Is Speaker Wire Guage Important In Relation To Audio Cable Quality?
I have really expensive audio cables in my home theatre system but I think the speaker wire is pretty thin. How important is the speaker wire guage in your home audio system?
In a basic sense, perhaps (mainly in the low bass region). But
that's where it ends. If you are going into the higher end cable,
this doesn't matter. Higher end cables use higher quality metal
and special designs to achieve a higher level of performance...
For example, if you're going with a basic pair of copper wire, an
18 gauge wire is not going to be able to perform as well as say
a 14 gauge wire -especially in longer runs or with subwoofers.
If you have an ear for high quality sound, let your hear tell give
you the answer as to which cable sounds better. Helpful hint:
if your speaker has two sets for bi-wiring or bi-amping, sound
will be improved if you use them for a clearer path between a
speaker and the amplifier.
H a p p y
L i s t e n i n g !
* * * Don't forget to give "thumbs up" ratings for good answers! * * *
(You can get up to 50 extra points from ratings with a best answer)
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yes the bigger the better.
go for a 16
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If you are making the audio travel along a distance of more than 8 feet, it could degrade you sound quality. However, the thickness of a wire will generally cause a degradation in quality because of the type of amterial and the thickness. If the wire is thicker, there is less resiwstance in a wire, which will not cause the drop in current. If the material you are using for the wire is bad (not a good conductor) then the resistance will be high again, and cause the drop in current.
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I’m a physics major, and I have also researched this.
The larger the better, due to less resistance along the wire. I have #10 through out my home.
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the more power you push the heavyer the gauge you should use.
and where the connection is having good connectors is important
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sound box speaker resistance is generally mentioned in ohms(4 ohms or 8 ohms), the audio output from amplifier should match perfectly(wire resistance should be less than 5% of the speaker resistance), use avilable good wire that is enough. If the audio wire resistance is more then the sound output from the speakers will be low.if the wire is too lengthy then the sound quality became poor(don’t coil the wire).
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In a basic sense, perhaps (mainly in the low bass region). But
that’s where it ends. If you are going into the higher end cable,
this doesn’t matter. Higher end cables use higher quality metal
and special designs to achieve a higher level of performance…
For example, if you’re going with a basic pair of copper wire, an
18 gauge wire is not going to be able to perform as well as say
a 14 gauge wire -especially in longer runs or with subwoofers.
If you have an ear for high quality sound, let your hear tell give
you the answer as to which cable sounds better. Helpful hint:
if your speaker has two sets for bi-wiring or bi-amping, sound
will be improved if you use them for a clearer path between a
speaker and the amplifier.
H a p p y
L i s t e n i n g !
* * * Don’t forget to give "thumbs up" ratings for good answers! * * *
(You can get up to 50 extra points from ratings with a best answer)
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References :
http://www.silversonic.com
http://www.musictimbre.com
http://www.audience-av.com
http://www.monster.com
http://www.nordost.com
http://www.kimber.com
http://www.jpslabs.com
http://www.cardas.com
Expensive or not, its the size of the connector that counts. It depends on the lenght of the speaker wire, the power of your amp.
That said, most people won’t notice the difference.
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Look at the bottom of this page (table/matrix) http://www.lalena.com/Audio/FAQ/Wiring/
Here is a calculator for wire gauge: http://www.webervst.com/gauge.htm
The thicker the speaker wire the better. Especially if you are going to have long runs (more than 15 feet or so)
Go with a 16 awg at the very least (It about the size of the cord on a lamp)
14 and even 12 awg can be bought for a reasonable price.
(The lower the number the thicker the wire)
And depending on the speaker connects, using spade-ends or bananna plugs are an easier way to conect rather than crimping bare wire around the posts.
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Size isn’t as important as BUILD QUALITY…Most of the speaker wire in the world is MULTI-STRANDED and BRAIDED…I know that "the more surface area you have, the more signal transfer you get"…So you’d think that you WANT all those strands inside your wire…But it’s not true.
That works great if EACH strand is INSULATATED…That is, has it’s very OWN coating around it…But most wires don’t do that…All the strands are RIGHT NEXT to each other….But having a bunch of INSULATED wires all TWISTED AROUND each other inside ONE cable, actually removes most electrical interference and radio waves from your signal.
The problem with regular speaker wire is that the signal DOESN’T spiral down the bare strands…It JUMPS from strand to strand in a STRAIGHT line as it goes…This causes SIGNAL LOSS…What we need is SOLID CONDUCTOR speaker wire (and interconnects).
We use "18/5 Thermostat" wire in our Home Theater…You can get it a "Lowes" or "Home Depot" for about 20 cents a foot…It’s a single cable with 5 INDIVIDUALLY wrapped wires inside…I combine 2 wires for the POSITIVE, 2 for the NEGATIVE and then CLIP the 5th one…Each individual wire inside is only 18 gauge.
Also, most INTERCONNECTS use multi-stranded copper inside…So we use "RG6" capped with "RCA" jacks on each end for EVERYTHING in our Home Theater…Video and audio cables alike…"RG6" is a COAX cable with an 18-gauge center conductor inside it…Click here to see how to make your own: http://www.whydoesmyhometheatersuck.com/budgetcables.html
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http://www.whydoesmyhometheatersuck.com/
Believe it or not, simple CAT5 cable will be your best speaker cable! Even better than those expensive cables.
References :
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/interconnects/DIYSpeakerCablesp1.html
http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html
Yes it does make a difference. Also check the quality of the copper.
Check this file out http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf
This company is much better than Monster.
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