Am I wasting my Studio 20s? (1 Viewer)

[JerryE]

Greetings all,
My new house is almost done being built and I've just found out that the speaker wire used for my surround sound pre-wire is 16/2.
I've got Paradigm Reference Studio 20v2 for my surround speakers running off a Rotel RMB-1075 (120wpc). The speaker wire lengths to the rear surrounds are probably around 40 to 50 feet.
I was wondering what people's opinions were as to whether or not I'd be able to obtain the full potential of the Studio 20/Rotel combo using this small gauge speaker wire in that long of a run, or if I'd be better off using the 20's in a different listening room and replacing them in my HT with something less expensive from Paradigm (in an attempt to timbre-match as much as possible).
BTW, I'm pretty sure replacing the 16/2 with 14/4 (which could be twisted into what amounts to 12AWG) is not an option since the drywall is up

Any suggestions?
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[Chris Juzenas]

Heh, welcome to the joys of building a house! I am in finishing stage on mine and I also debated about running wire in wall but the Sub contractor my builder uses only runs 16/2 as well for $85 a run!

I need to go into the wiring business, what a racket that is... anyway, to answer your question I don't feel you are going to get the full potential from your Studio 20's. The small gauge and long runs are going to be detrimential to full range at an equal strength to your mains.

Although I feel this is going to be a limitation for any speaker you throw there. I know when I first hooked up my Mini Monitors from Paradigm as rears with 16 guage I was not overly happy with the results. This was resolved with 12 gauge.
I think the 16 gauge wire they run is great for just having music piped through the house but for a high demand theater performance the wire slips a little in the quality department.
Now you can adjust your system a bit for the signal strength lost in the wire but I do not think you will be able to overcome the restrictons of frequency range from that distance.
Good luck with your endeavors and welcome to the forum!
[Edited last by Chris Juzenas on July 13, 2001 at 12:41 PM]

 

[Steve_D]

Hopefully you asked them to wire the rear for 4 speakers in anticipation of new formats? If so, you could bi-wire your Studios!
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