Is 14 AWG good enough for speaker cable?

[beagleman]

I have 45 - 50 foot runs from my amps to my speakers (stereo system and home theater speakers). I chose 10AWG Belden speaker cable so as to ensure as little loss as possible. Likely overkill even for my situation, but it lends some peace of mind.

Great idea matt.

My runs are literally 4-5 FEET for left and right!!

 

[egellings]

I took three 24-gauge wires and braided them for one conductor on my speaker cables. Did the same for the other conductor. I soldered the ends together in spade lug terminations to fit the amplifiers' & speakers' connection terminals. The wire was cheap, and the resulting cables are 8' long, plenty for my setup. Just for the halibut, I tried using just a single length of the wire in another pair of same-length cables and listened back & forth with the 3-wire ones. Darned if I could hear a difference. It just feels good using the 3-wire ones!

 

[preload]

Roger Russell's speaker wire page:

Speaker Wire

Wire table:

Speaker Wire

This link is a good reminder that at "typical" lengths of wire, 12GA (and even 14GA) are more than adequate.
But if the lengths get a lot longer, the speaker cable will introduce frequency response deviations that are greater in magnitude than a modern DAC or amplifier.

 

[coonmanx]

Yes 14 gauge is fine. Use it and be happy.

 

[asrUser]

No 14 AWG copper is not enough and you need thick silver cables to keep vampires at bay!

 

[fpitas]

No 14 AWG copper is not enough and you need thick silver cables to keep vampires at bay!

And if you have Vampire binding posts, it gets even more critical

 

[DonH56]

This link is a good reminder that at "typical" lengths of wire, 12GA (and even 14GA) are more than adequate.
But if the lengths get a lot longer, the speaker cable will introduce frequency response deviations that are greater in magnitude than a modern DAC or amplifier.

Actually, I suspect that even if you have short lengths of superconducting cable to your speakers, the speakers themselves (plus room) will introduce greater frequency deviations than the DAC or amplifier...

 

[preload]

Actually, I suspect that even if you have short lengths of superconducting cable to your speakers, the speakers themselves (plus room) will introduce greater frequency deviations than the DAC or amplifier...

Agree! In that case, I believe it would depend on the output impedance of the amplifier as well as the impedance vs freq plot of the loudspeaker/xover.

Of course, these "baseline" FR deviations would become even greater in magnitude as a function of increasing cable resistance and inductance (compared to a hypothetical, 0 ohm, 0 nF, superconducting cable).

 

[Capitol C]

Speaker Wire

Ripwire, if you haven't done so already, click Colonel7's link. Colonel7 is a man of few words, but they are extremely well-chosen!

 

[dorakeg]

This one has me a little confused. I'm going to DIY some speaker cables, figure it's going to be under 6 feet (2m). I've been browsing through the forum to see what size I need/is recommended, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

One post did mention 16 AWG is good enough. Then there's Amirm's review of various 12 AWG cables.

Why am I looking at 14 AWG? Well, I'm also having to look around for connectors. Since it's a banana jack, my first instinct is to look at one of these Stäubli L-41/A plugs. They're used in electrical engineering test & measurement, are from a reputable company, are rated for 32A and are gold plated to boot. The only issue is they're speced for 2.5 mm² wire at most. 14 AWG will fit, 12 AWG won't.

Admittedly they might not be the best choice, and if I want/need thicker cable I'm going to have to search for other options.

Also, no, I'm not looking for anything fancy, just good plain copper wire. Preferably in a black jacket. I'm probably going to go for Belden's 5200UP/5100UP/5000UP, or if I really want to splurge, Mogami's W3103. The latter assuming I can find a suitable plug for it.

Sure, 14AWG is definitely more than enough

 

[kchap]

This one has me a little confused. I'm going to DIY some speaker cables, figure it's going to be under 6 feet (2m). I've been browsing through the forum to see what size I need/is recommended, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

One post did mention 16 AWG is good enough. Then there's Amirm's review of various 12 AWG cables.

Why am I looking at 14 AWG? Well, I'm also having to look around for connectors. Since it's a banana jack, my first instinct is to look at one of these Stäubli L-41/A plugs. They're used in electrical engineering test & measurement, are from a reputable company, are rated for 32A and are gold plated to boot. The only issue is they're speced for 2.5 mm² wire at most. 14 AWG will fit, 12 AWG won't.

Admittedly they might not be the best choice, and if I want/need thicker cable I'm going to have to search for other options.

Also, no, I'm not looking for anything fancy, just good plain copper wire. Preferably in a black jacket. I'm probably going to go for Belden's 5200UP/5100UP/5000UP, or if I really want to splurge, Mogami's W3103. The latter assuming I can find a suitable plug for it.

I found this on the web after only a minute or two of searching, Wire and Cable. It tells you all you need to know. Here is the section on 14 AWG:

 

[Chrispy]

Is it so hard to do a tiny bit of research?

 

[ripwire]

Thanks all for the replies and advice!

Speaker Wire

Roger Russell's speaker wire page:

Speaker Wire

Wire table:

Speaker Wire

Thanks! That's perfect and told me exactly what I wanted to know. There's no way my speakers are 2 ohm, but even if they were it looks like I could still drop down to 16 AWG for the lengths I'm looking at.

I've used landscape wire lately.

https://www.amazon.com/Wirefy-Voltage-Landscape-Lighting-Wire/dp/B07Y6NJDQ4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=377WDOTRQPFQ7&keywords=landscape+wire+14+2&qid=1668861049&sprefix=landscape+wire%2Caps%2C238&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1

That's a nice find. In my case I'd never use anywhere near 100 feet though, so it would be a waste.

 

[ripwire]

No 14 AWG copper is not enough and you need thick silver cables to keep vampires at bay!

And if you have Vampire binding posts, it gets even more critical

But... Isn't silver bad for vampires? Don't want my plugs to go flying off the posts or my speakers to turn into piles of dust!

 

[fpitas]

But... Isn't silver bad for vampires? Don't want my plugs to go flying off the posts or my speakers to turn into piles of dust!

Hmmm. We can sell very expensive shields that protect the posts, but still allow the inherent sonic superiority of the silver.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

If only USA would fully adopt the SI units, then us lowly non Americans can understand your measurements, sizes ...

 

[fpitas]

If only USA would fully adopt the SI units, then us lowly non Americans can understand your measurements, sizes ...

Google is your friend....

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Google is your friend....

I did!
It said something like "backward US measurement system, obsolete ..." and then provided a chart to loosely convert it to modern scientific units.

 

[fpitas]

I did!
It said something like "backward US measurement system, obsolete ..." and then provided a chart to loosely convert it to modern scientific units.

Lol

 

[fpitas]

I did!
It said something like "backward US measurement system, obsolete ..." and then provided a chart to loosely convert it to modern scientific units.

Whenever I do mechanical engineering I have to bounce between metric and crazy old English units. So I guess I feel your pain.