Choosing Speaker Wire Gauge?

[HiTek21]

I have some Logitech Z-560's speakers and I want to get some bigger speaker wire but I dont want to go overboard on the size.. What guage should I get? 20gauge, 18gauge, 16 Gauge?? Anyone out there upgrade their speaker wire on these Logitech speakers?

Edit: Does anyone know where I can find some cheap speaker wire? I Went to best buy and found a spool of 50' for 30 bucks.. Too rich for my blood, something along the lines of 10 bucks?

 

[hemicuda]

I think 16 should be the bare minimum on speakers.I use the fatest gauge possible on my reciever and speakers.

 

[kt]

Blah, BB for speaker wires? You better off going to Home depot or the likes and buy them in bulk. Even Radio Shack sells them cheaper than BB or CC. But your best bet would be going to a home improvement warehouse.

 

[Viperoni]

Go to home depot and look for 16g stuff, or grab a roll of this Sound King 50foot 16g wire.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Viperoni
Go to home depot and look for 16g stuff, or grab a roll of this Sound King 50foot 16g wire.

He said it. For your usage (wattage, length of cable run) 16 gauge is more than enough. When dealing with home theater and 100W+ per channel, then use the thickest stuff you can fit/afford.

 

[Scarpozzi]

For speaker wire 18guage is all you'll ever need. I doubt you'll see any performance difference out of wire larger than that. If it makes you feel better though, go with the 16 as long as it's not too much more expensive. Stereo techs are funny these days because they're usually trying to sell you more expensive wire even though you don't need it.

I was in Circuit City around Xmas and had a salesman tell me that Monster Brand NiMH batteries were the highest quality batteries you could get and that they were worth the money...of course they were like 20 times the cost of regular NiMH from reputable companies with the same mah rating. I wanted to smack the guy because he seriously didn't know anything about what he was selling with so much confidence.

Back to the wire. 18guage will carry the signal and you won't lose anything except for maybe what the human ear can't hear anyway.

 

[Mister T]

you can get a 50ft spool of 14 gauge from radio shack for $20.
Pretty good stuff - I have wired my whole home theater with it

 

[EvilYoda]

I agree that you shouldn't need anything thicker than 16 guage for your application......and hell, if Viperoni said it, I don't know why anybody needs to post anymore replies.

That being said, I just did.

 

[ElFenix]

actually electrical signals bounce when they encounter higher resistance... so you should match the resistance. at least, thats what i learned in high school (the biggest example they had was starter motors, that they are specifically matched to the battery)

 

[Beau]

The guage of the wire that you use is based on the length of the run and the power you are planning on using.

Recommend max runs/wire gauge:

Gauge  5 watt     10 watt   15 watt    30 watt    50 watt    100 watt    200 watt
16       10,000 ft    7,000 ft   4,600 ft    2,300 ft    1,400 ft    700 ft         350 ft
18         9,000 ft    4,500 ft   2,800 ft    1,400 ft       830 ft    415 ft         205 ft
20         5,500 ft    2,700 ft   1,800 ft       900 ft       540 ft    270 ft         135 ft
22         3,400 ft    1,700 ft   1,100 ft       550 ft       330 ft    115 ft           60 ft
24         2,100 ft    1,000 ft      700 ft       350 ft       210 ft    105 ft           50 ft

That being said, I'd still use 16 gauge

Edit: JBL Pro speaker wire gauge chart

 

[BooneRebel]

Just buy lamp cord from your local HD/Lowes.

 

[StattlichPassat]

They're computer speakers. Anything more than 16 guage (if that) is ludicrous.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Originally posted by: Beau6183
The guage of the wire that you use is based on the length of the run and the power you are planning on using.

Recommend max runs/wire gauge:

Gauge  5 watt     10 watt   15 watt    30 watt    50 watt    100 watt    200 watt
16       10,000 ft    7,000 ft   4,600 ft    2,300 ft    1,400 ft    700 ft         350 ft
18         9,000 ft    4,500 ft   2,800 ft    1,400 ft       830 ft    415 ft         205 ft
20         5,500 ft    2,700 ft   1,800 ft       900 ft       540 ft    270 ft         135 ft
22         3,400 ft    1,700 ft   1,100 ft       550 ft       330 ft    115 ft           60 ft
24         2,100 ft    1,000 ft      700 ft       350 ft       210 ft    105 ft           50 ft

That being said, I'd still use 16 gauge

Edit: JBL Pro speaker wire gauge chart

Hey, very cool chart- I'm going to save that! Thanks.

 

[chrmar6]

18 gauge is pretty good speaker wire, it would prolly benefit you the most, i use 18 all the time with my home theater and other speaker sutff

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

get you some

 

[tronester1]

It depends on the impedence of your speakers. If your speakers are 8ohms, then I really do not see why you would need more than 18awg for relativly short runs. If for some strange reason you use a pair of 1ohm speakers, you are going to need thicker wire, in order to make sure your total load impedence that the amplifier sees is not significantly (like more than 5% higher). Remember, a 10% loss is not even a decibel.