8 Gauge Speaker Cable


Hey. I recently moved to a new house and just finished ripping out a closet to make my audio room bigger. :-) I want to run my rear speaker cable through the ceiling and behind the wall I haven't put up yet.

1) Is this a good idea? There is nothing up there now except some plumbing. The outlet power lines are 6-8 feet from where I'm running the speaker wire.

2) Extrapolating from www.alphacore.com, in order to run 150 Watts 35 feet, I should use 8 gauge wire or larger. Does 8 gauge mean per terminal (+ or -), both terminals, the outer cover, or something altogether different?

3) Considering the cost of 8 gauge cable and that I only use the rear speakers 2-4 hours a week I'm considering using car audio grade wire and soldering the spades on myself. I used a blue/silver wire twisted into clear tubing in my car. It's $1.50 a foot on eBay. Anyone have experience with this? Good idea or am I missing something? Do I even need the braided wire or can I go with cheaper 8 gauge that isn't twisted?

Thanks!
leoturetsky
Bomarc, series resistance doesn't mean a thing if your amp is oscillating. As such, i would first look into the stability of the circuit as a whole ( amp, speaker cables and speakers ) and base my decision on the specific factors involved. Since he was using the Goertz website as a reference and they produce what may arguably be the most reactive wire on the market, i felt the need to stress that point.

One does need to keep in mind that i'm NOT bad-mouthing Goertz, as i personally own three different runs of MI-2 and one run of MI-3. Obviously, i think that their design has merit. Then again, so do other brands and products.

As to the suitability of the wires i suggested, i wouldn't have suggested them if they wouldn't work and work pretty well. Try measuring the series resistance of a 13 gauge wire for a pretty long run and see what you get. It will be negligible and even less with an 11 gauge.

The only time that you would run into problem with either of the above is if you are trying to pump high current on a continual basis through them. The dielectric absorption would increase and so would your losses. As such, i sincerely doubt that any system would be seeing more than a VERY few amps on a steady state basis, let alone a pair of surround speakers. I was trying to keep this as "real world" as possible and still obtain more than suitable results. I think that the prices reflect that intent too.

As to RFI, anyone that lives in a highly populated area that has high powered CB or amateur radio operation taking place has probably heard broadcasts coming through their stereo, tv, telephone, computer speakers, clock radio, etc.. on occasion. If they haven't, they should consider themselves lucky. Either way, adding a long run of wire of ANY design would only increase the chances of stray RF finding its way into the audio chain. As such, nobody wants to shell out money for something that won't work under all of the conditions that they may encounter. It is better to plan ahead and take ALL of the various factors that may arise into consideration and be done with it. That is a lot easier to find out the hard way that they should have planned ahead just a LITTLE more. Sean
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Sean, I'm gonna try the 100-768. At $35 plus shipping for the lengths I need it's hard to beat and definitely worth a try. Any more pointers? I was reading that quad-star (which is the pattern I'm assuming exists inside the white jacket) increases capacitance of a cable and that this is good for analog signals and bad for digital. While I think I more or less understand why, you have a better explanation? Thanks again!
JV: Not to worry. The guy says he's using Thiels.

Sean: Fair points all. Perhaps we should have asked what amp he was using; I assumed it was a pretty conventional SS. I personally don't know anybody who's had an RFI problem with speaker cables, so my instinct would be to concentrate on other factors (like keeping resistance and reactance down) unless you know there's a problem. But your proposal would add a little insurance at a very reasonable price. (If Leo were considering a megabuck cable to prevent RFI, I'd tell him to find out if he's got an RFI problem first.)