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length of speaker wire


smuttynose

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I could probably get as many opinions on this as there are members of this forum but am hoping there is some type of consensus. Is there a maximum length for a particular gauge of speaker wire. I need to place my cornwalls across the room from my amps, perhaps 12 to 15 feet away, but the wire must run under the floor through the basement and so will be more like 25 feet long.

Would someone please weigh in with words of wisdom before I start drilling holes in the floor.

Thanks.

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Maximum Wire Lengths For TWO CONDUCTOR Copper Wire

Wire Size

2 ohm load

4 ohm load

6 ohm load

8 ohm load

22 AWG

3 feet max

6 feet max

9 feet max

12 feet max

20 AWG

5 feet max

10 feet max

15 feet max

20 feet max

18 AWG

8 feet max

16 feet max

24 feet max

32 feet max

16 AWG

12 feet max

24 feet max

36 feet max

48 feet max

14 AWG

20 feet max

40 feet max

60 feet**

80 feet**

12 AWG

30 feet max

60 feet**

90 feet**

120 feet**

10 AWG

50 feet max

100 feet**

150 feet**

200 feet**

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Unfortunately flat wire won't help because I am working with a hard wood floor. Not enough rug to cover the entire run across the room.

But thanks.

I am going to get some 16 or 12 gauge and work it down and under by the baseboards and the hot water pipes.

Either that or I am going to put the speakers somewhere else, I guess.

The room is rectangular 13 by 25 and, unfortunately, no way to get momma to put the system on the short wall.

Man, those Cornwalls sound so good, even with the 18 gauge snaked across the floor now.

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I am going to get some 16 or 12 gauge and work it down and under by the baseboards and the hot water pipes.

You could run the "flat wire" behind baseboards quite easily. It does not cause the boards to "stick out" as all. It also can be run above the baseboards and is designed to be painted (vitually unoticeable). Anything, as you can imagine, is better than drilling holes in a nice hardwood floor.... Good luck, and If you would like, PM me and I'll send you a sample piece of this stuff, and a copy of the instructions from the manufacturer to look at if you are interested in that possibility.

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And don't worry about the right and left channel wires being different lengths. Not an issue for you.

This raises an question that has bothered me for a while. Can we look at the serial numbers on our speakers and determine which was manufactured as the left and right speakers. I think I got mine reversed ;)

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"This raises an question that has
bothered me for a while. Can we look at the serial numbers on our
speakers and determine which was manufactured as the left and right
speakers. I think I got mine reversed ;) "

Interesting point.

The last two pairs of Khorns I had provide speaker connections on one side. If my amps were in the middle of the speakers, I would put the speaker connectors on the inside. But once I had them in a room that had wall mounted speaker connectors, so I had the khorns setup with the speaker connectors on the out side. The alignment of the drivers are the same on the khorn reguardless of which way the speaker connectors are placed.




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It should be common knowledge that the left speaker was produced first if the numbers are sequential.

I do however run my higher numbered (8P469 as opposed to 8P468 Cornwalls) speaker as my left and have found an additional 1/2" of wire to speaker 468 offsets the later date in the production run admirably.

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