Speaker wire for in wall/in ceiling speakers

[MIKED33]

i'm having my electrician run speaker wires from my onkyo receiver into the wall of my fireplace and the back of the room into the ceiling...mostly for surround sound with DVDs and for party background music. he said he would provide the speaker wire and mentioned something about 18 gauge? should i be concerned about the type of speaker wire he's using and what is optimal for in wall speakers? i know it has to be up to code, but i was more concerned with sound quality. i'm not an audiophile, but i just want something that sounds decent.
thanks.

 

[bandphan]

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

i would assume since its an electrician that he/she is going to use in-wall rated wiring.

 

[annunaki]

Depending upon the distance, I would reccomend no less tha a 16 ga. CL-2/CL-3 rated wire. The CL rating needed depends upon state fire codes. CL-3 is allowed in any state if I am not mistaken.

I am always sceptical about having electricians do the wiring for audio. They usually look at it as an extra profit maker and usually know very little about what they are doing. Rarely does an electrician know how to properly set up and integrate a speaker/theater system. Their systems are usually not designed very well nor are they easy to deal with after the fact. A custom installer should be consulted for more complex jobs than a simple rear speaker wire run.

Just make sure that where the wires will be placed makes sense (and that adequate wire is used).

 

[Midcow2]

18 gauge will work

i'm having my electrician run speaker wires from my onkyo receiver into the wall of my fireplace and the back of the room into the ceiling...mostly for surround sound with DVDs and for party background music. he said he would provide the speaker wire and mentioned something about 18 gauge? should i be concerned about the type of speaker wire he's using and what is optimal for in wall speakers? i know it has to be up to code, but i was more concerned with sound quality. i'm not an audiophile, but i just want something that sounds decent.
thanks.

The smaller wire adds resistance and you will lose some power to the wire resistance. However, almost everyone overspecs the size of the wire needed. In almost all cases 18 gauge wire will work fine.

Total Resistance
Wire Gauge Resistance /Ft. 5ft 10ft 25ft 50ft
18______________0.00751________0.03755___0.0751__0.18775__0.3755
Percent loss 8 ohm_______________0.5%_____0.9%____2.3%____4.5%
Percent loss 4 ohm_______________0.9%_____1.8%____4.5%___ 8.6%

As you can see even at 50ft with a 4 ohm load, the average person would not be able to detect an audio difference.

What I would recommend is braided wire over solid if possible only because twisting and turning could stress the solid and potentially brake. However even so 18 gauge is pretty flexible except where the electrician will wrap the wire back and forth to jam in in the junction box. Second, alos for protection at least some kind of sheathing is recommended. Normall twisted pair supplies sufficient shielded from EMF. However if the electrician is willing to install CAT5 or CAT6 cable than has even better eletrical sehilding properties.

 

[m_vanmeter]

an electrician installing in-wall low voltage wiring that will be inspected prior to closing up the walls will insist on CL2/CL3 rated wire...so will a knowledgable inspector. If you use the wrong wire, they will make you remove it.

This is a 500 foot roll, it also comes in 100 ft lengths.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=100-736

 

[jcPanny]

in-wall speaker wire

The cost of the wire is cheap relative to the labor.
Make him use 14 AWG or 12 AWG belden or similar in-wall speaker wire.
I used Belden 5100UE and 5100UP (14 AWG 2 conductor) for most of my distributed audio system wiring.

 

[DD66000]

Use Blue Jeans Cable 12ga wire for everything, less expensive than many other brands, and better, imho, and is UL-listed and NEC-rated for in-wall use.

 

[fredk]

1. You need wire that complys to local building codes

2. you want to use thick enough wire that resistance dosn't affect sound quality. Too thick is better than too thin.

If standard house wire is safe (dosn't break/short) for standard power usage, it will be just fine for speaker applications. You can use standard 12-2 or 14-2 with no negative effects on sound.

Choose what you are most comfortable with.

 

[DD66000]

1. You need wire that complys to local building codes

2. you want to use thick enough wire that resistance dosn't affect sound quality. Too thick is better than too thin.

If standard house wire is safe (dosn't break/short) for standard power usage, it will be just fine for speaker applications. You can use standard 12-2 or 14-2 with no negative effects on sound.

Solid wire like romex 12/2 isn't a good choice for audio. Stranded wire, like BJC speaker wire will work much better. And is much better than Monster speaker cable, also.

 

[fredk]

From the link bandphan so kindly provided:

"It can be solid, stranded, copper, oxygen free copper, silver, etc.--or even "magic" wire--as long as the resistance is kept to be less than 5% of the speaker impedance. There is no listening difference as long as the wire is of adequate size."

 

[DD66000]

From the link bandphan so kindly provided:

"It can be solid, stranded, copper, oxygen free copper, silver, etc.--or even "magic" wire--as long as the resistance is kept to be less than 5% of the speaker impedance. There is no listening difference as long as the wire is of adequate size."

Ya, Can be, any wire will work, but not all wire is the same. I had some Monster wire that was so bad it made the AL tweeters sound harsh as harsh can be. Changed it with the BJC 12ga and the sound became smooth again. And that was on tweeters that had 1000s and 1000s of hours on them, so I knew exactlly how they should sound.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Ya, Can be, any wire will work, but not all wire is the same. I had some Monster wire that was so bad it made the AL tweeters sound harsh as harsh can be. Changed it with the BJC 12ga and the sound became smooth again. And that was on tweeters that had 1000s and 1000s of hours on them, so I knew exactlly how they should sound.

Perhaps that Monster was only 24ga? Then I might believe you. Otherwise, I think there is something else is at work with this test of yours

 

[DD66000]

Perhaps that Monster was only 24ga? Then I might believe you. Otherwise, I think there is something else is at work with this test of yours

I don't remember what gauge the Monster was, but I've never used anything smaller than 16ga. And the only thing different was the wire. Same gear, same speakers, same room.

 

[jcPanny]

Speaker wire

Use Blue Jeans Cable 12ga wire for everything, less expensive than many other brands, and better, imho, and is UL-listed and NEC-rated for in-wall use.

FYI,
Blue Jeans sells Belden speaker wire and use belden products for most of their cables. 12AWG 2 conductor = Belden 5000UP or 5000UE. The UP has a higher strand count making it slightly more flexible.

The brand of the speaker wire is not critical, the gauge of the wire and the cl2/cl3 rating are important.

 

[Rickster71]

i'm having my electrician run speaker wires from my onkyo receiver into the wall of my fireplace and the back of the room into the ceiling...mostly for surround sound with DVDs and for party background music. he said he would provide the speaker wire and mentioned something about 18 gauge? should i be concerned about the type of speaker wire he's using and what is optimal for in wall speakers? i know it has to be up to code, but i was more concerned with sound quality. i'm not an audiophile, but i just want something that sounds decent.
thanks.

When running any wire, you must consider the distance, the load, the wattage of the amp, and how much added resistance the length of wire presents.
You haven't mentioned any of those?

An electrician would know to use in-wall rated wire.

 

[Haoleb]

I doubt the electrician would use romex but for the record even though electrically it would be just fine, although im sure it contains other alloys which are not as good a conductor as pure copper, you still dont want to use it for wiring up a sound system because its simply too stiff. Try wiring 5 or 7 speakers into the back of a reciever, And then making that look good using solid core wires.

 

[Rickster71]

I doubt the electrician would use romex but for the record even though electrically it would be just fine, although im sure it contains other alloys which are not as good a conductor as pure copper, you still dont want to use it for wiring up a sound system because its simply too stiff. Try wiring 5 or 7 speakers into the back of a reciever, And then making that look good using solid core wires.

Agreed.
It's all about using the right wire for the application.

 

[DD66000]

FYI,
Blue Jeans sells Belden speaker wire and use belden products for most of their cables. 12AWG 2 conductor = Belden 5000UP or 5000UE. The UP has a higher strand count making it slightly more flexible.

The brand of the speaker wire is not critical, the gauge of the wire and the cl2/cl3 rating are important.

Besides the gauge, also its how its twisted. The BJ/Belden wire isn't just twisted strand wire with the two wires running in parallel. The two wires are also twisted together, and the strands are of a bigger gauge that what Monster wire uses.
And yes, for in-wall rated wire the Belden is quite flexible. All in all it makes for a better cable.

 

[ChunkyDark]

Another option for wire:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10239

I found the 16 gauge cl2 stuff very flexible and easy to work with. BUT as stated before be sure to find out what your local/state regs are.

 

[Midcow2]

Which proves my point 18 gauge is good up to 50 feet.

From the link bandphan so kindly provided:

"It can be solid, stranded, copper, oxygen free copper, silver, etc.--or even "magic" wire--as long as the resistance is kept to be less than 5% of the speaker impedance. There is no listening difference as long as the wire is of adequate size."

Which proves my point 18 gauge is good up to 50 feet where resistance is 4.5% into an 8 ohm nominal speaker load.

16 gauge , 14 gauge, 12 gauge are all overkill. But id you have the $$$$ to burn get whatever you want.