Speaker wire turning green?

[chef free]

Help! My nice 12 ga. speaker wire is turning green inside. Will this degrade the sound quality? Which gauge of wire would you recommend for a 35 ft. length with 200 watts and 4 ohm speakers?

 

[whoaru99]

14ga minimum. 12 is a better choice at that length, IMO.

 

[Art K.]

Just curious, what kind of speaker wire is it?

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

In my experience, the clear jacketed wire seems worse in this regard. Has to be a chemical reaction going on between the two.
(Out-gassing from the polymers/plastics.)

 

[avionic]

Help! My nice 12 ga. speaker wire is turning green inside. Will this degrade the sound quality? Which gauge of wire would you recommend for a 35 ft. length with 200 watts and 4 ohm speakers?

Cupric oxide .Over time yes it will degade the signal. Wires must have gotten wet or damp at one time or another.

 

[basite]

copper turning green = severe oxidation. cut the green bits off (cut a bit of the speaker wire off, until it's copper again, if it's really really green though, I'd recommend looking for a new speaker cable, and finishing the ends with sealed banana plugs or spades. (sealed = fit little crimping sleeves over the ends, you'll find them in your nearest radio shack, or maybe in an audio store (WBT fits every finished cable with these 'sleeves', look there too...)

some cables with thransparent sleeves tend to turn green too over the time (but it's not very common...), it's also oxidation though. and yes, it'll degrade your sound.



Keep them spinning,
Bert.

 

[ehoove]

Say good bye and replace. ASAP
Regards,
Jim

 

[chef free]

Just curious, what kind of speaker wire is it?

Monster cable but getting to be 15+ years old. Was run under the house for a while too.

 

[clydeselsor]

Say good bye and replace. ASAP
Regards,
Jim

Yep!! :yes:

 

[qpagoda]

Cupric oxide .Over time yes it will degade the signal. Wires must have gotten wet or damp at one time or another.

Just curious about this. I can see why it would degrade the signal if the wire oxidized at a connection, but would oxidation degrade the signal if the connections were clean and the oxidation was only under the jacket? If so, why? No trying to argue, just curious.

 

[richamor]

Just curious about this. I can see why it would degrade the signal if the wire oxidized at a connection, but would oxidation degrade the signal if the connections were clean and the oxidation was only under the jacket? If so, why? No trying to argue, just curious.

more resistance to current flow.

eta: More corrosion = more resistance. Ohm's law says that as resistance increases, voltage and/or current must also increase in order to maintain the end result. If you need current at the speaker and the wire resistance increases, there must also be a corresponding increase in voltage. However, the excess voltage will also result in excessive heat.
Now, my brain hurts. That's my tech school xplaination. I know there are waaaay better than me to explain.

 

[qpagoda]

more resistance to current flow.

I didn't realize the oxidation would penetrate the copper deeply enough to affect resistance.

Is this because the speaker wire is stranded, or would one see the same effect with a solid 12 ga. wire?

 

[Art K.]

Monster cable but getting to be 15+ years old. Was run under the house for a while too.

As stated earlier, time to replace.

 

[luvvinvinyl]

I didn't realize the oxidation would penetrate the copper deeply enough to affect resistance.

Is this because the speaker wire is stranded, or would one see the same effect with a solid 12 ga. wire?

Stranded wire has many times the surface area of solid core 12 ga., so the effect is magnified.

 

[richamor]

I didn't realize the oxidation would penetrate the copper deeply enough to affect resistance.

Power flows throughout the wire.

Is this because the speaker wire is stranded, or would one see the same effect with a solid 12 ga. wire?

no

yes. In fact solid wire generally has a higher resistance than stranded of the same size.

 

[richamor]

I didn't realize the oxidation would penetrate the copper deeply enough to affect resistance.


Is this because the speaker wire is stranded, or would one see the same effect with a solid 12 ga. wire?

Power flows throughout the wire.

no

yes. In fact solid wire generally has a higher resistance than stranded of the same size.

 

[superdog]

Bummer.I have about 100 ft of some 12 gauge clear speaker wire that looks green.

 

[qpagoda]

Thanks for the explanation, guys. I had heard of cleaning the ends of the speaker cables but didn't realize that oxidation under the jacket could be a problem.

 

[soundmotor]

Did your cat pee on it? Only time I've had wire turn green was when a couple runs (not in use) were laying on the floor and my cat graced them.

 

[mid-fi-ry]

Copper oxidizes. Go check out some old waterpipe in a basement in spots. Liken it to rust on other types of metals.