18ga vs 16ga speaker wire

[QueBert]

Car Audio question, I have Polk Momo components in the front and Infinity 5x7's in the rear. Right now I'm running 18ga wire with butt connectors to extend the wire to reach my amp. My amps are 400 watts each, I was thinking about getting new wire due to my butt connectors. Not sure if that degrades the signal at all. Do they have any impact on my SQ? And would going with 16ga wire make any difference at all?

 

[Tiamat]

Depends on several things. What is the nominal impedance of your speakers? What is the length of the cable? What is the condition of your existing cable (is it oxidized)?

The lower the impedance and the longer the length of the cable, the thicker the cable you should use. 16ga should be adequate for most any run that would be within the car. 18ga may struggle with low impedance speakers (4ohms or lower) in combination with long speaker cable runs (>30 feet).

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Depends on several things. What is the nominal impedance of your speakers? What is the length of the cable? What is the condition of your existing cable (is it oxidized)?

The lower the impedance and the longer the length of the cable, the thicker the cable you should use. 16ga should be adequate for most any run that would be within the car. 18ga may struggle with low impedance speakers (4ohms or lower) in combination with long speaker cable runs (>30 feet).

Hummm, I don't know exactly how long but it's from the door speakers to rear of the trunk on a Taurus, so I would think no more than 12 feet and that's probably stretching it. I don't have the info for my speakers off hand, but I believe both rear and front are 4 ohms, My current cable is an interesting mixture of different cables, 2 of the speakers I have Monster, and the other 2 of the speakers have Radio Shack. The RS wire looks and feels cheap, it's very stiff and has a low strand count, The Monster is very flexible and has a 116 strand count. I guess all the strand count does is make it easier to bend though. I'm looking at some 16ga Stinger wire at Pep Boys. The spool it comes on doesn't say if it's oxidized or not. The web site doesn't either just that it's 102 strand. The price difference between the 16 and 18 is next to nothing really so I guess I should go with the 16. I am interested to find out if it's oxidized or not. It's listed as "premium wire" so it should use oxygen free copper but I don't know how to find out.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: QueBert

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Depends on several things. What is the nominal impedance of your speakers? What is the length of the cable? What is the condition of your existing cable (is it oxidized)?

The lower the impedance and the longer the length of the cable, the thicker the cable you should use. 16ga should be adequate for most any run that would be within the car. 18ga may struggle with low impedance speakers (4ohms or lower) in combination with long speaker cable runs (>30 feet).

Hummm, I don't know exactly how long but it's from the door speakers to rear of the trunk on a Taurus, so I would think no more than 12 feet and that's probably stretching it. I don't have the info for my speakers off hand, but I believe both rear and front are 4 ohms, My current cable is an interesting mixture of different cables, 2 of the speakers I have Monster, and the other 2 of the speakers have Radio Shack. The RS wire looks and feels cheap, it's very stiff and has a low strand count, The Monster is very flexible and has a 116 strand count. I guess all the strand count does is make it easier to bend though. I'm looking at some 16ga Stinger wire at Pep Boys. The spool it comes on doesn't say if it's oxidized or not. The web site doesn't either just that it's 102 strand. The price difference between the 16 and 18 is next to nothing really so I guess I should go with the 16. I am interested to find out if it's oxidized or not. It's listed as "premium wire" so it should use oxygen free copper but I don't know how to find out.

Oxidized copper is bad. You can tell if it looks green. If it is a nice copper color, it is fine. You can even go to Home Depot to get their speaker cable, same stuff. It is really inexpensive there. Just bring the length requirements and they will cut the cable off of the spool for ya.

 

[bobdole369]

You "may" notice degraded highs due to the friction connections, but it takes a really really good ear to hear it. If you are running 400W I'm assuming its not an SQ system.

18awg is sufficient for about 16A of current. Thats roughly 500W RMS, or 700ish peak (continuous) THe standard is for chassis wiring, which means - it won't heat up enough to catch fire, but at max - is warm, even hot. So 18 awg is twice as sufficient in terms of heating.

In terms of loss and signal transfer - at those power levels, you'll never notice 10W here or there lost to heat.

18awg is fine. 16awg is better, since the price isn't that bad - go with 16awg.

It's best to have soldered connections to the speakers as well, but some folks will disagree and say it doesn't matter. Again it takes a good ear, and at those power levels, noise and clipping probably covers up any difference.

It'll take a couple years to go green and stiff on ya if you live in a salty air environment, or somewhere really humid, thats really all the "oxygen free" cable is supposed to help with.

 

[jtvang125]

I have 14g going to the front components, 16g for the rear coaxials and 12g for the sub. Are the bigger wires making that much of a difference? I doubt it but speaker wire is cheap so I have no problem with going with larger ones for a little more.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: bobdole369
You "may" notice degraded highs due to the friction connections, but it takes a really really good ear to hear it. If you are running 400W I'm assuming its not an SQ system.

18awg is sufficient for about 16A of current. Thats roughly 500W RMS, or 700ish peak (continuous) THe standard is for chassis wiring, which means - it won't heat up enough to catch fire, but at max - is warm, even hot. So 18 awg is twice as sufficient in terms of heating.

In terms of loss and signal transfer - at those power levels, you'll never notice 10W here or there lost to heat.

18awg is fine. 16awg is better, since the price isn't that bad - go with 16awg.

It's best to have soldered connections to the speakers as well, but some folks will disagree and say it doesn't matter. Again it takes a good ear, and at those power levels, noise and clipping probably covers up any difference.

It'll take a couple years to go green and stiff on ya if you live in a salty air environment, or somewhere really humid, thats really all the "oxygen free" cable is supposed to help with.

Actually it is a SQ system, my components do 125 max and my Infinities do 75 I believe. It's not LOUD loud, but it goes pretty loud and is very clear. The Polk Momo components really sound good. I have another 400 running to my subs. I'm not sure how many watts one can even push to components + rear speakers. I know mine can't handle much more power. I picked up 50 feet of 16ga Stinger cable at Pep Boys for 22 bucks. Seemed like a good deal for some nice wire.

 

[iGas]

Depends on the Ohm load, and length of run. It would be better to go with a heavy insulation for car audio to reduce short/s.

Maximum Wire Lengths For TWO CONDUCTOR Copper Wire -- Wire table.

[add]
Wire table is base on ideal condition for human hearing. Higher resistant in car audio isn't as a concern as home audio.

 

[0roo0roo]

doesn't matter. sound proofing your car is more important by a long shot.