zappa883 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Anyone have experience with "copper clad aluminum speaker wire ? Back when I was into 12v Car audio this was unheard of so I'm in the process of prewiring my HT room and looking at some 12 gauge that is as mentioned copper clad aluminum wire ? Any thoughts or experiences ? Thanks... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FSUBALES Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Anyone have experience with "copper clad aluminum speaker wire ? Back when I was into 12v Car audio this was unheard of so I'm in the process of prewiring my HT room and looking at some 12 gauge that is as mentioned copper clad aluminum wire ? Any thoughts or experiences ? Thanks... Dont do it.. Its just aluminum with a copper coat. Copper is a better conducter than aluminum and it does not expand and contract as much... Not worth the money being saved...IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Is it rated for in wall use? Just curious. For the price you can get 12ga in wall rated wire for at Monoprice.com, I wouldn't use the aluminum stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zappa883 Posted December 1, 2011 Author Share Posted December 1, 2011 Being low voltage I didn't think there was an in wall rating ? As for the termination kits, one does not require a 120v electrical box to terminate with the banana plug kits etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10239 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Being low voltage I didn't think there was an in wall rating ? As for the termination kits, one does not require a 120v electrical box to terminate with the banana plug kits etc. The in wall rating is for fire retardency I believe. If you ever have a fire and have an insurance company involved in a claim you don't want to give them an excuse to turn down a claim. You'll need a box to attatch your faceplate to, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Can be done, provided that the strand count is high. Reason is that due to the "skin effect", the signal runs along the surface of the wire. Coated with copper takes advantage of that phenomena. The drawback is that aluminum as the "core" is far less flexible than copper. Stiff wires are harder to work with. However.... as long as the overall gauge to be used is sufficient, and the strand count is high, then other than using 12 instead of 14 gauge to take into account the additional resistance, it will work without any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 I would try to dissuade anyone from using aluminum wire for speakers: Despite it's other inferior qualities such as brittleness, aluminum simply oxidizes way too quickly to provide a reliable speaker connection. If you'd like to save some money and not have to worry about the reliability of the connection, 12 or 14 gauge copper lamp cord is always a safe bet in my book. -Glenn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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