Thanks Don. Damn that confused me. Like someone else said, I guess I was over thinking it. It looks like 16 AWG is plenty for a 20 foot run, regardless. Excep then tehre is the aspectg of a speaker that is "nominal 8 Ohms" going down to 2 Ohms when producing music? How should I go about that?
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My cable length and thickness worries me
- Thread starter deadchip12
- Start date
Neither the wire nor the speaker care if the source is music or something else.
Most people just go by "nominal" impedance. I tend to look at the lowest impedance and where it happens; if at 20 kHz, I don't care, but if in the midrange or bass I would go with the wire suited for that lower impedance. In the real world it is highly unlikely that you will notice 16 AWG vs. say 12 AWG for a 20-foot run IMO. If you have the wire, use it. If you are buying wire, the difference in cost for a 20' run of 14 or 12 AWG instead of 16 AWG is pretty small. I bought a large spool (500') or 14 AWG years ago since the kids kept needing more (and it came in handy when I added speakers to my system).
I would not buy CCA wire. It is cheaper but I have had too many issues with it over the years, and since Al is lower in resistance you need to go up about two sizes (lower AWG number by 2) for the same resistance; e.g., 16 AWG CCA is about the same as 18 AWG copper.
HTH - Don
ribonucleic
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Many men of a certain age worry about their cable’s length and thickness.
Of course it’s not the size that matters but how well it carries the current.
ribonucleic
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Watch out for frayed connectors!
I'm grateful ignorance is ok.
I'm grateful ignorance is ok.
I'm right there with you on that!
It's the determined ignorance that's hard to make room for.
What is funny is that for 99% of the questions for speaker wire, for home use, good old standard 12 ga wire is the gold standard. If you buy 12 ga, you never have to worry about any possible wire issues. Now, if you are using very high end speakers driven with massive amounts of power, then 10 ga will do it all. 10 ga is a bit of overkill in reality though. Some high end audio types will buy 22 ga pure siler wire for $1000 a foot. and claim that it magically solves any current carrying issues. I have learned over the years to just keep my mouth shut and nod in agreement. I have learned to pick my battles.
Why not just site the amplifiers (mono blocs) next to the speakers and send low-level audio signals to the amplifiers through shielded twisted pairs. Avoid the loses in the speaker wire that way, and most preamps or other signal sources can easily drive a pretty long small signal cable.
Capitol C
Active Member
I just did the calculation by hand, assuming 262 feet of 14 AWG wire, which has a resistance of 0.662 ohms. If the amplifier is an ideal voltage source, the power lost comes out to be close to 19%. I might have made a mistake, but to get 50% power loss would require something like 2.5 ohms in the wire.A quick google search suggests that Sommer SP225 has a cross sectional area of 2.5mm² (14 awg).
The cable spec also claims it to be oxygen free copper (which is good rather than copper clad aluminium).
Using this table:
posted in this thread:
Correct speaker wire
Not looking for snake oil but I am looking for the correct speaker wire for my application. I have some very difficult to drive speakers that have significant impedance dips at certain frequencies. It’s been suggested that I should power them with a 250 watt 4 ohm amp but I’m using a 100 watt 8...
...and assuming double your longest cable run 40m (131 feet) (double to account for round trip circuit).
...and the 6 ohm nominal impedance of your JBL a130 speakers.
It looks as though you will see somewhere between 21% and 50% power loss. (So, yes, maybe 14awg is a bit on the skinny side).
Your speakers are still going to work like this - probably with no audiable difference after your AVR has corrected channel levels (<3db).
You can see from the table that upgrading to 12awg likely gets you into the <21% power loss category, whilst upgrading to 10awg will get you below 11% loss.
Personally I think 10awg would be overkill for surrounds (even with long cable runs). I'd listen to the setup with the currently installed wire and see if you ever perceive any problems (at your normal listening levels). If not - then no real need to upgrade to 12awg.
Some people do just that. Not that zip cord, even thick stuff, is real expensive.
That's a good idea, almost like powered speakers x2 amps, one in each speaker, with an included preamps just for the speaker set up. We're already doing it for subs. It would jsut be more expense, though, to do two smaller monos than one amp. But, man, that's a really good idea. It would be a good DIY project creating teh small amps on a smal board, then mounting them to the back of each speaker, or near the speaker. I'm actually loving this idea.
If it's only a signal wire I suppose it could be even 22 guage with some hefty runs around your house?
It's not whether the zip cord is thick enough to carry the large signal; it's just that it's easier to send a small signal than a large one over a long diatance.
True, although long XLR cables aren't free either.
Wait...what?