Ask Dr. A! Does Speaker Cable Gauge Matter?

[admin]

It's been a while since Dr. A answered a reader question so we pulled him away from his 4 month karaoke binge and tossed a new question at him. Seems like Dr. A has an addictive personality so we'll need to keep him a bit more occupied in the future for his own good. This question, from philophobos via our forums, has to do with speaker cable gauge, but we expanded it a bit in our answer to address some other related situations.

Discuss "Ask Dr. A! Does Speaker Cable Gauge Matter?" here. Read the article.

 

[ibgarrett]

So how would Mini-coax compare?

I'm in the process of finishing my basement and I'm putting in a home theater system as part of the process. I've decided to try using some mini-coax cable because of the size and easy of use with the connectors. (For the cable type just send me an email - I haven't posted enough yet, so I can't include the link) I also like it because it's shielded.

How does that compare to speaker wire?

Brian

 

[gene]

I'm in the process of finishing my basement and I'm putting in a home theater system as part of the process. I've decided to try using some mini-coax cable because of the size and easy of use with the connectors. (For the cable type just send me an email - I haven't posted enough yet, so I can't include the link) I also like it because it's shielded.

How does that compare to speaker wire?

You don't need shielding for speaker cables in 99% of installs. Don't forget a speaker is a low impedance device so you won't get much pickup at all from outside sources.

Find out the gauge on the mini COAX but I suspect it will be 18AWG or higher thus I'd recommend either cross connecting 2 COAXs, or using conventional 4/4 speaker wire paralled to yield an effective gauge of 11AWG.

 

[yettitheman]

Yes and no. I reference the article at hand, as longer distances benefit marginally from increased wire gauge.

I'll say this; inside your typical HTR, the wires connecting the speaker terminals from the amplifier circuit board are usually MUCH smaller than the cable you are using to run to the speakers from your HTR.

 

[gene]

I'll say this; inside your typical HTR, the wires connecting the speaker terminals from the amplifier circuit board are usually MUCH smaller than the cable you are using to run to the speakers from your HTR.

Yes and those are extremely short distances and anything with power connections still usually have 14AWG or soldered on to pcb board with very thick traces. The small wires are usually connection digital circuits and pass extremely low current signals.

 

[kelsci]

Hi; I conducted passive surround sound experiments during the 80s and 90s with four and five channel dynaquad ciruits. My use was with 18 gauge wire. One time, I wired up the circuit with 16 gauge wire. The soundfield collapsed into the middle of the room as one big monophonic muddle. So this circuit told me something of the importance of 18 gauge wire. Many perhaps tried passive surround decoding in the pre-discrete days. If they fooled with the lower gauge wire, they would have experienced failure in getting that circuit to operate.

I also tried 20 gauge wire. The tonality of the sound of the whole sound field was thin, much like turning down a treble control on a receiver counter clockwise.

When it comes to an active discrete surround sound receiver as we have today, I cannot really comment on the effects of lower gauge wires since I did not have the opportunity to try that. My brother does have 16 gauge wire on his home theater system and it appears to work well. I have 18 gauge wire on mine and I am comletely satisfied as to its toneality and soundfield balance.

 

[gene]

My brother does have 16 gauge wire on his home theater system and it appears to work well. I have 18 gauge wire on mine and I am comletely satisfied as to its toneality and soundfield balance.

You may wish to rethink that as 18AWG wire has nearly 4x the DC resistance of 12AWG. Thus running 20ft of 18AWG wire would yield the same resistance of nearly 80ft of 12AWG!

insertion loss of 20ft of 12AWG with 8 ohm speaker = .07dB
insertion loss of 20ft of 18AWG with 8 ohm speaker = .28dB

The minor additive AC resistance of 12AWG wire at 20kHz is completely washed out by the DC resistance of 18AWG wire so even at frequencies up to the capabilities of human hearing, 12AWG wire still has FAR lower AC resistance, about 2.3 times lower as a matter of fact!

 

[yepimonfire]

i used to use really skinny wires, i think like 18 or maybe even 20 gauge, i bought some 16 gauge and wow what a difference, not only in loudness, but fullness of sound, the sound seems to have more depth where-as the 18 gauge made it sound "squashed".

 

[j_garcia]

i used to use really skinny wires, i think like 18 or maybe even 20 gauge, i bought some 16 gauge and wow what a difference, not only in loudness, but fullness of sound, the sound seems to have more depth where-as the 18 gauge made it sound "squashed".

That means the previous wire was insufficient for the draw of your speaker.

 

[jmwsaw]

Does solid core speaker wire matter?

I'm a novice audiophile and working on my first true home theater set-up. I've been wading through endless opinions about the "right" type of speaker cable for an in-wall install. I just read your article about gauge size, but what about the differences in solid versus stranded cables? Does the use of solid core have any measurable effect? Would that reduce the need for heavier gauge wire?

 

[mtrycrafts]

I'm a novice audiophile and working on my first true home theater set-up. I've been wading through endless opinions about the "right" type of speaker cable for an in-wall install. I just read your article about gauge size, but what about the differences in solid versus stranded cables? Does the use of solid core have any measurable effect? Would that reduce the need for heavier gauge wire?

Doesn't matter but solid is solid and harder to work with
You still need the same gage in either one. And, if one uses Romex, it might be confused for power cables by other owners of the home and cause harm,

 

[BlovePhD]

Speaker Wire

Folks, AC current ,which make up audio sound travel on both the outside and inside of a wire. DC current does not; the current only travels on the outside.

Also, warm wire has more resistance because the atoms that the wire is comprised of are moving about and impeding the flow of the signal electrons trying to travel along it.

Get it? This is part of why computers and amps have fans in them; electricity and heat don't get along.

A real Doctor.

 

[slipperybidness]

The signal does not go through the wire unless we are dealing with AC current (speakers operate on DC) then, one alternate flow does pass "through the wire."

I do believe you are mistaken on this.

 

[Irvrobinson]

It never ceases to amaze me that we still have to discuss speaker cable gauge, that people still wonder about solid core versus stranded construction, and that there are still audiophiles who believe that larger gauge size somehow muddies the sound. Of course, perhaps I have unreasonable expectations. In the morning newspaper I find that 6% of the parents in Oregon refuse to have their children vaccinated, that the University of Wisconsin somehow managed to have a secret $650 million dollar surplus that the state auditors just "found", and that a 4% federal budget sequester mandates that we throw the air travel industry into turmoil because the FAA feels it needs to furlough air traffic controllers. Is it just me, or is stupidity running rampant this morning?

 

[Rickster71]

Well....he is a real PhD.
I would suppose he invented a time machine to answer that post from 2010.
And answer incorrectly to boot.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum, BlovePhD!

Also, warm wire has more resistance because the atoms that the wire is comprised of are moving about and impeding the flow of the signal electrons trying to travel along it.

Another reason for me to dislike summers in Arizona, I suppose...

Get it? This is part of why computers and amps have fans in them; electricity and heat don't get along.

Resistivity changes as a function of temperature depend on the material. In metals, it tends to increase as temperature rises above room temperature. In semiconductors, it tends to decrease. Computers and amps have fans to keep electrical components below temperatures at which their failure rate increases beyond an acceptable point - not to help the electrons flow easier. Superconductors are a different matter...but that's not what you were talking about.

A real Doctor.

In what?

 

[majorloser]

In what?

Hopefully he's a proctologist. We can always use one of them around here.

 

[avliner]

It never ceases to amaze me that we still have to discuss speaker cable gauge...

The only exception that I know of is Monster Cable, as they've always said their magic cables are AWG equivalent ones, such as XYZ model is the same as 14 AWG though and AFAIK, they still do...

 

[jneutron]

Folks, AC current ,which make up audio sound travel on both the outside and inside of a wire. DC current does not; the current only travels on the outside.

No. That is incorrect.

I do believe you are mistaken on this.

I do believe you are correct...

jn

 

[Ampdog]

Over the decades I have gathered that this business of cable differences sometimes loses touch with reality. We use (subjective) hearing tests and adjectives, often neglecting using figures to get things in context. Even then ....

In his post #7 Mr Della Salla finds a difference of fourfold between two wire gauges - serious! (not that he said so). It was found that in the specific case the cable loss was 0,07db for one and 0,28dB for the other. Both are inaudible. Even if much higher - can one not simply adjust the volume a smidgen higher??

The only other issue is the effect on loudspeaker damping. Not to digress, but ever since the classic but ill-conceived definition of damping factor as loudspeaker impedance/source resistance came into being, the misconception started. That "damping factor" has little if any bearing on loudspeaker performance.

(For the uninitiated: The damping of a loudspeaker is a function of the total series resistance in the driver circuit. That consists of amplifier output impedance, cable resistance and voice coil resistance. In practice the d.c. resistance of an 8 ohm loudspeaker is seldom lower than 5,5 ohm. Thus even if amplifier plus cable impedance is zero, the best real damping factor that can exist will be say 1,5. (It is borne out by tests and listening,) Thus someone has to explain to me how a loudspeaker cable resistance of even several hundred milli-ohms can make an audible difference.)

My respects to those hearing otherwise; there are an equal number of people not hearing the same, and they are not all simply deaf. I have read many technical articles endeavouring to prove the case for "special" cables scientifically; not one of them could succeed in that for audio. (Nobody is trying to make a case for bell wire; it is about the many tens/hundreds of $ for a cable.)