Speaker wire (2 conductor) question (1 Viewer)

[steve_jk]

Looking to run some speaker wire inside a wall & into the attic.
From looking around I found out that there's wire rated for inside walls.
From what I found searching, these types of wires seem to come in 2 conductor & 4 conductor packages.

This may be a dumb question but does 2 conductor mean that there's 2
seperate wires inside the outer insulated jacket & 4 conductor means
there are 4 seperate wires?


Also I found some 16/2 wire advertised as 65 strands of copper per
each. The ad stated the specs : (UL) 16/2 SPT-2 E-25411 c(UL) FT2 and
said it was rated for 300 volts and could be used for speaker wire as
well as some electrical applications.


Is this type of wire just as good as any other 16 gauge wire (for use as speaker wire) specifically branded as 'speaker wire'

 

[SethH]

That wire should work just like any other 16ga wire. Given the minimal price difference between 12, 14 and 16ga wire I would definitely suggest going with at least 14ga for an in-wall installation.

You could go with 4 conductor if you are going to bi-amp or potentially to run one long wire to two different speakers. Also, some people use the 4 conductor to make a thicker wire -- e.g. run a 4 conductor wire to one speaker and combine 2 conductors on each end to create a thicker wire.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

That is correct. You can either double-up on the connections, to make the wiring functionally twice as thick, or you can use it for two separate speakers. If you have a long speaker run, it should be cheaper than two separate runs of two-conductor.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt