What Is A Speaker Wire ?
A speaker wire is a simple wire that is used for making the connection between different types of audio amplifiers or speakers.
They are usually made from good electrical conductors like (copper more often, silver, aluminum, etc. ) and are insulated by materials like teflon, pe or pvc.
Quality of the sound is proportional with quality of the speaker wires
Choosing the thickness of a speaker wire is an easy job and it’s already identified by the American Wire Gauge also known as the gauge number. The thickness of the wire is indirectly proportional with the gauge ( as the gauge gets lower, the thickness gets higher ) and also the capacity of the amplified audio signal is enhanced.
The general thickness found in the marketplace from today ranges between 12 and 16 gauge.
Speaker Wire
If you want to minimize the power loss, you can try minimizing the distance between your amp/receiver and your speaker because as the distance gets longer, the signal gets lower and long runs need thicker cable.
I found a simple guide from which you can take the general guidelines and use them for yourself when calculating the necessary gauge:
If the distance from speaker to the amplifier is less than 80 feet the gauge is 16, distance 80-200 feet, the gauge is 14 and a distance higher than 200 feet, the gauge required is 12.
If you are wondering on what wire do you need, the answer is easy:
If you don’t want to make complicated connections that go through the wall, you can use a standard wire.
In case you want to run some cables through your walls to make them more “invisible”, you will most likely need a UL rated speaker wire which is usually labeled as CL 2 or CL 3.
And in the last case that I can come with, an outdoor speaker underground wiring, you will need to have a direct burial rated wire.
Other things that you should consider when finishing with speaker wires:
- The recommendation for the length of a speaker wire is a maximum of 15 meters or 50 feet
- The shorter the wire, the better
- Try to get all the speaker wires that will go to your speakers to the same length
- To get the best result, use speaker wires that have their termination made with connectors ( will also help against short circuits ).
Speaker wire connectors
In case you will ever try to hook your wires without connectors, the best practice would be to use a wire stripper and try to cut around 3/8 inch of insulation from the ends of each wire, leaving the strands.
After this process is done, the next thing that you should do is to twist each wire strand tight to make them stick together ( this is a good practice because leaving them sticking out will potentially cause short circuits and therefore causing damage to your system/speakers.
There are many types of speaker connectors, more common:
- pin connectors
- bare wires
- spade connectors
- banana plugs
- dual banana plugs
- Spring clips
- Binding posts
When you should you consider a thicker speaker wire/cable ?
This practice will help you avoid long cables to your speakers because if you are in the case of a multi room wired system and a thicker wire will only reduce the general resistance and lighten the load received from the amp and receiver. The end result is a better sound quality and system protection.
Using a thicker wire will also be a good practice in the case of connecting a quality music audiophile system or some sort of high quality surround system/home cinema. The music detail in this case would be better and also the effects that will come from the 5.1 system will make the difference.
If the budget that you have is more inclined towards getting the overall cost of the finished system down, a 16 gauge standard speaker wire may be just as good.
In my opinion, another indicator of the quality of a speaker wire would be the metal that is made from. There are also some characteristics like getting a speaker wire that has a nice construction and video shielding that most likely protects your components from interference.
All these will assure that you will have a ready to go system at your disposal. You do not only need to make sure that your general system is good, a small detail like a speaker wire can make a difference in your case.
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