Speaker Wire 12/2 & 14/2

[Tony T]

Does anyone know of a good inexpensive online source for good quality heavy gauge speaker wire? Needless to say, there's infinite online options. Hoping someone would be kind enough to save me some time.

 

Much appreciation! Tony

[Coytee]

It's not online but the low voltage wire I bought at HD or Lowes has worked great for me.  Not too expensive either.

 

 

[Islander]

KnuKonceptz has good speaker cable.  I recommend their Karma Kable.  It's fine strand twisted pair, and tin-plated to eliminate any chance of corrosion.  The SS in the designation is the colour, Smoke and Silver.  In checking the site, I see that their prices haven't gone up for at least ten years.  I like that.

 

The two wires are covered, and then they're in a larger clear sheath for extra protection.

 

I'm using the 8 gauge for my woofers and 10 gauge for my tweeters.  The JubScalas are a bi-amped speaker, with separate power amps for bass and treble. 

 

I recommend 12 gauge as a minimum size.  That's what I use for my surround speakers.

 

http://www.knukonceptz.com/home-theater/speaker-wire/karma-ss-speaker-kable/

[jimjimbo]

6 minutes ago, Islander said:

KnuKonceptz has good speaker cable.  I recommend their Karma Kable. 

Agree.  I use their 12 for everything.

[dmckean44]

I'm also a fan of tin plated copper speaker cable, I normally get it at the boating supply store.

[Tony T]

Furthermore, why is side by side strand speaker wire (12/2, 14/2 or whatever) either copper/copper, copper/silver or silver/silver? I've never understood this. It seems to me copper/copper, side by side, dual strand would be the logical choice. Copper is in fact, a great conductor.

 

Upon close observation, my 78' Khorns internal wires are seemingly a 14 gauge or perhaps 16 gauge. The smaller gauge makes sense due to the short distance. What's even more interesting to me is the pairing of wires coming off the AA Board going to the 3 different destinations are;

Woofer = silver/silver

K-55-V = silver/silver

K-77 = silver/silver

All speaker destinations (entering the individual speakers) are obviously coated with a slick silver metallic type material. Looks as if they may have been dipped into a silver solder?

 

The same can be said for my 89' LaScala's. The AL-3 boards have the same gauge wires and again, all internal crossover boards & internal speaker destinations are silver/silver wire. 

This would leave a person to guess that silver/silver paired speaker wire is in fact, the logical choice. Still, I technically do not know what the correct answer would be.

 

Anyone???

 

Thanks again, Tony

[lucky5115]

On 3/2/2018 at 8:04 PM, jimjimbo said:

Agree.  I use their 12 for everything.

What Jim said. I used KNUZ12 stranded copper oxy free 6 years ago and noticed enuff greenish/white powered corrosion at the connects that this year I replaced it all. More than likely it would have lasted much longer but with very fine strands being eaten from the middle on outward... Over time that just happens. It's good copper cable, nice sheath and pliable. What prompted the replacement? A friend of mine called me up saying her car wouldn't start; just outta the blue, working fine up until that. click click...long story short, I noticed corrosion on the battery negative connector and cable. Pulled it off, cleaned then put back on.. Same problem.<scratch>?

Replaced the cable and it started right up. Just for grins, I sliced open the sheath and noticed that the corrosion wasn't just on the endcaps, but went all the way from end to end. Oh, I would think that if your cable run is less then 50', 14awg would be fine too.    

    

I'm using Audioquest Type 2 for my speaker cable now. 20' per channel. Little pricey, but bought on sale. Why not.. buy once, use many. 

This is a infolink:  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1124917-REG/audioquest_type2c50_50_type_2_star_quad.html?ap=y&c3api=1876%2C{creative}%2C{keyword}&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvtHWgYza2QIVw7fACh3RxwbpEAQYASABEgKFhvD_BwE

 

[DizRotus]

12 hours ago, Coytee said:

It's not online but the low voltage wire I bought at HD or Lowes has worked great for me.  Not too expensive either.

 

 

 

Ditto.

[wvu80]

19 hours ago, Tony T said:

Does anyone know of a good inexpensive online source for good quality heavy gauge speaker wire?

I use Monoprice.  Be sure to get OFC wire and not the cheap stuff CCA.  See below for reasons why.

 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9343

 

Quote

 

This speaker wire features two conductors made of high purity (greater than 99.95% pure), oxygen-free bare copper. Pure Bare Copper is a superior conductor to the copper clad aluminum (CCA) conductors used in most other inexpensive speaker wire. CCA is only about 68% as conductive as pure bare copper. This additional resistance is added to the impedance of your speakers and can negatively effect the sound.

For the wire to have no audible effect, the total wire resistance should be no more than 5% of the lowest impedance of your speakers. Even speakers rated for a nominal 8-ohms, may dip to as low as 4-ohms at some frequencies, which further reduces the total cable resistance allowed in the wire. Using Pure Bare Copper speaker wire ensures that the total load put on the amplifier remains as close as possible to the impedance curve of your speakers.

For example, a 16AWG 2-conductor Pure Bare Copper speaker wire has a total resistance of 0.803 ohms per 100 feet (both directions must be considered). By comparison, a 16AWG 2-conductor CCA speaker wire has a total resistance of 1.181 ohms per 100 feet. Assuming 4 ohms is the lowest impedance of your speakers, a speaker wire run can be no more 0.2-ohms total. 20 feet of 16AWG Pure Bare Copper would be 0.1606 ohms, well under the 0.2-ohm limit. On the other hand, 20 feet of 16AWG CCA would be 0.2362 ohms, well OVER the 0.2-ohm limit.

 

 

[jarrod2750]

1 hour ago, wvu80 said:

I use Monoprice.  Be sure to get OFC wire and not the cheap stuff CCA.  See below for reasons why.

 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9343

I agree with the monoprice cables too

 

 

[dmckean44]

3 hours ago, wvu80 said:

This speaker wire features two conductors made of high purity (greater than 99.95% pure), oxygen-free bare copper. Pure Bare Copper is a superior conductor to the copper clad aluminum (CCA) conductors used in most other inexpensive speaker wire. CCA is only about 68% as conductive as pure bare copper. This additional resistance is added to the impedance of your speakers and can negatively effect the sound.

For the wire to have no audible effect, the total wire resistance should be no more than 5% of the lowest impedance of your speakers. Even speakers rated for a nominal 8-ohms, may dip to as low as 4-ohms at some frequencies, which further reduces the total cable resistance allowed in the wire. Using Pure Bare Copper speaker wire ensures that the total load put on the amplifier remains as close as possible to the impedance curve of your speakers.

For example, a 16AWG 2-conductor Pure Bare Copper speaker wire has a total resistance of 0.803 ohms per 100 feet (both directions must be considered). By comparison, a 16AWG 2-conductor CCA speaker wire has a total resistance of 1.181 ohms per 100 feet. Assuming 4 ohms is the lowest impedance of your speakers, a speaker wire run can be no more 0.2-ohms total. 20 feet of 16AWG Pure Bare Copper would be 0.1606 ohms, well under the 0.2-ohm limit. On the other hand, 20 feet of 16AWG CCA would be 0.2362 ohms, well OVER the 0.2-ohm limit.

 

 

Why would someone use 20 ft of speaker wire? It's going to be more like 6 or 7 ft for most people and far less if you're using mono blocks. And using 14ga wire would solve all of it. This is so bogus.

Edited March 4, 2018 by dmckean44

[wvu80]

58 minutes ago, dmckean44 said:

Why would someone use 20 ft of speaker wire? It's going to be more like 6 or 7 ft for most people and far less if you're using mono blocks. And using 14ga wire would solve all of it. This is so bogus.

My runs for side surrounds go about 40 feet because I run the wire under the floor.  The Surround Rears are longer than that.

 

I'm not sure what you think is "bogus."  Would you care to elaborate?  It sounds like you've got strong opinions on some subject, I'm just not sure what it is yet. 

[Tony T]

I personally have a 38 x 26 room accommodating 2 Khorns and 2 Lascala's. I'll most certainly going to be using greater lengths of speaker wire, especially for the rear Lascala's.

[dmckean44]

4 hours ago, Tony T said:

I personally have a 38 x 26 room accommodating 2 Khorns and 2 Lascala's. I'll most certainly going to be using greater lengths of speaker wire, especially for the rear Lascala's.

 

Then buy the buy the length you need in the gauge you need (probably 12ga), but pure copper wire has a shelf life of about 10 years or so and tin plated copper will last many, many decades.

[ricktate]

9 hours ago, dmckean44 said:

 

Why would someone use 20 ft of speaker wire? It's going to be more like 6 or 7 ft for most people and far less if you're using mono blocks. And using 14ga wire would solve all of it. This is so bogus.

Because my speakers are 50 ft from the receiver......if i were buying right now probably use this...           www.knukonceptz.com/home-theater/speaker-wire/kord-speaker-wire/sp/kord-ultra-flex-12-gauge-speaker-wire-100/

I also have monster cable on that 50ft run that's been there for over  30 years and seems okay even though i can see corrosion inside the insulation. I will probably replace it one of these days but still sounds fine.

[pzannucci]

6 hours ago, dmckean44 said:

 

Then buy the buy the length you need in the gauge you need (probably 12ga), but pure copper wire has a shelf life of about 10 years or so and tin plated copper will last many, many decades.

What do you mean by shelf life of 10 yrs. That would imply same in use.  Yes many speaker wires turn green and oxidize but are they bad at that point or do the connections need to remain clean?  Maybe I need to replace the wiring in my house also.

[Deang]

A lot of wire sold in the 80’s and early 90’s would turn a nasty green due to off gassing from the jacket material. Old Klipsch Monster cable is a good example of this. I wouldn’t think one would want an audio signal passing through that. 

[Khornukopia]

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 11:26 PM, Tony T said:

why is side by side strand speaker wire (12/2, 14/2 or whatever) either copper/copper, copper/silver or silver/silver? I've never understood this. It seems to me copper/copper, side by side, dual strand would be the logical choice. Copper is in fact, a great conductor.

 

The silver colored wire in your early year Klipsch speakers is high quality tinned copper wire (as mentioned above) and should remain good for a very long time.

[Khornukopia]

16 hours ago, dmckean44 said:

Why would someone use 20 ft of speaker wire? It's going to be more like 6 or 7 ft for most people and far less if you're using mono blocks. And using 14ga wire would solve all of it. This is so bogus.

 

I bought a 500 foot roll of 12 ga. for my home theater and it was not enough, but I did not actually measure the length as I spooled it out, so maybe the label was bogus?

[pzannucci]

On 3/4/2018 at 11:19 AM, Deang said:

A lot of wire sold in the 80’s and early 90’s would turn a nasty green due to off gassing from the jacket material. Old Klipsch Monster cable is a good example of this. I wouldn’t think one would want an audio signal passing through but that. 

Should be fine if it stays in the jacket and has well soldered connections.  Forget it if you need to re-solder though.