Speaker Wire Gauge

[tom b. 57]

Recently I have purchased three different brands of 14 gauge speaker wire and all three seem to be different sizes.

Not just the outside diameter, but, the thickness of the combined strands of wire themselves.

The three brands are RCA, GE and Pyramid. The RCA is the largest in strands and diameter, then the Pyramid, and GE is the smallest.

Is there different ways of measuring the gauge of wire or is this just terrible quality control.

Tom

[ilovesound]

This sounds like terrible quality control. Look at some Monster speaker wire. You can find it cheaper online. You pay more, but in home theater, you get what you pay for.

[Don Richard]

Number 14 stranded wire can be made of 41 strands of #30 wire or 168 strands of #36 wire. The wire with a larger strand count will be more flexible, will exhibit less skin effect, and could create an optical illusion of larger size.

Or maybe it's cheap Chinese stuff. If so, get your wire from Parts Express or Monoprice.

[tom b. 57]

Number 14 stranded wire can be made of 41 strands of #30 wire or 168 strands of #36 wire. The wire with a larger strand count will be more flexible, will exhibit less skin effect, and could create an optical illusion of larger size.

Or maybe it's cheap Chinese stuff. If so, get your wire from Parts Express or Monoprice.

The GE and the Pyrimid wire is Chinese. Not sure about the RCA.

[russ69]

There are standards for wire gauge, and current transmission. There may be some flexibly in the standard to allow for electrical equivalents, to allow for different materials but it's just a guess. The people that make wire, even at the lowest standard, understand the specs better than we ever will, I can't see anybody making mistakes, with the exception of mis-marking a run.

[Axz Hout]

P

[tube fanatic]

Number 14 stranded wire can be made of 41 strands of #30 wire or 168 strands of #36 wire. The wire with a larger strand count will be more flexible, will exhibit less skin effect, and could create an optical illusion of larger size.

Or maybe it's cheap Chinese stuff. If so, get your wire from Parts Express or Monoprice.

Don, I've never encountered skin effect when dealing with a non-rf, audio situation. Can you cite references for this?

[russ69]

I see a company named AudioQuest sells a set of Everest speakers a 6ft pair costs $8,900!!!! Does any on the forum use them?

I forgot what model of AudioQuest cable my brother has but it's as big as a fire hose. It ain't zip cord, that's for sure.

[Guest " "]

some manufactures put a fishing line type spacer at the core of their bundled wires. the copper mass would be equiv to a specific gauge of wire....but the fishing line stuff would fatten out the wire some more. Unless the bundled wire is helix, bundles of round wire will be fatter than equiv solid wire. here's an interesting chart that goes as far as specifying the skin effect frequency of sold wire based on wire gauge. Makes you wonder about anti-cables.

[Islander]

Look at some Monster speaker wire. You can find it cheaper online. You pay more, but in home theater, you get what you pay for.

That's not always true. Just try to find out the gauge of Monster speaker cable. They don't publish it because you'd be unlikely to spend that much for 16 gauge cable, which is their most common size.

Many forum members recommend Blue Jeans Cable, Monoprice, or Knukonceptz. They're all decent quality and fairly priced.

12 to 14 gauge should be big enough in most cases.

[Don Richard]

Don, I've never encountered skin effect when dealing with a non-rf, audio situation. Can you cite references for this?

Skin effect is present at all frequencies, and the effect becomes more pronounced as the frequency increases. At VHFs and higher skin effect is so pronounced that hollow tubing is often used instead of solid conductors. At 60 Hz the skin depth is about 9 mm. The skin depth is the point where the current density is 37% of the current flow on the outside of the conductor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

At audio frequencies on speaker cables skin effect has been shown to cause a HF rolloff beginning at 15 kHz and less than 1 dB loss at 20 kHz, worst case. That is a slight difference that young child would have a hard time hearing.