Dang wires! (1 Viewer)

[EricDeB]

I'm getting really frusterated right now. My receiver has great front speaker speaker terminals (the normal twist the knob kind) but then for the surround speakers it uses the little lever type speaker terminals and I just cannot get the speaker wire to fit in the super tiny hole. Is there a technique for doing this, or something I could buy to make this easier?

Thanks a ton
Eric

 

[Jeff O.]

I have the same problem with an old reciever I use in the bedroom. these work for me.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Those clips work, but you might as well use 18G or 16G wire instead of 12G.

 

[Jeff O.]

Good point Philip. I just find them easier to use because I have poor access to the back of the receiver. Its much easier to push those in than wire.

 

[EricDeB]

So I would be losing some quality in the sound if I used those clips, because I have 12 gauge wire?

Thanks

 

[Philip Hamm]

Frankly, you won't lose anything going to 18G wire.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

Using pins is not the same as using smaller guage wire. With long runs of lower guage wire you start running into issues of growing resistance. With 12awg wire along the bulk of the run and then stepping it down over less than an inch you have an extremely minimal resistance gain. How audible all of this is is questionable but if you already have the 12awg I'd definitely go with clips.

Think about it this way, the extremely short runs of wire inside the receiver aren't 12awg, likely they're 20awg or smaller... so a very short run of 18awg accross the clip isn't going to introduce any more resistance (probably less) than the longest run of wire internally.

As for the propper wire guage to use in long runs to your surrounds, this webpage is very educational and gives a few good rules of thumb.

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

 

[DaveHo]

I've run into that problem before. I assume the speaker wire you are using is stranded. Just clip off a couple of strands back against the insulation until it fits. Better than using the pins IMHO.

-Dave

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I'd go with the pins for convinience, that's the main reason I use bananas. No audible signal loss and much better for moving things around.