What gauge/type speaker wire?

MikeRocker

MikeRocker

What's Your Forum Nameologist?
Tried to do a search, but too many random threads came up...

What is the appropriate gauge/type of wire for the internal connections in a speaker cabinet? That is, to connect the crimp clips that attach to the speaker itself to the jack where I will plug in an external speaker cable coming from the amp. I know some people use lamp cord, but I would rather use appropriate wire...I'm sure stranded is best, but I am most concerned about gauge (and any other tips).

Thanks!
 
Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

Lamp chord / zip chord is appropriate. 14 or 16 gauge. Been using for over 40 years for guitar and high end stereo speakers. It's cheap because it doesn't have any of that expensive snake oil in it.
 
Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

Yes, lamp cord is fine. It's the same thing as speaker wire, but without the polarity indicator or see-through insulation. For short runs of wire. like the inside of a speaker cabinet, it is not too hard to keep your + and - straight, but you can always use an ohmmeter to make sure you didn't reverse polarity.

In general you should use the same gauge wire (or heavier) in the cab that you'd use for the speaker cables from amp to cabinet. But these are short runs of wire, and unless you're going to be cranking huge watts into the cab, 14g or 16g wire should be fine. You could use 12g, but you'll find the thinner wire a bit easier to work with when making connections.

Also, make sure you get a good crimp on the wire at every connection. Some (like me) prefer to solder the connections inside a cabinet, for better resistance to vibration/corrosion damage.
 
Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

16g lamp cord is perfectly appropriate. Ignore the snake oil salesmen.
 
Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

Why wouldn't you use speaker wire? The amount you need a basic speaker wire isn't gonna be significantly more than lamp wire.
Just don't buy the expensive over priced junk.


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Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

There is a well-known internet speaker cable shootout between a bunch of high-end audio cables and a wildcard ... wire coathangers. It turned out that most (or all) of the people involved in the blindfold tests couldn't pick the difference between expensive cable and the coathanger wire.

So ... go for the best sound. Use wire coathangers.
 
Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

Lamp cord would work just as well as anything.

For no good reason, I prefer the heavy guage wire that home depot sells that is a generic heavy guage clear speaker wire. You find it on the wall rack that they cut for you on a per foot price. It is fairly cheap.

Looks simular to this:
xpms_mkii.jpg
 
Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

There's something to the stranded vs. solid core thing although some of the boutique stuff is beyond my comprehension. I made a "budget" speaker cable using 12ga. romex one time and it sounded like ass - it had a fat and tight lowend, but the highs were pretty rolled off - odd stuff. Speaker cables are one of the few things I think does make a difference to a certain extent. I've used the stock "lamp cord" stuff like what my stock Fenders have had and I've since upgraded to Evidence Audio's Siren II and noticed tighter bass, punchier and clearer sound altogether (I've also used Mulder Audios stuff which is fantastic as well), so I'm of the mindset that a) paying a little more does yield some differences and b) as with anything, there's a point of diminishing returns.

Cable directionality doesn't make sense to me considering we're dealing with AC electrical signals so it would seem to me that anything that would benefit from one polarity would be equally lost given the consistent polarity changing (60 cycles in North America, anyone?). Some manufacturers (like Evidence Audio) claim with the geometry of the way the copper is wound that it works better one way, but that just doesn't make scientific sense to me (and I'm an electrician). I haven't tried making two cables with their stuff going different ways, so I just used it the way they recommend and forgot about it altogether.
 
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Re: What gauge/type speaker wire?

Actually, even most lamp cord usually has a polarity indicator, if you look close you'll see that one side of the wire has a little ridge running down the side, sometimes a white line or or other printing on one side, so you can tell which side to attach to pos and the other to neg. An amp tech told me that 16 guage is the minimum size to use for speaker cords. I also like to solder the connections instead of using the crimp connectors, amp manufacturers use the connectors just to make assembly easier.

Al

Dr. Vegetable said:
Yes, lamp cord is fine. It's the same thing as speaker wire, but without the polarity indicator or see-through insulation. For short runs of wire. like the inside of a speaker cabinet, it is not too hard to keep your + and - straight, but you can always use an ohmmeter to make sure you didn't reverse polarity.

In general you should use the same gauge wire (or heavier) in the cab that you'd use for the speaker cables from amp to cabinet. But these are short runs of wire, and unless you're going to be cranking huge watts into the cab, 14g or 16g wire should be fine. You could use 12g, but you'll find the thinner wire a bit easier to work with when making connections.

Also, make sure you get a good crimp on the wire at every connection. Some (like me) prefer to solder the connections inside a cabinet, for better resistance to vibration/corrosion damage.
Click to expand...
 
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