0.96 per foot, why not give it a go? If the difference in cost between generic 14 and 16 gauge wire is going to break the bank, you're in the wrong hobby anyway.

I'm currently in the process of making up several 10' runs of speaker cables so that I can find out for myself if there is any real world difference among them. Included will be 14 AWG Canare 4S11 twisted together for an effective gauge of 11, 10 AWG Belden 5T00UP, military spec silver plated 12 gauge copper with Teflon insulation (talk about overkill :D), RCA branded 16 gauge, probably some Monster XP and also some variant of hardware store extension wire as yet to be determined. I'll also be comparing these with some different braids of Cat5e cables that I've put together. I'll be sure to let everyone know my findings.
 
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