Is 14g heavy enough for LCR if bi-wired? (1 Viewer)

[Mark McGill]

Hello: Hey I was wondering if the experts could weigh in on this. I have a ton of Monster 14g in wall THX speaker wire that I would like to use for my LCR Paradigm reference speakers. I know 12g is the best, however if I'm bi-wiring would the lighter Monster be okay. The maximum run is about 12'with about 4' of it actually in the wall. If I need to get the 12g I'll get some at Home Depot. Also what kind of connections should I purchase. The reason I'm asking is I think santa is getting me a Denon 3803. Thanks for the replys and Happy Holidays.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Some high end speaker sites recommend the following gauge based on run-length:

1-10 ft: 16 ga
11-20 ft: 14 ga
20+ ft: 12 ga

So your 14 ga wire should be just fine for the front 3 speakers. Dont even worry about bi-wireing.

 

[Mark McGill]

Thanks for your reply. What you said is pretty much what Paradigm recomends. Sometimes I think that some people get a little to carried away on the must use the 12g approach. I will probably still bi-wire though, mostly because I can. That's right no sound reason for it probably, but I might as well.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Also what kind of connections should I purchase?

I missed this the first reply.:frowning:
I am a big fan of the dual banana plugs from Radio Shack. Part (2xx-308). They have an over-sized hole in the side thats great for 12 ga or bi-wire. A solid spacer bar helps prevent shorts. And they make it easy to do a neat wire job (very important to not have strands of copper sticking out to cause a short.)
These things run about $6 / pair. Be sure to buy 1 set and bring them home to make sure they fit the spacing on your binding posts. The spacing on binding posts IS NOT UNIFORM.
I did use the dual plugs for behind the speakers and receiver. But they stick out about 3.5 inches which is very long. Radio Shack sells some nice single bananas (2xx-306) that un-screw into a barrel through which you insert wire, bend, then tighten the plug on top. Very solid connection and very neat.
Also, this thread about Hook Up Advice has a lot of good advice about equipment layout. This can make a big difference in how easy it is to wire up your system.

 

[Christopher Lyn]

This question is for Bob or anyone out there, and is kind of related to this thread.

I have a bunch of 12 and 14 guage wires. If I run these wires together to each of my surrounds (> 35 feet each), would I get the same effect as running a larger guage wire? And what would that guage be?

 

[Christopher Lyn]

Just read a post from Bill D (just looked down the list some more) and he posted the same question that I asked.

According to one of the replies, coupling 2 12 guage speakers would have a relative guage of 9 and coupling a 12 and 14 guage would have a relative guage of 10. Is this correct?

I will just be using a 12 guage speaker wire and a 14 guage speaker wire connected to the amp and speakers

 

[Chu Gai]

something like that...you could always look up the cross-sectional area of 12 & 14...sum them, look up in a table what the sum matches.

 

[Nick.H]

Personally I use 12g all round,

Centre, 1m each
Front Speakers, 3m each
Rear Speakers, 8m each

Thought I best go for the biggest I could get, Im also thinking of biwiring this weekend.