Speaker wire (1 Viewer)

[Jerry AZ]

Hi All;

I'm looking at a max run of about 30 feet to my rear speakers. Is 16 gage good for this setup? I know that distance wise it should be OK, but would 12 gage be better?

Thanks.

 

[Mark Austin]

12ga. would be better, IMO.

 

[John_Quincy]

I just ran some 12 ga speaker wire from PartsExpress under my floor for my surrounds. It was so cheap I had to use it for my mains too It was like $20 for 100'. So why not?

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Several speaker sites recommend the following:
1-10 feet : 16 ga
10-20 feet : 14 ga
20+ feet : 12 ga
So you see, you need THICKER wire for long runs, not thinner.
You will hear people post that they use 16 ga and "it sounds fine".
But the long run of speaker wire rolls off the higher frequencies. People who have fairly accurate Music systems claim to hear the roll-off caused by as little as 15 feet of wire using CD material that they are very familar with.
HT systems can get away with thinner wire for the rears because the rear speakers are only making sound ~15% of the time, and the sounds are often duplicated by the fronts and tend to be special effect type sounds. So people think 16/20 ga wire is good enough because they "hear sounds".
So I'd recommend using 12 ga if possible. And you should run 3 wires to the rears (dont forget that rear-center speaker that you may upgrade to soon). You can order some nice Sound King 12 wire from www.partsexpress.com or the Home Depot 12 ga is quite good.
Hope this helps.

 

[Todd K]

Do you have an SKU number or a link to the speaker wire on the Home Depot website? I'd like to check them out before I buy.

Thanks,

Todd K.

 

[Jerry AZ]

Thanks all . I ordered the Sound King wire from Parts Express.