Electrical cable as speaker cable

[mga2009]

Quick question,

I have lots of meters of electrical cable from my house renovations, which has stranded 100% copper, 4mm2 in diameter, 50 strands aprox.

Granted, the jacket is not uber flexible, but... would it work properly as speaker cable? Specially on longer runs (5 to 10 meters)???

Looking forward to your response.

Cheers!

 

[Doodski]

That will be equivalent to 12 AWG size. 12G is good for home hi fi use. Check out the, "Maximum Wire Lengths For TWO CONDUCTOR Copper Wire." chart at this web link.

Speaker Wire

 

[Chrispy]

Speaker cables are electrical cables

 

[mga2009]

Excellent!! Thank both for your replies!

 

[Waxx]

just check if it's real copper or cca, cca is slightly worse. But even then no disaster, only with higher internal resistance and inductance and so more loss (certainly over longer distances). But not that more that it becomes an big issue. Copper (OFC or not) is just better at that, and OFC copper does oxidise less fast than standard copper.

But for the rest, a speaker cable is just an electric wire transporting ac voltages, nothing magic about it. And 4mm is overkill, i use 1.5mm stranded copper wire for that for hifi.

 

[SSS]

Quick question,

I have lots of meters of electrical cable from my house renovations, which has stranded 100% copper, 4mm2 in diameter, 50 strands aprox.

Granted, the jacket is not uber flexible, but... would it work properly as speaker cable? Specially on longer runs (5 to 10 meters)???

Looking forward to your response.

Cheers!

Since many years I use solid copper wire from mains installation for my big loudspeakers. Works perfect. OFC or not OFC is quack. All bendable copper is almost OFC, otherwise it will break after a certain count of bending.

 

[dualazmak]

I have been using, and now use, so many rather long multi-core color-coded VCT (Vinyl Cabtyre) flexible cables (AWG10, AWG12) for speaker cables in my PC-DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active stereo audio project. They are perfectly fine as speaker cables.

- VCT (vinyl Cabtyre) multicore flexible cables (AWG10, AWG12) for amplifiers into speaker drivers: #028, #137 on my project thread.

Edit: And here on remote thread.

These posts would be also for your reference;
- Elimination of magnetic susceptible metals in SP signal handling: #250, #013(remote thread).

 

[delta76]

Speaker cables are electrical cables

this.
the only thing I find "so called speaker cables" to be useful is the marking, so I know which end I should plug into this and that. as long as it's of good material (personally prefer OTC, but just because) and adequate AWG, all is good

 

[MaxwellsEq]

There was a craze in the 80s, I think for exchanging expensive multi strand loudspeaker cable for in-wall mains cables (single core, not very bendable). Subjectively it was considered smooth compared to the expensive alternatives.

 

[JeremyFife]

Slightly off-topic, but not too much I hope.

I use "QED micro" speaker cable which is 17AWG - bought in the "old days", don't judge me. I have 8m cable runs because of the room layout which I think is just on the long side for these. i.e. the effect of the wire's resistance might be creeping in.
Is there an actual impact from using this thinnish cable over these distances? I don't listen loud (70 dB SPL at 2-3m) and my speakers are reasonably efficient. I'm assuming there's nothing to think about here, but it would be nice to know.

 

[delta76]

Slightly off-topic, but not too much I hope.

I use "QED micro" speaker cable which is 17AWG - bought in the "old days", don't judge me. I have 8m cable runs because of the room layout which I think is just on the long side for these. i.e. the effect of the wire's resistance might be creeping in.
Is there an actual impact from using this thinnish cable over these distances? I don't listen loud (70 dB SPL at 2-3m) and my speakers are reasonably efficient. I'm assuming there's nothing to think about here, but it would be nice to know.

should be no problem. it has 0.15 ohm impedance so should not affect your speaker in any way

https://www.cirris.com/learning-center/calculators/133-wire-resistance-calculator-table

if you feel uneasy, go with some nice speaker cable ($1/m), just for a peace of mind

 

[JeremyFife]

should be no problem. it has 0.15 ohm impedance so should not affect your speaker in any way

https://www.cirris.com/learning-center/calculators/133-wire-resistance-calculator-table

if you feel uneasy, go with some nice speaker cable ($1/m), just for a peace of mind

Thanks for the reply, it's appreciated.
Yeah, if I ever need to re-wire I'll go heavier and cheaper! No unease though, I just wondered what it all actually meant in practical terms.

 

[egellings]

Speaker cables are electrical cables

Yep. It's music-encoded electricity that makes the speaker sing.

 

[TonyJZX]

someone brings up and interesting point

CCA is substantially cheaper than copper.... I wonder if it truly makes any real world difference.

BUT i mean here if you buy 12-14-16 awg from a hi-fi store ya gona get ripped... from an electrical supplier??? hmmm... with copper being so expensive

i just buy offcut 12 awg from a electrical contractor i use who's family friend...

 

[fpitas]

If you're terribly worried about CCA just get the next gauge up. 10AWG zip cord or extension cord is cheap.

 

[dualazmak]

Just for your possible reference and interests... for the details, please visit my post #895 on my project thread.

 

[pinger]

Just make sure you burn in the cable for several hours for the best sound quality

 

[dualazmak]

Just make sure you burn in the cable for several hours for the best sound quality

I can and already actually I have done "burn-in" my amplifiers (and cables) (not cables) "in silence" using the 8 Ohm 100W resistors (dummy speakers); please visit my post #895 on my project thread.

Edit on May 29, 2024
Just for your possible reference, you would please visit also my post here entitled "Renewal of SP cabling boards beside SP systems"; let me paste here the photo of renewed cabling board:

 

[MaxwellsEq]

While some people might say it works just fine, others argue that it's not the best choice. Electrical cables are designed for carrying electricity, not audio signals.

Welcome to ASR.

For the avoidance of doubt - audio when traveling in wires is electricity. Mains electrical cable mostly carries 50 or 60Hz at quite high dB levels, but this is also an electrical signal that sounds like "hhmmmmm".

 

[FrantzM]

Welcome to ASR.

For the avoidance of doubt - audio when traveling in wires is electricity. Mains electrical cable mostly carries 50 or 60Hz at quite high dB levels, but this is also an electrical signal that sounds like "hhmmmmm".

In other Words: Makes no difference.
You take any electrical wire, including cheap CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) of sufficient gauge (say 14 AWG at least and up to 50 feet) ) and use it as speaker wire. It will make no differences in term of what you and most humans are able to discern.

Also, while I love @dualazmak foray into a superb system, I would be amiss to not point out that, post #18 of this thread is speculative, could induce FUD and, is contrary to what has been proven to be wrong; among these, the notion of burn-in ... the other notion mentioned the post is that of "magnetic susceptibility metals" as being something that could change the sound, at least that is how I read this... else why would one care? We need more than mentions. It needs to be proven, or at least be backed by Science.. Burn-in has already been refuted.. Magnetic susceptibility (If as metal is attracted or not by EM) is IME not a thing in audio. I would appreciate if you could point us toward studies that proves this to be relevant in Audio, IMHO, not at all. I stand to be corrected.

Peace.