Speaker wires that are anywhere between 12 to 16 gauge are most commonly used for connecting speakers to an amplifier or an Audio/Video (A/V) receiver. A lower-gauge number indicates a thicker wire, while a higher-gauge number indicates a thinner wire.
What AWG is best for speakers?
For 6-ohm speakers 16AWG wire is recommended for runs up to 36 feet and 10 or 12AWG wire for runs up to 150 feet. If you are using 8-ohm speakers, 16 AWG wire is recommended for runs up to 48 feet and 10 or 12AWG wire for runs up to 200 feet.
Do you need special wire for speakers?
All that really matters for speaker wire is the wire gauge, which relates directly to the per-foot resistance of the cable. And resistance in the cable will reduce the power delivered from your amplifier to your speakers. Use the heaviest gauge (lower number) you can, and everything will work fine.
Can you use any wire for speakers?
To answer the question posed at the start of this article – yes, you can use a regular electric wire as a speaker cable, as long as it comes with two same-sized conductor wires.
What kind of wire should I use for speakers? – Related Questions
Can I use phone wire for speakers?
Using existing telephone wire and powered speakers, it’s fairly simple to connect speakers throughout the house via existing phone lines. This will work only if the lines have 3 extra wires, such as when no land line is in use, or if the house has 6 (very common) or 8 strand telephone wire.
Does speaker wire length affect sound quality?
When long runs (of either interconnects or speaker cables) are used, cable quality becomes extra important. Due to the additional signal losses longer runs impose, the better the cable is at “protecting” the signal, the better will be the sound.
Does it matter which wire you use on a speaker plug?
AWG is the most critical thing to consider when buying speaker cable, but what the cable is made of is also important. Oxygen-free pure copper wire will give you better sound, and it will last longer than cheaper speaker cable.
Is speaker wire different from normal wire?
The only difference is that speaker wire typically has clear outer insulation, while electrical wire might be black, brown, white or some other color. That similarity isn’t an illusion; the wires are very much alike and can be used interchangeably in many circumstances.
Can you use solid wire for speaker wire?
There are no technical problems with solid copper wire as speaker cable from a sound quality standpoint.
Can you mix and match speaker wire?
It’s best to stick with one brand and line for your entire home theater speaker system. However, you can mix and match speakers, but there are some guidelines to follow. If you choose to mix and match, you’ll want to make sure to mix and match properly, otherwise, you could run into big problems.
Does the color of speaker wire matter?
typically, the positive wire is red and the ground, or negative, is black. However, most speaker wires don’t do colors. Good news is, with speakers it doesn’t really matter which one you choose as your positive and which as your negative, just so long as you are consistent.
Do speaker ohms need to match?
The speaker impedance is usually measured in ohms, and it’s essential for amplifiers, AV receivers, or speakers connected to each other because mismatched impedance will cause distortion. It’s probably easiest to understand speaker impedance if you compare it to water pressure.
Can you run two speakers off the same wire?
If both speakers are 8 ohms or more, then the speakers can normally be wired in parallel. If the speakers are less than 8 ohms, then to be safe, you should wire them in series.
Are speakers louder in series or parallel?
Speakers are always louder when wired in parallel. Series wiring leads to more impedance and thus less voltage per speaker which translates to less volume per speaker. A parallel circuit reduces the resistance and impedance on each speaker and equates to more volume.
Can you run 4 speakers off 1 channel amp?
Some volume control units also have impedance matching. This means they have a switch (normally on the back panel – but sometimes inside) which allows you to tell it you are connecting 2, 4 or 8 pairs of speakers to the one amplifier. Once this switch is set, you don’t need to worry about overloading the amplifier.
What happens if you mix up positive and negative on speakers?
Anytime two identical signals are mixed together with inverse polarity, the signals cancel out. In this case, one wave is positive while the other is negative, and vice versa. The result is silence. This is called destructive interference.
What happens if you put too much power in a speaker?
When an amplifier is driven into clipping (distortion) by being asked to produce more power than it’s capable of delivering, the voice coil of the speaker it’s attached to can overheat and become damaged.
How do you check if speakers are wired correctly?
Testing speakers for correct polarity is a simple trick to complete with nothing more than a household battery. Attach both wires from the speaker terminals to either end of the battery. Then examine whether the speaker cone moves in or out. If the cone goes in after connecting, you have inverted polarity.
What happens if I put 2 speakers on one channel?
The sound of that channel will come from both speakers. Depending on details of the design of the amplifier, and exactly how the speakers are connected (series or parallel) the maximum power available from the amp could either increase or decrease.
How many channel amp do I need for 2 speakers?
In general, you need one channel for each speaker that you want to amplify. If you’re adding a subwoofer to an existing system, then a single channel amplifier will get the job done.
