Best speaker wire selection help

[-Jim-]

If you already have 16 Gauge at home, simply remove a few strands on each end so you can fit them into the connector on the speaker and solder them. I wouldn't bother with a spade lug.

 

[MrBoat]

CCA will work fine for speakers. It's used for continuous duty electric motors and what not with a heck of a lot more current draw than any loudspeaker will ever see. The only real concern with CCA is that you 'might' have to go up a wire gauge size if you're really pushing it close with amp rating/distance but, for most residential/interior apps, it works as well as anything else.

 

[Speedskater]

Comparing copper to CCA (copper Clad Aluminum) approximately:

10AWG = 8CCA
12AWG = 10CCA
14AWG = 12CCA
16AWG = 14CCA
18AWG = 16CCA

That was easy

 

[-Jim-]

CCA will work fine for speakers. It's used for continuous duty electric motors and what not with a heck of a lot more current draw than any loudspeaker will ever see. The only real concern with CCA is that you 'might' have to go up a wire gauge size if you're really pushing it close with amp rating/distance but, for most residential/interior apps, it works as well as anything else.

I worked as a licensed Motor Winder for over a decade and never saw CCA in any industrial or commercial motor. My familiarity for CCA is with Coaxial cable for Sat & TV cable feeds, and it was always a single strand and stiff. Not really suitable for speaker cables.

Current capacity is really to do with the material of the conductor and the cross sectional area of same. It's simple math, the thicker the conductor(s) the higher the current the cable can carry. No Voodoo here.

 

[MrBoat]

I worked as a licensed Motor Winder for over a decade and never saw CCA in any industrial or commercial motor. My familiarity for CCA is with Coaxial cable for Sat & TV cable feeds, and it was always a single strand and stiff. Not really suitable for speaker cables.

Current capacity is really to do with the material of the conductor and the cross sectional area of same. It's simple math, the thicker the conductor(s) the higher the current the cable can carry. No Voodoo here.

I saw CCA in the windings of GE and perhaps even AO Smith motors but it's been about 20 years ago. How long ago did you work on electric motors? I serviced them for over 15 years back in the 80's and 90's. The use of aluminum in electric motors was a great source of debate between the old timers and the suppliers. I still have old Franklin motors that I kept because they are solid copper wound and run much quieter and cooler than any replacement available at the time. I still have a stock (NOS buyout) of bearings (mostly 6203/6304/Fafnir IIRC) from that era.

Still, the issue with aluminum wiring that gave it such a bad rep was mostly due to it's connection practices, much of which has been improved to a great degree of redundancy. In something like a speaker, where access is so stupidly simple and serviceable, the environment so benign, CCA is not a bad option.

 

[-Jim-]

I worked as a licensed Motor Winder for over a decade and never saw CCA in any industrial or commercial motor. My familiarity for CCA is with Coaxial cable for Sat & TV cable feeds, and it was always a single strand and stiff. Not really suitable for speaker cables.

Current capacity is really to do with the material of the conductor and the cross sectional area of same. It's simple math, the thicker the conductor(s) the higher the current the cable can carry. No Voodoo here.

Gents,

Sorry, I made an error and should have typed "...My familiarity for copper coated wire is with CCS for Coaxial cable for Sat & TV cable feeds...meaning Steel (sorry I was in a rush to get to the Canucks Game - which they lost - bad karma I guess).

I took my brother to the game and he too is a licenced winder (Motors /Generators /Alternators and Transformers - with over 20 years with a GE Service Shop) and I mentioned to him if he'd ever seen CCA in any motor rewound by GE (or even another company he worked for before GE) , and he too has never seen CCA, or ever just Aluminum wire in a Stator of one of these machines. (He currently works for the local utility.)

I spent 10 years selling Motors / Generators / Transformers / Switchgear /Etc., for GE=> from 1/2 HP to 43,000 HP => after my days on the tools, and a decade selling services for them (over 32 years at GE ending in May 2008); and not once was there aluminum wire of any type used in any of them. Aluminum wire is not suitable for this application, and copper is used almost exclusively. Aluminum bars, or cast Rotor windings are very common for single, and three phase, induction motors - but no aluminum in the Stators. One can probably dig up some IEEE papers somewhere (I was a member there for about 13 years) that go into the rationale of wire types and their applications if you'd like to dig deeper. (The 43,000 HP Refiner Motors were such a large load the Pulp & Paper Company had to call 3 utilities before putting them on line.)

I would never bother with any type of Aluminum for a Speaker wire when more robust multi-strand flexible copper cable is cheaply available. Besides aluminum just adds more resistance to the circuit and wastes power - again more so on longer runs for the same cross sectional area.

 

[MrBoat]

Gents,

Sorry, I made an error and should have typed "...My familiarity for copper coated wire is with CCS for Coaxial cable for Sat & TV cable feeds...meaning Steel (sorry I was in a rush to get to the Canucks Game - which they lost - bad karma I guess).

I took my brother to the game and he too is a licenced winder (Motors /Generators /Alternators and Transformers - with over 20 years with a GE Service Shop) and I mentioned to him if he'd ever seen CCA in any motor rewound by GE (or even another company he worked for before GE) , and he too has never seen CCA, or ever just Aluminum wire in a Stator of one of these machines. (He currently works for the local utility.)

I spent 10 years selling Motors / Generators / Transformers / Switchgear /Etc., for GE=> from 1/2 HP to 43,000 HP => after my days on the tools, and a decade selling services for them (over 32 years at GE ending in May 2008); and not once was there aluminum wire of any type used in any of them. Aluminum wire is not suitable for this application, and copper is used almost exclusively. Aluminum bars, or cast Rotor windings are very common for single, and three phase, induction motors - but no aluminum in the Stators. One can probably dig up some IEEE papers somewhere (I was a member there for about 13 years) that go into the rationale of wire types and their applications if you'd like to dig deeper. (The 43,000 HP Refiner Motors were such a large load the Pulp & Paper Company had to call 3 utilities before putting them on line.)

I would never bother with any type of Aluminum for a Speaker wire when more robust multi-strand flexible copper cable is cheaply available. Besides aluminum just adds more resistance to the circuit and wastes power - again more so on longer runs for the same cross sectional area.

As a rewinder, no. We had motors rewound frequently as well and they were never rewound with aluminum. Also, aluminum wired motors were essentially disposable past a set of bearings, cap, or centrifugal start switch/contacts.

Here is some talk I found on the subject. I knew I had come across CCA or aluminum windings in electric motors. IIRC, it's even found it's way in the newer welding machines, while my old Miller transformer machine is solid copper and with a 100% duty cycle at full tilt.

Also, CCA is not a preferred wire, but it is acceptable for speakers and other mild applications. If one's speakers performance are dangling by a thread of such minute differences of wires, there's attention needed elsewhere in the system.