Speaker Connections

[denissawyer]

Just wondering if someone here can inform me on something that has been on my mind. Ive had a couple home theaters in a box and the cabling is pretty simple, click the tab and connect however knowing full well I will be upgrading to a component system I was wondering about Banana Jacks. I found an instructional video that demonstrated how to make your own connections and thankfully when the time comes there's a nice electronics store in town here that has similar pricing to Monoprice. The question I have is the following considering I will be getting a plethora of SVS speakers is this the way to go in terms of connection and do most receivers now a days handle this connection? Secondly what gauge does everyone recommend for the wiring itself 12-14-16, please someone help.

 

[trnqk7]

Banana plugs are very popular and are easy to use. Spade connections are felt to be more secure by some and if you need to flush-mount a speaker, might enable you to do so easier b/c they don't "stick out" as much. Wire gauge depends on the length of runs you need to make, but 12 or 14 gauge is quite adequate for nearly everything, especially if cost is reasonable.

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

You don't need to terminate your speaker wires, it only makes it easier if you change out your speakers a lot.

That being said the majority of us (even though we may not swap out speakers often) still use terminated ends. I prefer banana plugs. Good solid connection, easy to use. As trnqk7 mentioned they can be a little bulky depth wise.

What length of wire runs to your speakers will you need? That's the main factor that will determine what gauge you should buy.

 

[trnqk7]

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-gauge

Audioholics stance on speaker wire gauge

There's a table about halfway down that will fill your basic needs and plenty of formulas and information if you want to know more!

 

[itschris]

Also take into consideration "cool factor." Big stupid fat cables just look good to me. A lot of folks use the Canare cable that has four conductors in it and braid to pair just because it looks good. Don't discount that part of it.

Beyond that, unless you're going more than 50-60 feet with low impedence speakers, 14, even 16 awg is fine as long as it's good quality cable. Check out Blue Jeans Cable and Monoprice. Also, you can do a search and there are a ton of very helpful links in this forum that go into great depth on the subject.

 

[m_vanmeter]

another excellent internet reference site on speaker wire is:

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

the "Wire Table" page gives gauge vs. distance charts

 

[Midcow2]

14 gauge wire is good unless you go an extremely long distance, more than 25 ft.
Total Resistance
Wire Gauge Resistance /Ft. 5ft 10ft 25ft 50ft
4 0.000292 0.00146 0.00292 0.0073 0.0146
6 0.000465 0.002325 0.00465 0.011625 0.02325
8 0.000739 0.003695 0.00739 0.018475 0.03695
10 0.00118 0.0059 0.0118 0.0295 0.059
12 0.00187 0.00935 0.0187 0.04675 0.0935
14 0.00297 0.01485 0.0297 0.07425 0.1485
16 0.00473 0.02365 0.0473 0.11825 0.2365
18 0.00751 0.03755 0.0751 0.18775 0.3755
20 0.0119 0.0595 0.119 0.2975 0.595
22 0.019 0.095 0.19 0.475 0.95
24 0.0302 0.151 0.302 0.755 1.51

Making your own cables is inexpensive and a good way to go if you are handy with a soldering iron at all. Wire can be either briaded or solid. Wire is normally briaded on lager wire sizes (smaller gauge number) because solid wire is much less flexible and harder to work with. It is best to tin the ends of the braided wire ( you heat the wire with the soldering iron and then touch the solder to the wire and the heat of the wire melts the solder and is is basically absorbed by the wire).

A lot AVRs and speakers have connectors for bare end connections; It is good to strip about 3/8". much more is too much and can cause shorts it the bare wire touches the other connector. Less and you might not get a good physical connection between the bare wire and the connecting post.

You can connect Bannana (connection and soldering) or spade plugs (crimping). The bannana plugs require soldering for good long term conductivity.

You can buy cables at all different prices. Shielding is good ( one conductor isi nthe center and the second conductor is a braided circle arond the first) as well as twisted pair wire. Wire size has some importantce but going to 10 gauage over 14 gauge or 12 gauge is a waste of money. Also there is very very little difference in properties for audio cables between a 10$ cable and a $1,000 cable. Gold is a better conductor than copper and some tips on the ocnnectors are gold plated. Relook the table above and come to you own conclusion.

If you really want to do an unbiased test get a basic red or white audio cable from radio Shack or the cables that come with satellite or game systems. The buy some more expnsive monocables or blue jean cables. Have a friend hook up one set and lsiten too them. Then have the hook up the other set. Without looking see if you can tell which was the more expensive cable. 99% of the time you won't be able to tell.

Good Luck and Wire On!

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you aren't soldering your connections, but are looking for an easy to use banana plug, then I strongly recommend these from Impact Acoustics. While they may not look as fancy, they actually use an end in cable design, so you aren't side loading and dealing with cables that can slide out. They use TWO screws on opposite sides of the plug to secure you cable, up to 12AWG without issue and you can pull as hard as you want on the cable and it won't slip out of the connector - very secure!

It includes plastic sleeves which cover the gold ends where the cable goes in, so you don't have any exposed wire or metal which could cause a short circuit in your system.

Plus, the price, at $6.00 for a 4 pack is incredibly reasonable for a top shelf product that delivers far more than any other banana plug that I've ever used.

1. It's secure
2. It's safe
3. No soldering
4. Easy to work with
5. Handles the wiring you want
6. Rear loading for cable entry
7. Color coded for L/R channels
8. Price is right

http://www.impactacoustics.com/product.asp?cat_id=3106&sku=29785

 

[Pyrrho]

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-gauge

Audioholics stance on speaker wire gauge

There's a table about halfway down that will fill your basic needs and plenty of formulas and information if you want to know more!

another excellent internet reference site on speaker wire is:

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

the "Wire Table" page gives gauge vs. distance charts

The charts give wildly different advice. For example, with one, with an 8 ohm speaker and a 16AWG wire, the maximum recommended distance is 20', whereas the other lists the maximum recommended distance of 48'. Has anyone conducted double blind tests to see who is right? Or is the one simply giving excessively conservative recommendations?

 

[trnqk7]

Would you need a dbt? Why wouldn't you just measure the outputted signal to see if it was attenuated and convert to dB to measure signal loss? That would tell you all you need to know unless there is excessive capacitance or inductance in the wire harming the acoustics...which, as we generally say around here, wire is transparent (at least, good wire ) so that shouldn't matter!

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

I think the bottom line is, just get a decent enough gauge so you don't even have to worry whatsoever about levels of impedance.

 

[Midcow2]

"Pull as hard as you want"

...and you can pull as hard as you want on the cable and it won't slip out of the connector - very secure!

Whe we support remote communications off of a mainframe IBM computer a long long time ago we had 3705 FEPs (Front End Processors) and the was a standards called RS232 which went up to 19.kbps which was fast in its day.It was a 25 wire cable into a D schaped connector.

We pulled cables under raised computer floors. The cable was about 1/2" in diameter. I had a guy working for me that actaully pulled so hard he pulled the cable into two pieces.

I have to laugh when someone says you can "pull as hard" as you want!

Humor, aside screw-in connectors as BMXTRIX mentions are very good for maintianing elctrical conductivity and being secure.

 

[Pyrrho]

Would you need a dbt? Why wouldn't you just measure the outputted signal to see if it was attenuated and convert to dB to measure signal loss? That would tell you all you need to know unless there is excessive capacitance or inductance in the wire harming the acoustics...which, as we generally say around here, wire is transparent (at least, good wire ) so that shouldn't matter!

That would work as well, provided one knew how much of a difference would be audible. The question is, has anyone done any kind of testing to see who, if either, is right? Or is there any other reference from a reliable source to see if it agrees with one of these two sets of recommendations?

 

[Midcow2]

They are giving excessively conservative measurements

The charts give wildly different advice. For example, with one, with an 8 ohm speaker and a 16AWG wire, the maximum recommended distance is 20', whereas the other lists the maximum recommended distance of 48'. Has anyone conducted double blind tests to see who is right? Or is the one simply giving excessively conservative recommendations?

You could easily go with the longer distance and you could never tell, unless maybe you were Hal from 2001 Space Oddessy.

 

[Pyrrho]

You could easily go with the longer distance and you could never tell, unless maybe you were Hal from 2001 Space Oddessy.

That is certainly the impression I have, but I would like to see something additional on this. I suppose I will have to do without.

 

[Midcow2]

Hypothesis and proof - 16 gauge is as large as you need!!

That is certainly the impression I have, but I would like to see something additional on this. I suppose I will have to do without.

Pyrrho,

If you look at a resistance table ( already pposted on this thread0 you can see that the resistance added on most cables is very very low in relationship to the speaker load.

For example, from a pure objective logics standpoint I will give you an example. Audiotronics recommends using 16 gauge wire into a 8 ohm nominal impedance (assume just resistance for simplicity) a maximum distance of 20 feet.

Okay the resistance due to the wire is only 0.00473 per foot for a total wire resistance of 0.0946 ohms. The total resistance is 8.0946 Ohms. So the wire resistance is 1.17% of the total resistance .0.0946/8.0946.

That is very, very conservative. In all actuallity a person could wire their whole HT system in 16 gauge wire and it would sound fine.

At 4 ohms this doubles at 50 feet this a little more than doubles.

So 4 ohm load, 50 feet, 16 gauge wire = wire resitance total =.2365 ohms

Percent of load through wire .2365/4.2365 = 5.6% So 94.4% of the load is still through the speakers.

If you can detect this then you have phenomenal ears, even better than Dr, Spock of Star Trek.

So I have proven my hypothesis 16 gauge is the largest wire you need!

 

[BMXTRIX]

Whe we support remote communications off of a mainframe IBM computer a long long time ago we had 3705 FEPs (Front End Processors) and the was a standards called RS232 which went up to 19.kbps which was fast in its day.It was a 25 wire cable into a D schaped connector.

We pulled cables under raised computer floors. The cable was about 1/2" in diameter. I had a guy working for me that actaully pulled so hard he pulled the cable into two pieces.

I have to laugh when someone says you can "pull as hard" as you want!

Humor, aside screw-in connectors as BMXTRIX mentions are very good for maintianing elctrical conductivity and being secure.

Funny...

Serial is still typically used on all these A/V devices we've got, mostly using a DB-9 connector and mostly you only need three wires instead of the original 25 wire D sub connector as specified. While archaic, it's incredibly reliable and the limited data coming from products is usually fine at 9600 baud.

The screw down connector I like a lot in this version because the offset screws really bind the wire in. The cheaper single screws, or side load screws never seem to get nearly the same bite that these screws do - not even close. So, sure, pull as hard as you want, but I've actually broken the cable, in the middle - exactly as you describe - before I've pulled the wire out of those banana plugs.

That works for me!