Does speaker wire really matter ?

[Islander]

I hate my 10 gauge beldin speaker wire, it doesn't fit in the denon receiver as well as I would like

What kind of connectors are you using? If you're using bare wire, the bigger gauges can be hard to work with, but the connectors are all the same size at the business end.

[Jay481985]

i am defying monster's recommendation and using bare cable..... yes its a bear to get in and stay in...... i have no pliers at my dorm too to twist tight.... my fingers hurt

I might next time get 14 gauge and banana cause my fingers bleed enough trying to twist wire

[SilverSport]

that was exactly what stopped me from trying with the thicker gauges...and I heard no difference in sound...I buy 14GA but really haven't heard anything more than with my 16GA Signet Wire that nearly 20 years old...I agree about the clear jacketed stuff from Home Depot...mine was turning green almost from the time I bought it...that self same Signet Wire appears copper colored after all this time still.

Bill

[mas]

As far as what is best, stick with the cheapest ~12 gauge OFHC copper you can find and enjoy.

I agree with you, but someone on another forum argued with me that using too thick a wire wasn't good if you can believe that (I don't).

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/397083.html

Hmmmmmmmm.

Ok, I think I understand their point!

You need some resistance! Otherwise all of the electrons would get their all at once and there wouldn't be any left to keep making the signal flow! I guess is helps out time so that everything doesn't happen at once.

I knew all of those fisiks courses would come in handy someday! Now I guess it would be good to take a logic course! []

Too small a resistance (reactance remaining the same) is bad??? Oh, they must mean that if the wires did not contribute to the load, then they would be effectively transparent and would not contribute to the total impedance seen by the amp and you would not hear them!

Now I get it! I understand why those pushing the exotic stuff are opposed to this concept! If the resistance is too low, as well as reactance, they wouldn't be able to hear their cables and all of that money spent would be wasted! And we certainly wouldn't want that to happen!

[][]

OK, back from the 11th dimension...yes, you can reach a gauge where changes in the resistance reach a point of greatly diminished returns as well as being difficult to work with, both in terms of flexibility, cost and connectors. So generally speaking, 12 gauge addresses almost any situation most will encounter.

[Islander]

Any differences/improvements will be more noticeable if you go up in size at least two steps, for example 18 gauge to 14, 16 gauge to 12, 14 gauge to 10 gauge, etc. It's less obvious when going up just one size.

If you think of the speaker cable as a bottleneck between the amp and the speakers, wouldn't you want the least restriction possible? Besides, speaker cable is generally one of the least expensive parts of the system, so not much is saved by cheaping out there.

[michael hurd]

Does speaker wire matter... depends on the context.

Lets pretend that you have a quad voice coil TC sounds TC 3000... each coil is 2 ohms nominal ( 1.4 ohms actual DCR ) and you intend on wiring all coils in parallel for 0.5 ohm ( nominal ) operation, as you have an amplifier that will like that load.

Nay sayers here will nitpick, but yes there are car audio amplifiers that will like and survive putting out insane amounts of current. ( while drawing hundreds of amperes of current ) For instance the Sundown audio SAZ-1500, fully warranted for 1 ohm operation, tested and survived driving 0.175 ohms ( yes less than a quarter of an ohm, near a dead short )

http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/index.php?s=c5ab13c5e46e2c17af0a7412851a27b1&showtopic=7116

"2 amps strapped, with both batteries (for the sake of not typing it over and over... voltage drops from 14.3v, to 12.8 the entire test... lol

4 ohm strapped = 1900 watts @ 82% efficiency
2 ohm strapped = 3150 watts @ 72% efficiency
1 ohm strapped = 3740 watts @ 68% efficiency
.5 ohm strapped = 4425 watts @ 65% efficiency
.35 ohm strapped = 5415 watts @ 62% efficiency"

"in the strapped amp test, was that .35 per amp for a nominal load of .70 or .35 nominal, if so that is crazy. .175 ohms per amp, ouch."

"It was 0.35 nominal, or 0.175 per amp. I don't recommend doing that."

So for one amp, we can generate 1635 watts into a one ohm load, provided that we had an adequate charging system with multiple ( more than one ) batteries.

Since the lead in wires snaked through the spiders are capable of 30 amps each, there should be no problem connecting all four coils in parallel. The AL coil windings are very large gauge wire, flat wound for maximum conductor density.

For the sake of argument, lets call the above example one ohm. ( after voice coils get hot ) Plugging the numbers into a calculator we get 40.4 volts across one ohm. ( 1635 watts ) This equates to 40.4 amperes of current flowing through the voice coils. This device above will take short term peaks above 2kw with ease, and long term power handling of 1kw.

In this EXTREME example, I would not recommend running 22 awg wire from you amplifier to the subwoofer. It will seriously degrade the performance of it.

[michael hurd]

The above simplified model only takes into account the DC resistance of a static voice coil. As there is a reactive component, we need to look at impedance as well. Depending on the particular alignment ( sealed / vented, bp, horn etc ) this makes a tremendous difference on the impedance.

In a simple sealed box, impedance is lowest at resonance. This is the point that maximum power flows through the voice coil. In a vented box situation, lowest impedance occurs at the tuning point of the enclosure.

[aaronmarks]

I have never noticed any difference in the speaker wire that I have used, but I have always just used the Monster Cable 12 guage zip cord and a Monster Cable Z2 for my center channel (someone gave it to me).

[ygmn]

NO!!!