Welding together 2 sizes of speaker wire.

[ohad_a]

Hello.
My first post here.
I have been interested in audio/video tech for more than 20 years now. I have been educating myself through various magazines and publications and would consider myself an audio enthusiast.

I have visited a friend of mine and helped him install surround speakers. The speaker run for each surround cable is about 8-10 meters but he miscalculated and didn't get enough of it. We found that out after the first cable run. (I reccomended at least 16AWG, which he got)
Long story short - Since he urged me to save as much cable as possible running the 1st speaker (in hope that the leftover cable would be enough for the 2nd speaker) there was not enough of it to reach the receiver.
As it was getting late we decided to drop it for the day. The next day he called me and said he called a guy and they welded a 0.75 mm speaker cable (Which is about 20-21AWG if I'm not mistaken) to the end of the first cable to be connected to the receiver. For the 2nd surround speaker he got a new 1.5 mm speaker cable and they connected it properly.
So, my question is, How will the 16AWG cable be affected by the small patch (about a foot) of 20-21AWG cable?

 

[BMXTRIX]

I would cut it off and put in a proper 16AWG cable. The others here will get into the technicalities of it all, but soldering a cable is a easy enough thing to do, and really isn't required when extending cables. You just need to ensure there is a clean electrical connection between the two wires. I've used wire nuts on cabling and had absolutely great results, but I make sure it is a good electrical connection as well.

It's silly, really silly, to get overly cheap on speaker cable. It's like 40 bucks for 100' of 14AWG cable from Monoprice and you are spending all this time running the cabling for a nice surround setup... only to do it wrong? Come on! Just go ahead and spend an extra little bit of cash and put the proper cabling in from end point to end point. If you do come up short, splice the wire together or solder it together with a matching piece of wire.

You can pick up wire by the foot at the proper gauge from Home Depot or Lowes if I recall. (I buy it in 500' rolls or larger)

 

[highfigh]

The 20/21AWG cable is smaller than one strand of Cat6, so it's definitely not adequate for audio, unless the wire is very short and is carrying very lo power.

If you splice the wires with the same gauge as the rest, use Heat N Seal butt connectors and if you want, find some with dielectric grease inside- don't try to put the grease in because it will prevent the glue from sticking to the wire's insulation. As long as the wire ends are clean, they shouldn't corrode/oxidize inside of the butt splices.

Use a good crimper, correctly. It matters.

 

[Alex2507]

he called me and said he called a guy

That two timing such and such ... but yeah, get the marshmallows for when his house goes up in f^%&ing flames.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Curious what kind of welding equipment you are using? Gas, arc or some other form?

 

[CajunLB]

Curious what kind of welding equipment you are using? Gas, arc or some other form?

I find that good old stick welding brings out the most Chocolatey mids when I weld up my cables. I find tig are mig welding my cables together makes the sound w to bright. It’s a night and day difference that’s very easily hea.ymmv of course

 

[Teetertotter?]

Here is your Speaker Wire ga and for what distances:
Ask Dr. A! Does Speaker Cable Gauge Matter? | Audioholics

@ohad_a 30 meters = 100 US feet for each speaker. Or do you mean that is the total distance for both? You would want to use at least 14ga if 8 ohm speakers. 16ga for 15 meters. Read his whole article as why and what wire gauge.

 

[highfigh]

'Cold welding' is apparently a thing. Poorly-named, but I have seen many tweaky audio/video cables with its use in their description. Still, it takes equipment most people don't have, nor will they. I imagine ultrasonic frequencies could be used, as done in plastic welding but again, it requires special equipment.

Ultrasonic welding would be a good hearing test- I worked at a plastic factory over a Summer break and we made battery cases for most lea-acid brands. The vent caps have a polyurethane foam insert that's ultrasonically welded to the caps and even with ear plugs, it was audible to some of us. Gave me a really bad headache, too. We were probably hearing some kind of resonance in the audible spectrum but it was similar to what I could hear at my high school after they turned the motion sensors on- IIRC, they operated in the >20KHz range and were never audible during the hours when most people were there.