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Speaker Wires vs. Internal Speaker Wires

Nikkotopia

Nikkotopia

Active Member
I can find plenty of information on getting better speaker wires added to a system to improve SQ, but not much discussion about the wires inside the speaker: connectors to crossover the crossover to each speaker. Based on some of the speakers I have looked inside of the wires are kinda wimpy. Maybe I'd be seeing better in better speakers, but it seems like the internal speaker wires need to be as good as wires from the amp to the speaker to get any benefit.
 
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Possibly but the load to the speaker from the amp is the entire load, once it gets to the crossover its divided by all the drivers so it doesn't need a 14 ga wire.
But I still see what your saying.
 
Many people erroneously use the axiom "a chain is only a strong as its weakest link" when talking about audio systems, but that's not really apt. With a real chain, a single weak link makes the entire thing worthless. However, in an audio "chain", the effects are additive. So for example, if you have 20' of 14 gauge wire running from your amp to your speakers, but only 2' of 18 gauge wire inside the speakers, the short internal wiring will have a relatively minimal (if at all) effect on the sound due to the short length used. However, that hasn't stopped some speaker manufacturers from playing up their high quality internal wiring. MHO is that it's mainly marketing.
 
Nikkotopia said:
I can find plenty of information on getting better speaker wires added to a system to improve SQ, but not much discussion about the wires inside the speaker: connectors to crossover the crossover to each speaker. Based on some of the speakers I have looked inside of the wires are kinda wimpy. Maybe I'd be seeing better in better speakers, but it seems like the internal speaker wires need to be as good as wires from the amp to the speaker to get any benefit.
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If you decide to go with thicker wiring inside your speakers, you should probably think about upgrading all that skinny stuff inside your amp and preamp as well.
 
Jeffery said:
Just wait until they see what the voice coil is made of!
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And the wire in glass fuses used in receivers, amps, and speakers.
images
 
goodolpg said:
And the wire in glass fuses used in receivers, amps, and speakers.
images
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Now thats about the best point, thats why you need the cryogenically treated nano alloy hi fi audio fuses with 1 way direction for 29.99 each
And the voice coils, 46 ft of hair fine wire that deals with the 150 watts of power that comes through your 12ga. speaker wire.
I have been unconcerned with the internal wire.
But I have switched some thin aluminum wire to copper in bozak speakers already.
Just make sure you have good connections.
My 250watt infinity monitor ll a's use very thin wires and handles it superbly.
 
Speaker cable has jobs such as shielding that have almost no connection to thickness. At this level of retentiveness, the purity of the wire would have more of an impact than thickness. I think you would need a system capable of incredible resolution to show the improvement to the signal, coupled with ears sensitive enough to hear it.
 
The size of the wire is only half the picture.. the other issue is length. Since the internal wiring is very short, the small gauge wiring adds a negligible amount of resistance. For this application, #18AWG is usually sufficient.

That said, high end speakers often use quite robust internal wiring.
 
I'm often puzzled by the improvements people hear in power cords after their power is delivered over steel reinforced aluminum conductor cables. It's amazing that 3ft of special wire can cure the ills of 700 miles of crap. Maybe it's the end connectors.
Maybe it's the last and shortest distance that counts.
 
kyle said:
I'm often puzzled by the improvements people hear in power cords after their power is delivered over steel reinforced aluminum conductor cables. It's amazing that 3ft of special wire can cure the ills of 700 miles of crap. Maybe it's the end connectors.
Maybe it's the last and shortest distance that counts.
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I seriously had a almost 80 year old guy tell me how amazing his $5000 power cord sounded. The good thing was it was so absurd it actually freed me from ever having to worry about cables/speaker wire again.
 
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