outdoor speaker cable question

[ikhan42]

Hey guys and gals I am new to this forum and have read article after article and post after post but I cant seem to find any answers to my questios so at risk of being flamed I will ask it anyways.

I have a pair of 300Watt TLC outdoor rock speakers for my backyard and am looking at running cables from my house to the speakers. The furtherest speaker is approximately 40 Metres away from the amplifier and the other one is approximately 30Metres away.

I know for long distances I needed to get 12AWG or lower cable. What I am looking at using for the speakers is Outdoor low voltage electrical cable. The shielding on this cable is very thick and the cable is 4.00mm which I think equates to 10AWG please correct me if I am wrong as I said I am new to all this audio stuff.

The cable will be run down the wall of my house and then into a PVC junction box that will send the cable via 25mm direct burial conduit under my lawn and into the garden beds.


What I have been told is that the cable runs have to be of equal length so both will need to be 40metres in length. I read your article about cables need to be the same length I am even more confused then before.

Anyways these are my thoughts of what needs to be done any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you guys need to see a picture of the cable I am looking at using that wont be a problem to attach.

Thanks again
ikhan42

 

[ParadigmDawg]

They dont need to be the same length.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hey guys and gals I am new to this forum and have read article after article and post after post but I cant seem to find any answers to my questios so at risk of being flamed I will ask it anyways.

I have a pair of 300Watt TLC outdoor rock speakers for my backyard and am looking at running cables from my house to the speakers. The furtherest speaker is approximately 40 Metres away from the amplifier and the other one is approximately 30Metres away.

I know for long distances I needed to get 12AWG or lower cable. What I am looking at using for the speakers is Outdoor low voltage electrical cable. The shielding on this cable is very thick and the cable is 4.00mm which I think equates to 10AWG please correct me if I am wrong as I said I am new to all this audio stuff.

The cable will be run down the wall of my house and then into a PVC junction box that will send the cable via 25mm direct burial conduit under my lawn and into the garden beds.


What I have been told is that the cable runs have to be of equal length so both will need to be 40metres in length. I read your article about cables need to be the same length I am even more confused then before.

Anyways these are my thoughts of what needs to be done any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you guys need to see a picture of the cable I am looking at using that wont be a problem to attach.

Thanks again
ikhan42

If those are 4mm in diameter then they are about 6Ga cables, just the right size Or, is that the insulation diameter? What is the wire diameter?

Don't worry about that 10m difference, no need to make them the same length.

 

[MDS]

Don't worry about that 10m difference, no need to make them the same length.

You should clarify that for the 'gifted' folks who think they can hear picosecond differences in timing. The audio signal travels down the wire at approximately 70% of the speed of light so for normal people it won't matter if one cable is 10 feet long and the other cable is 2 miles long.

 

[mtrycrafts]

You should clarify that for the 'gifted' folks who think they can hear picosecond differences in timing. The audio signal travels down the wire at approximately 70% of the speed of light so for normal people it won't matter if one cable is 10 feet long and the other cable is 2 miles long.

Except that 2 mile cable may have too much resistance?

 

[ikhan42]

If those are 4mm in diameter then they are about 6Ga cables, just the right size Or, is that the insulation diameter? What is the wire diameter?

Don't worry about that 10m difference, no need to make them the same length.

The 4mm is the cable diameter. Its multi strand cable and the shiending is about 1mm.

Tried to put a image in of the cable but for some reason I dont have the option. so here is info on what the cable has written on it "Garden Lighting 4mm(square)" this is the cable they use in Garden lighting for very long cable runs to prevent the lights on the furtherest ends from being dimmer then the ones closer to the power source.

My logic of thinking is the same would be true for speakers. LOL probably crazy I know but thats why I am here so I can get help from the gurus.



Thanks
ikhan42

 

[mtrycrafts]

The 4mm is the cable diameter. Its multi strand cable and the shiending is about 1mm.
Tried to put a image in of the cable but for some reason I dont have the option. so here is info on what the cable has written on it "Garden Lighting 4mm(square)" this is the cable they use in Garden lighting for very long cable runs to prevent the lights on the furtherest ends from being dimmer then the ones closer to the power source.
My logic of thinking is the same would be true for speakers. LOL probably crazy I know but thats why I am here so I can get help from the gurus.
Thanks
ikhan42

OK. So then that 4mm is the area of the wire, it seems. Not to worry though, that is a 10ga wire. You should be fine with that too. I used 8ga in some places for landscape lighting because of the distances

 

[ikhan42]

Outdoor speaker wire

mtrycrafts I dont want to go any thicker than that as its going to be difficult for me to connect to my amplifier or the speakers.

Thank you all for your help. I will make the cables the same length as I have a brother who runs radio stations who seems to enjoy bagging me out on everything I do so may as well do something right .

This forum is awesome.

BTW let me just introduce myself as it has just occurred to me that I have been very rude and posted a question without any intro.

I Live in Sydney Australia and am doing alot of major landscaping in my backyard as we do alot of entertaining. I work in IT as a communications engineer building internets, intranets, firewalls etc blah blah blah. I have a great little boy who is now 6 going on 52 and I am married.

Ohh well thats way to much info but there is my intro.

ikhan42