What does "gauge" refer to... (1 Viewer)

[EricHaas]

Really dumb question. With speaker cable, what characteristic is represented by the gauge? Is it the thickness of the cable, the number of conductor strands, etc.?

Also, is 25 cents per foot a decent price for generic (e.g. radio shack/home depot) 10 gauge cable?

 

[Mark Austin]

The cable's thickness would be charcteristic of gauge.
$.25/ft.????? Are you some sort of cable elitist? I would never pay above $.22/ft for generic cable. j/k $.25/ft. sounds very decent.

 

[EricHaas]

Hey Mark, after doing some long division, I determined that the price is actually 23 centers per foot. But that still makes me an elitest by your definition, which I am proud to be. j/k

 

[Bob McElfresh]

The gauge is a measure of thickness. The numbers are a bit backwards because wire used to be run through a press to make it smaller. So 20 ga wire was run through .. 20 times and that makes it thinner than wire that was squished less (like 12 ga).

$0.25/ft is very good. But it's almost too good.

Is the copper Oxygen Free? (Means neutral gas was injected around the wire while it was cooling so oxygen molecules dont start corroding it).

And.. can your equipment connections handle 10 ga? (I had to resort to banana plugs because the 12 ga was almost too thick to fit the binding posts.)

 

[EricHaas]

Well I got if off Ebay. $59 for a 250' spool. This seller has like 300 positive ratings and 2 negatives. I e-mailed him and he said he sells thousands of feet per week of all gauges. He says it is imported from Europe and is just standard generic heavy gauge cable, oxygen free.

I didn't consider whether my equipment could handle it. I was planning on terminating it with plugs or spades. Will that be a problem?