different speaker gauges for surround

[MR.MAGOO]

My front L/R speaker cables are 14 awg. I don't have enough left over for all 4 surround speakers so I'm thinking of using 14 awg for the 2 L/R surrounds and 12 awg for the 2 rears. Any problems with that idea, sonic or otherwise? Thanks for any feedback. I'm even toying with buying them already built from Blue Jeans.

 

[Pogre]

For longer runs a higher guage is recommended. 14 awg should be fine, but I wouldn't drop any lower for surrounds unless the distances are pretty short.

 

[lovinthehd]

Mix and match to your heart's content and use a table like this to determine length vs gauge http://roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

 

[Speedskater]

Remember that AWG numbers are upside-down. 12AWG is a larger diameter than 14AWG.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Thanks for the feedback, I forgot to mention all speakers are 8 ohm.

 

[j_garcia]

Thanks for the feedback, I forgot to mention all speakers are 8 ohm.

14AWG should be fine then, unless the wire runs happened to be super long.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

I think I have enough 12 awg wire for both rear surrounds, and enough 14 awg for the side surrounds.
I've got to route all surround speaker wires along one baseboard to avoid tripping over them so the farthest speaker from the receiver will need a wire about 38 ft long. Will also have to pull up a door threshold to route wires underneath.

 

[j_garcia]

What we just did at my daughter's place was run a single 12/4 along the baseboards, then break it out near the surrounds

 

[Pogre]

I recently got new carpet and took advantage of the opportunity to run new cables to my surrounds unDer the carpet.