Pre-wire (1 Viewer)

[RichardJB]

Hi all, I am having a house built and they are about to go in and do the electrical, I have contracted with a company to do a structured wiring system including HT pre-wire, my question is for my surround rears the speaker run is going to be at least 25ft, can anyone let me know if I should
16 gauge or 10 gauge wire?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

16 gauge will certainly work, but it is on the small side. 14 gauge is plenty, or 12 gauge if you want to upgrade. 10 gauge is way overkill for surrounds.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Ryan Peddle]

I'd agree with Wayne that 14 gauge is more than adequate. I ran 14 gauge the same length (25') and then ran 12, no noticable difference at all.

 

[JeffCar]

I too have not really found any difference in listening between 12 and 14, but I will also tell you I just ran 12 in my new room..... just because the price difference wasn't all that great, and I figured f I was going to close up the walls, put the better wire in and I will not have to second guess myself.

Jeff

 

[Dave Driskell]

Richard:

I too am at the wiring stage and for my speakers I ran 14/4 speaker wire to all locations for 7.1 except sub locations. It is rated for in-wall use (CL3 I believe) and can be found fairly cheap by doing a search. This gives me the option of bi-wiring in the future or combining 2 wires together for an effective 11 gauge wire.

The sub locations are wired with good RG6 for the LFE connection.

Good Luck

 

[JamesP]

I am a big fan of using the thickest wire you can get. I just finished putting up the drywall in my HT room and I used 14 guage all around. It was the best price point for the wiring at Home Depot.

 

[RickRO]

FWIW

I'm planning on using 12ga. all around for my HT. I have found that there are quite a few interconnects (banana's, spades and such) that will not accept bigger than 12ga. I guess you could trim to fit by why add a step if you don't need to?

My vote 12ga.

My .02