speaker wire, 12 gauge vs 16 gauge, any difference?

[these_go211]

i just bought a polk-audio psw303 subwoofer for my home stereo. they recommended hooking it up from my amplifier via speaker cable, 16 gauge. but since i have a spool of high quality 12 gauge speaker cable lying around i hooked it up using that. just how much of a difference can i expect, if any, if i used 16 gauge instead? is this the sort of thing only a real audiophile would be able to discern? thanks!

[tone4days]

damn, 12 gauge is THICK ... is it really pliable enough to work with? - if it's working, i am sure that it's fine from an audio quality point of view ... and HECK, how loud are you gonna blast it ? i gotta believe that 16 gauge is plenty for the current you are talkin about ... 12 is over-engineering

enjoy
t4d

[these_go211]

thanks for the response man. you know, i may have been thinking about this backwards. i guess as the gauge goes higher the wire gets thinner? so maybe the lower the gauge the higher the quality?

[SlyFoxx]

Thicker = less resistance = more current transfer. I'm a big fan of 12 gauge wire especially for bass bins (subwoofer) since bass requires more power. The difference will be subtle ...but every little bit helps...especially for runs longer than ~25 feet.

[Zerberus]

Thicker = less resistance = more current transfer. I'm a big fan of 12 gauge wire especially for bass bins (subwoofer) since bass requires more power. The difference will be subtle ...but every little bit helps...especially for runs longer than ~25 feet.

+1 on all points

[tone4days]

yeah, higher number = thinner wire

are we talking solid or stranded? ...

and remember guys, we are talking a home stereo sub, not live concert bass bins

i really gotta believe that 16, stranded is appropriate for his application

[That90'sGuy]

I'm going to be me the odd man out and say 14 ga stranded would be a good way to go, but 12 ga stranded would work as well. Doesn't hurt to go with thicker wire when you're dealing with long cable runs.

[Virtual Kevorkian]

I'm going to be me the odd man out and say 14 ga stranded would be a good way to go, but 12 ga stranded would work as well. Doesn't hurt to go with thicker wire when you're dealing with long cable runs.

I use 14, as I couldn't choose between 12 or 16. Work like a charm, though!

[these_go211]

this is good information. thanks guys! it's a very short run, like,7 feet. it's just that i already had the 12 lying around. but i started wondering if there would be a difference. so it's not like i went out and specifically bought this kind of speaker wire for the application. it was more of a curiosity if there would be an audible difference.

and dumb as it sounds, i'm not sure if it's stranded or not? does this just mean there is not any type of plug on the end? there isn't any plugs on the end.

thanks a lot again!

[garublador]

Stranded means the wire is made up of a bunch of little tiny wires all jammed together. I don't know if I've ever seen solid (one thick wire) speaker cable before. It woudln't be very plyable, especally in 12 guage.

You could go through all of the calculations to see what the difference in resistance between 16 and 12 guage wire is at 7 feet, but I know it would be small. Going larger (smaller number) on wire is usually OK. Space concerns or connector type might make a difference (it's hard to jam a 12 guage wire into a connector designed to only fit a 16 guage wire), but if it fit, then you should be fine.

[these_go211]

it's stranded wire then. this has been informative. muchas gracias!

[JacksonMIA]

If you really want to get technical get the specs for the wire, and the calculations are pretty simple.

12 won't hurt a thing, though, if it'll fit in the jacks.

[Ken]

You could go through all of the calculations to see what the difference in resistance between 16 and 12 guage wire is at 7 feet, but I know it would be small.

Wee physics nerds would call that "negligible."

Technically you'll have a greater conductance and the ability to pull more current. Less threat of overheating due to increased conductance.


I just chimed in to say, and I guess it's because I wired houses all summer...solid core 12 gauge isn't that difficult to manage...compared to a guitar cable, yeah, it's less flexible...but it's not like he's dealing with a length of SER cable or two-aught. 12 gauge is pretty easy to work with.








(Note: This post has served only to increase my post count).

[garublador]

Wee physics nerds would call that "negligible."

What do the large ones call it?

Technically you'll have a greater conductance and the ability to pull more current. Less threat of overheating due to increased conductance.


I just chimed in to say, and I guess it's because I wired houses all summer...solid core 12 gauge isn't that difficult to manage...compared to a guitar cable, yeah, it's less flexible...but it's not like he's dealing with a length of SER cable or two-aught. 12 gauge is pretty easy to work with.

A lot of it depends on the wire, too. We have some 6 guage welding cable that's surprisingly flexable compared to some of the 12 and 10 guage wire we have sitting around.

If anyone's interested, I found this with a Google search:

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

I couldn't find anything about the input imedence of the sub, but according to the site above, at 7' I'm willing to bet you'd be alright even with 18 or 20 guage wire.

[Lava Man]

+1 on all points

Another plus one - generally, good speaker wire is around 12-14 AWG (each condutor - and 4 conductor is typically bnetter sopunding than 2-conductor.) Some companies even make 8-10 AWG stuff that sounds good as well. But, like previously posted differences in speaker cable are more subtle than guitar cables for eaxample.

[Ken]

What do the large ones call it?

I only wanted you to think that a typo, laddy.

[Fusion1]

Hi all, sorry for resurrecting an old thread but I thought this might be relevant as I wanted to make a speaker cable to go from my Polytone Mega Brute head to my Raezor's Edge Stealth 12 cabinet. I could have been a one of those audiophile tone freaks and went with some uber expensive MONSTrosity cable. I was led to a few DIY sites that recommend regular lamp cord, but that was mainly for home systems, not necessarily for amp to cabinet speaker cable. I was hoping this would basically be the same for what I need, with the exception of 1/4" mono plugs for my use. I went to HD and bought 3 feet of landscape wiring which was 12 gauge 2-conductor in black and came out to a whopping $1.50. Radio Shack for 2 gold 1/4" phono plugs $3.99 each. Before I try this, I wanted to make sure I'm not going to blow up my amp/cabinet lol.

[Fusion1]

Also how would one wire say a quad core wire like Canare to a Switchcraft 1/4" plug? Double up 2 of the wires to the same terminal, or do 2 of them not get used? If 2 are left unhooked it wouldn't seem any more beneficial than regular 2 conductor cable. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Animal]

I bought some medium duty Fig 8 OFC 60/0.12mm speaker cable for my Marshall cabinet the other day and I'm worried that it's going to be way too thin.

[Lava Man]

Recently read a speaker cable thread on TGP, and one interesting piece of evidence sumbmitted during the debate over expensive speaker cable was an article that showed technically, that gauge is the ONLY factor that seems to play a role in audible differences with speaker cables...

12-14 AWG is ideal for most speaker cable applications. Some folks like to use 8-10 AWG for subwoofers...