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Wiring Dilemma (1 Viewer)

Dee Lam

Auditioning
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Jan 27, 2002
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I recently bought a mini bookshelf stereo for my bedroom, an Aiwa XS-DS70. Ok, I know I should've bought a real audio setup with separates and all but this is for my 10x12 bedroom. Hey, it's got a built in DD decoder and believe it or not, it sounds quite nice.

Anyhow, it came with 24 gauge wire that wasn't long enough for me to route around the perimeter of my bedroom so I went out and bought a spool of 14 gauge wire. This worked great for my front speakers however, when I bought the spool, I forgot the center and rear surround speakers use different wiring. They have a RCA plug on one end (receiver end) and regular speaker strands on the other (speaker end). My question is, can I buy a RCA plug (just the plug, no wire) from like Radio Shack or something and terminate it to one end of the 14 gauge wire? Will there be any negative effects by doing this, assuming it will work? Better yet, is there a company out there that actually makes a phono to bare wire cable in 14 gauge? Radio Shack had one but it was 18 gauge. I guess I'll go with that if all else fails but I wanted to use 14 since that's what I have on the front speakers. Any help is appreciated.
 

Phil A

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Oct 1, 2000
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You can buy the RCA plug and do it. Radio Shack carries RCAs. An RCA has a positive (the center pin) and a negative (the outer part of the plug), Make sure you keep them the same otherwise the speaker will be out-of-phase. Also make sure you get an RCA plug that will be able be used with the gauge of wire you want. You could go to a smaller wire for the surrounds too. Places like www.milestek.com may make stuff up but it may not be cost effective. Radio Shack and Milestek (and also others) also carry a wide range of adapters so it could well be easier to terminate it with something else. Personally for what you are doing I would have done something else. For example, Belden 83030 will work for speaker cable (among many others), it is 16 ga. and Teflon insulation and would likely sound much better as well as very easy to work with and is not that expensive at about $45 for a 100 ft. spool of single wire. Gauge is not everything there are many other factors such as dialectrics, insulation, composition of wire that make things sound better or worse on particular systems.
 

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