Jack_TN

In-wall speaker wire question

I had posted about this in an existing thread in the Construction forum, but thought there might be more traffic here.

I need some in-wall speaker wire for the new place I'm moving to. The Carol in-wall wire which Parts Express sells has been recommended several times. I noticed that it is described as 12 gauge wire consists of 19 x .0185 gauge strands of ASTM B-3, B-8, and B-286 copper . Is it better to use a wire made of oxygen-free copper?

AC4L has some here for about the same price that is 16 gauge/ 4 conductor. Could I use a run of it for each rear speaker, tying the conductors together in pairs, or would it be better to go with the Carol wire?

Thanks,

Jack

DaveHo

That link doesn't seem to work for me, so I'm guessing that you are looking at the IXOS or Niles 16/4 CL-3 rated in-wall wire. I used the yellow jacketed IXOS 14/4 wire for my rear speaker runs and am very happy with the results. Each run is ~50ft and what I did was tie two conductors together to get an effective 11 gauge 2 conductor wire. The wire and jacket are constructed well and I have had no problems with the bare wire oxidizing at the speaker connections. I feel that the IXOS wire is much higher quality than the Carol wire. I also ordered mine from AC4L.

-Dave

Jack_TN

Yeah, I messed up the link.

You're right. I was looking at the Niles wire. It costs less than the IXOS. Thanks for the info on using the 4 conductor wire. The Niles is 16 gauge, so I guess combining 2 conductors would give me about 13 gauge. I figured that'd be enough for my modest set-up.

Jack