Running speaker wire around room (1 Viewer)

[MikeJason]

I need to run speaker wire around my living room for my rear speakers. I would like to maybe cut the wire so there is some extra slack in case I need to move the rear speakers to another location later. Does having extra cable then is needed affect sound quality at all?

Thanks.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Mike,

Your post is a little confusing, which is probably why you haven’t received any responses. For instance, cutting the wire removes slack, not the reverse. And...
This sentence does not make sense.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Al.Anderson]

It wasn't that confusing; he wants to size the wire to leave extra slack. And he typed 'then' for 'than'.

No, this shouldn't be a problem. Most receivers allow you to adjust for this anyway; check your owners manual. If you wind up leaving A LOT of slack you could increase the resistence/impedance, so be safe and use a lower guage wire than you would normally use (say drop down to 12). You could always leave the same slack on both sides too (though you'll still want the thinker wire.) I ran about 35 ft with 14 guage and haven't had a problem.

 

[MikeJason]

Sorry for the confusion.

1.)What would you consider A LOT of slack?

2.)What does increasing the resistance/impedance on the receiver accomplish? My receiver is old and I have no idea where the owner's manual is.

Thanks for the responses!

 

[Nathan Stohler]

The higher the resistance, the less power you will have for your speakers. So, if you have longer runs, you might want to use a higher guage of wire to lower the resistance, as Al suggested.

I would just cut the wire so that it reaches the position furthest from your receiver that you might consider placing your speakers. 14-guage should be fine.

 

[John Garcia]

14ga will not be enough if you are looking to run 50' or greater runs with 8 Ohm speakers. Less than that, and you will be OK.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

14ga will be fine. For rear speakers (potential) loss of sound quality is not really an issue, as the rears are mainly for reproducing non-critical ambient sounds. And actually, 8-ohm speakers are less sensitive to increases in resistance from long runs of speaker cable than 4-ohm speakers are.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[John Pine]

For a typical HT setup, going with 14 shouldn’t be critical. But, for Hi-Res Audio use, go with 12.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

A few extra feet isn't going to make an audible difference.

In fact, HERE is an article that explains that there's no audible difference in lengths up to 50 feet.

And, even if there is, most receivers will allow you to adjust each channel's volume individually to make up for distance, speaker impedance, etc...

Just make sure you're not running with scissors around the room.