Speaker gauge wires does it matter?

Tvfan2010

I called some pro to install the speakers. But unfortunately when I opened box, the speaker wires were not included inside the speaker box. The pro guy used his own set of speaker wires to install them.

I am not sure what gauge wires he used but I came to know that 16 or 12 gauge wires are good.

The sound quality is coming good from the speakers but does it spoil either speakers or receiver in future if higher gauge wires are used? I do not either watch movies or hear music in full blown volume.


Home Theatre setup:

Onkyo Receiver - TX-SR608
Definitive Technology ProCinema 800
LG Plasma 60PK950
LG BD530 Blu-ray

Bigloww

Yes it does make a difference when considering how long the run and how much you crank the speakers. In most cases, if your runs are 25 ft. or less, 16 awg is good enough. If longer runs are in the works, 14 or 12 would be in order.

shaklee

my runs are about 18 ft so could i use 14 gauge?

Bigloww

You can use 10 guage if you like. But at only 18 ft, you not gonna reap a benifit from it over 16 awg is all. It won't hurt in any way.

Tvfan2010

I am planning to use 12 gauge speaker wire for all of them front, centre and back. Front and centre are around 10 to 16 ft away from the receiver and back speakers are around 40 ft each from receiver.

Can I use same gauge speaker wires for all of them?

Does it going to hurt the speakers if I increase the volume?

rbinck

I think that is fine and it should not hurt the speakers.

ckone180

Use 16 guage or lower and you fine. The larger the number guage, the small the wire, so 22 ga is smaller than 16 ga.

m_vanmeter

good web reference on wiring
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

Stew4HD

That table should be made a sticky!

BobCat1950

I have surround speaker set up using a TEAC AG-D9260 w/ 100w per channel, the small back speakers (Minimus-7) use about 30 ft of wire where as the large front speakers (3-way hlx w/ 12" woofer, 6" mid & 3" tweeter) are about 5 ft of wire; all connections are w/ 20 or 22 ga; Would i notice any difference in sound quality & volume if I change to 18 or 16ga? And would i get more out of my woofers? All speakers are 8 ohms.

jkkyler

Look at the linked chart in this post and it will give you reccomended speaker wre gauges - it is all based on resistance and length of run.

BobCat1950

but will there be a difference in sound quality & volume that's my question

jkkyler

That depends on how far out of recommendations you are but what you will more likely do is burn up your amplifier or damage your speakers if too far over or underpowered as a result of poor current flow.

quad4.0

read the whole thing. very easy to understand, using no terms that are hard to understand. It should be a sticky.

HiDefRev

If you are using 22 or 20 gauge wire and switch to 16 gauge or larger, you will notice an improvement in volume and sound quality. And, as mentioned before, this will allow your receiver to run cooler.