Speaker cable! (1 Viewer)

Girish · Jan 29, 2014

Would a 10AWG copper wire be good for my new Usher audio CP-8831diamonds? I ahve used 12 gauge in the pastbut last time it was 8 years ago!!

ciscoarizona · Jan 29, 2014

Depends on the length of wire that you need. If it's under 12 feet, 12ga will probably be okay. Just make sure it's pure copper. It would also depend on how many watts you are running.

schan1269 · Jan 29, 2014

10/12 is a personal decision. I use lamp cord. One of my sets of speaker wire is the cord from an old Electrolux vac that died.

Robert_J · Jan 30, 2014

One of the magazines did a blind listening test of the uber expensive wire ($100/foot and up) but snuck in an extension cord from Home Depot. It came in 2nd place.

Unless you are installing your receiver on the other end of the house the difference between 10 and 12 ga will not be noticable by your ears and probably not by any consumer level measuring gear. Also, I don't know of any terminals outside of subs that will accept wire that large.

ciscoarizona · Jan 30, 2014

Home Depot is a lot closer for me. Most banana plugs take 10 to 12ga. Push ins are a nightmare for me

Jason Charlton · Jan 30, 2014

I tried using 12ga once and it was to unwieldy for my tastes. I can't imagine trying to work with 10ga. I just stick with 14 and have never had any reason to want to change it out.

schan1269 · Jan 30, 2014

Speaking of subwoofer...Picked up another dead subwoofer this week. Rhythmik with a dead amp. Guy sold it cause he didn't like his plate amp options...;-) Took me 10 minutes(a bunch of screws) to clip the plug off the power cord. Unscrew the other end of the power cord from the connects. Wire crimp the former power cord to the driver leads.Man that hard...

Dan Driscoll · Feb 4, 2014

Home Depot/Lowes/Radio Shack 12AWG is more than sufficient for most applications. Make sure it is OFC (Oxygen Free Copper) and you'll be fine.

Type A · Feb 8, 2014

schan1269 said:
Speaking of subwoofer...Picked up another dead subwoofer this week. Rhythmik with a dead amp. Guy sold it cause he didn't like his plate amp options...;-)Took me 10 minutes(a bunch of screws) to clip the plug off the power cord. Unscrew the other end of the power cord from the connects. Wire crimp the former power cord to the driver leads.Man that hard...

There was visible damage and fixing that was all it took to get it working?

I recently got a JVC X3 for $400 off ebay, "powers on but no lamp and untested." No feet, no remote, no power cord, no original box. But sadly, after throwing a spare lamp in it I already had for my RS60, it was a no-go. Ah well, win some and loose some. Got a full refund but I was sad I didnt come in on a great deal. A week later I finally, after much research, got a line on Osram (OEM) bare bulbs for the RS60. $120 shipped beats the hell out of $400, take that JVC

schan1269 · Feb 8, 2014

I bypassed the internal amp.

John Stockton · Feb 9, 2014

The main objection is to have as little resistance in on your cable run as possible. Having a .1 Ohm resistance or less on your run assures that your signal will be sent quite well from your Amps/Receiver to your speaker.

Refer to this calculator to determine the gauge of the cable you will need:

http://www.cirris.com/testing/resistance/wire.html

John Garcia · Feb 24, 2014

There's no mystery to wire. More than you ever wanted to know is here, specifically this table:

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

10AWG is overkill in nearly all systems.

DaveF · Mar 2, 2014

http://www.monoprice.com/Search/Index?keyword=speaker+wire

Do what makes you happy. But I think even 12 ga is overkill for most everyone. A $15 roll of 100' 16 ga from monoprice is easy and cost effective.

But if you're setting up a $20,000 speaker system, $50 for wire is inconsequential to be comfortable knowing you're not sacrificing any quality.

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