Speaker wire for Long runs

[CECAA850]

Remember also only four 90 degree bends per run.

JJK

And don't use plumbing 90's! Thay're have way too sharp of a bend. Get the gray sweeping 90's for electrical applications.

[Taz]

Remember also only four 90 degree bends per run.

JJK

Why only 4 90 degree bends? If I remember correctly I have 3 sweeping 90's, then large water control box about 14 x 24" then back into more conduit to another smaller water control box, then back into conduit which is easily to hook into as this ends out from under concrete. The other conduit from the house ends just out from the concrete by the house. Easy access as is about 5' of crawl space under upper deck there. So other then the ends which are accessible, Conduit is already under concrete and I'm pretty sure they are all the sweeping bends as some of the other conduit has wire for power outlets and lighting circuits pulled through them. Now I know where to get enough of the proper lube when project falls together.[H] ....Taz

[JJkizak]

It's the electrical code. It is very difficult to pull wire through a conduit if you are using the maximum allowed amount of wire over four 90 degree bends per run. As the wires are pulled through the conduit they do a bit of rotating and tend to require an absurd amount of force to pull them through more than four bends. And thats all with flexible spiral wound wire. No solids allowed.

JJK

[Taz]

It's the electrical code. It is very difficult to pull wire through a conduit if you are using the maximum allowed amount of wire over four 90 degree bends per run. As the wires are pulled through the conduit they do a bit of rotating and tend to require an absurd amount of force to pull them through more than four bends. And thats all with flexible spiral wound wire. No solids allowed.

JJK

[:^)] How about if I run through 3 sweeping elbows to large box then back into conduit again to make final pull to speaker? Heck, If there was no one who thought SMBO I could just run speaker wire on the ground. Not have to worry about code or harassment [bs]...........................But as long as we are on the subject, What is the maximum size for 2 wires in a 1" conduit? Or 1 wire in a 1" conduit?

[JJkizak]

A 1" conduit? As many as you can stuff in it. Since it's speaker wire I wouldn't worry about adhering to code. You don't even need conduit.

JJK

[Islander]

Depending on your runs your no better off using expensive cables then 16 gu. clear lamp cord. This is coming from a very distinguished engineer,former lead man at McIntosh and prolific inventor. He sold me, and that's what I use Home Depot 16 gu. clear for runs of no more than 15'.I can't imagine except for maybe an outdoor underground run why anyone would go to 6gu .

Have you actually tried different size speaker wires in your system? It generally takes a 2-step increase to be obvious, but even going from 16 gauge to 14 gauge should improve the sound a bit.

When the music contains transient sounds like drumbeats and handclaps, much more power than usual is required to make them sound realistic. If the cable (or the power amp overhead) is not large enough, handclaps just sound like surf. The individual impacts are softened.

Even for my surround speakers, I use 12 gauge, just compromising by using that Home Depot wire. For the mains, I use 8 gauge and 10 gauge (the main speakers are bi-amped, with two power amps).

For me, I consider 12 gauge wire to be minimum for ideal sound, and that's just in a living room setup. The Knukonceptz cable is affordable, good-sounding, and looks good, too. http://www.knukonceptz.com/productmaster.cfm?category=speaker%20wire

I've been using the Karma SS (smoke and silver colour) cable for years with good results, and no greenish corrosion like you often get with the Home Depot wire after a few years.

[artarama]

nelson pass has some interesting testing and observations; http://www.passdiy.com/pdf/spkrcabl.pdf he found that at the extremes of wire configurations there were noticable electrical differences but that he could not conclude they would be audible, etc. also, there is some indication that too much wire can be worse than the "right" amount, various reasons are given: skin effect is mentioned, though this is usually associated with AC there are indications it can cause effects on DC as well, increased resistance and variations in inductance over distance could both be factors. Another factor mentiones is that in huge cables the quality of the materials and surface of the materials can be of a lower quality than with thinner wires with less material, contirbuting to perhaps negative effects. I personally would stay away from extreme wires, superthick, flat, etc. but since this is a hobby, I say to each his own. enjoy the music! warm regards, Tony

Thanks for the link sunnysal. A good fair analysis IMHO.

Somehow I keep thinking of high performance MC/Car analogies with speaker wire and interconnect debates, so here it goes.

Building our "hifi" systems is a lot like building a high performance engine. How much difference does a high flow air cleaner make if you haven't ported and polished the heads?

And if you have gone to the expense and trouble of porting and polishing your heads do you really want to run a stock air cleaner?

I recently was able to get some PS Audio speaker cable at a good price and feel like it was a substancial improvement over the six strand twisted 12 ga. DIY copper wire I had been using (30 foot runs). More bass and more deffinition. But... and there are always but's... I did have to move my equipment around to accomodate the shorter cable runs, so not exactly apples to apples either.

I would put this type of an upgrade in that last 5-10% or so of system improvements. Deffinately not your biggest bang for the buck improvement but an improvement none the less.