16 Gauge Wire difference? (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Leemhuis]

Will I hear a difference if I switch from the floss-like speaker wire that came with my Kenwood HTB-505 to 16-gauge wire? Where will be the most noticeable difference?

 

[BrentPollard]

Depends on the length of the wire, but if you are thinking of going to16g then the stock wire must be pretty small. I would probably switch wire to 14g anyway.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

The thicker wire is needed for the longer runs. The long run of thin wire will slant the sound by rolling off the higher frequency sounds. You will still hear sounds with the thin wire, but it will be altered.
To test this, fire up a favorite 2-channel CD and listen for several minutes. Then turn off the receiver and wire the left/right rear speakers in place of the left/right front speakers.
The sudden change in sound is caused by 2 things:
- Different placement & alignment of the rear speakers
- The 'slant' in the sound caused by the long run of thin wires.
A thicker speaker wire will reduce, but not eliminate the slant.
In truth, you can get away with thin wires to the rears because critical sounds dont often go to the rears for very long. And the Kenwood speakers are not like highly detailed Martin-Logan/Magnapan panel speakers. (This is what people are using when they claim they can hear the effect of 15 ft of thin wire).
So you may not even notice if you used 12 ga to the rears for DVD movies. But good 12 ga speaker wire is about $0.50/ft so most of us buy a spool of it and use it everywhere.
Try the Sound King wire from www.partsexpress.com.
Oh, and if you do re-wire to the rears, put in 3 runs to the rear of your room so you are all ready for the rear-center speaker that is becoming popular with EX systems.