Speaker Gauge HElp?

[xego]

I know I am a knob...lets just get that out of the way first. A friend gave me some Monster Speaker wire some years ago to replace the crummy plastic red and black stuff you get with cheap components. I want to buy some banana plugs but I am not sure how to detect one speaker gauge (gage?) from another? 8,12,16? Of course Monster (sue me) in their infinite wisdom did not include this handy bit of info on the wire itself. It does say Monster x1 , and includes pat. No# 4734544 which wasn't any help. The monster website no longer lists the X1 nor does it give the gauge in the product discriptions even for their newer items? from what I could gather just by looking my cables look to be the same as the xp Navaho white...any help here would be greatly appreciated. x

 

[GO-NAD!]

I know I am a knob...lets just get that out of the way first. A friend gave me some Monster Speaker wire some years ago to replace the crummy plastic red and black stuff you get with cheap components. I want to buy some banana plugs but I am not sure how to detect one speaker gauge (gage?) from another? 8,12,16? Of course Monster (sue me) in their infinite wisdom did not include this handy bit of info on the wire itself. It does say Monster x1 , and includes pat. No# 4734544 which wasn't any help. The monster website no longer lists the X1 nor does it give the gauge in the product discriptions even for their newer items? from what I could gather just by looking my cables look to be the same as the xp Navaho white...any help here would be greatly appreciated. x

Being given Monster wire and not being able to determine the gauge doesn't make you a knob. Monster doesn't conform to gauge AWG standards for their own marketing purposes, I'm guessing.

Do you have a pair of wire strippers? The ones with notches for various gauges of wire? You could use them to measure the Monster wire gauge - at least an approximation.

 

[Ares]

I believe the X1 are 16 AWG but to be sure I will do what GO-NAD suggested.

 

[AJinFLA]

I know I am a knob...lets just get that out of the way first. A friend gave me some Monster Speaker wire some years ago to replace the crummy plastic red and black stuff you get with cheap components. I want to buy some banana plugs but I am not sure how to detect one speaker gauge (gage?) from another? 8,12,16? Of course Monster (sue me) in their infinite wisdom did not include this handy bit of info on the wire itself. It does say Monster x1 , and includes pat. No# 4734544 which wasn't any help. The monster website no longer lists the X1 nor does it give the gauge in the product discriptions even for their newer items? from what I could gather just by looking my cables look to be the same as the xp Navaho white...any help here would be greatly appreciated. x

It's most probably not thicker than 12 ga, so it will fit in inexpensive banana plugs.
Even if for some absurd reason it is thicker, just pare back/clip a few strands and cram all you can into the plug. Won't hurt a thing.

 

[xego]

Much Thanks

Thanks all for the help. I do have some strippers that I got for the job but didn't even think of it...thanks

 

[ifsixwasnin9]

You could measure the diameter. I use this chart at Wikipedia for speaker wire diameter sizes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge

 

[gmichael]

Monster cables will often have a plastic center strand. It makes the cable look thicker than it really is. Once this is clipped off, you’ll get a better idea of the gage. In any case, a 12 gage plug should work fine.

 

[xego]

thanks again all.