How to Choose the Best Speaker Cables: Gauge, Resistance and More
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- Опубликовано: 26 фев 2015
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www.audioholics.com - How to Choose the Best Speaker Cables: Gauge, Resistance and More. Gene and Hugo discuss how to choose the best speaker cables. Gene goes into an in depth discussion of gauges, resistance, insertion loss, damping factor, skin effect, snake oil and much more!
Before you freeze your cables or buy ones with a battery on them, watch this video!
We discuss the single most important metric in speaker cable design!
Be sure to check the Audioholics.com articles on:
Speaker Cable Gauge (AWG) Guidelines & Recommendations
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Skin Effect Relevance in Speaker Cables
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#speakers #wire #cables 
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10 gauge has served me well over the years. Great bass, full mids and clear, detailed highs.
*Agreed. Blue Jeans or Home Depot zipcord work just fine. Cheers!*
i agree me too
10 gauge! I work in construction mostly hospitals and electricians say they only use best cable and u guys are spot on! No bullshit. Thanks
Great video one question Hugo "do you even lift"
I burned out my Bosé acoustimass 5 subwoofer once because i didn't have this information, till today it never got fixed in México, the closest thing i have found, costs me as much as to buy a new one. I allways regreat it. You Audioholics just earned my like and subscription. Cheers and Keep the good work.
You are spot on about Monster. I am have a degree in electronics technical engineering. I work for the Harris Corp. some years back. I buying these cables 6' for 29.00. I went to Radio Shack bought the best 6' audio cable 7.99. I took these cables into the lab at work. Setup a HP sweep audio oscillator using an HP spectrum analyzer I swept both cables into 8 ohms. They were both 12awg stranded. I was blown away. I swept them from 10hz to 500khz. The Radio Shack cables out preformed the Monster by several dbm across the entire spectrum. So beware of these high price cables.
Very cool. I almost worked for Harris in Melbourne after I graduated with my B.S.E.E. but decided to stay in my home town and work for a telcom company.
I use Blue Jean 10 gauge cable for all my speaker runs. Great teminations and i don't care about how pretty they look. I would never use Audioquest even if it was free. I think they rip off consumers and to me thats a disgrace. I went to one of their seminars at a local sound shop in Colorado Springs and the owner of the store asked me to leave because i kept questioning the speaker. He was flat out lying!
This is true I just bought audio quest vodka cable and it's not better than my old monster black Platinum cable . Monster rich colors stand out more
Did my whole home theatre using BJC too. No nonsense cables at a great price.
I use qed state of the art cables copied by many well known company's, but price is decent and you get life long and future proof cables.
I really respect you guys for what you do and for what you stand for. I love the genuine,zero bullshit approach. I have learned a lot from your videos, and thank you for standing up for the consumer.
Thanks for the video. Could you give us examples of 14/4 cables?
You guys crack me up. Total cable geeks. I love it! LOL! Great info. Thanks!
Good video! Here is an additional piece of advice: be skeptical of boutique looking cables if the company won't reveal the gauge. I have seen a number of fancy looking cables that are being sold by companies without any information about the gauge. Thank you for this video. Everyone, if you are unsure about speaker cables for your audio system, buy some 10 gauge Blue Jean speaker cables. Then you are done and don't have to do any second guessing. You can relieve any anxieties that you are not getting the best out of your system, no matter what that system is. Cheers, and stay safe.
My new favorite channel!!!
Informative presentation Dr. Banner
Had to rewatch a few times and take notes and do some further research and reading but this is a great resource.
kick ass! straight to the point
good, thanks for all the info.
I use 16 awg lamp cord! Just cuz I have a spool of it. Works totally fine on my old cerwin vega DX 7s and AT 8s
My cables are spun from the hair of the Archangel Michael. Premium stuff.
Mine are from the spent guitar strings of Michael Angelo Batio
My cables are made from braided pubes from King Kongs scrotum.
Coming in at 3 gauge 🙃
Great video guys. I like how you guys have a no bullshit approach to this stuff. Audio is a bit of a tainted hobby due to the rampant misinformation and subjective experiences used in lieu of facts and measurements. Appreciate that you guys are here preaching common sense.
Thanks for the videos - I went with a 16/4 from Canare 4S8 as its only for my stereo system so 2.5 & 2.5m according to the data it seems more than enough.
Nice video. Does the material you covered in the video and the AWG vs cable length chart apply to live sound pro audio speakers, too? Do you have any recommendations on speaker cable brands, to run 100 ft on 8ohm 450W RMS speakers? Thanks a lot!
I use 14/2 16/2 combined solid core cable to get me to a 9 AWG. Love the sound.
Hello!! Great info and excellent explanation ! Question: i got myself a a pair of Klipish speakers with a subwoofer mainly for music listening, distance is not more than 20 ft, small livingroom, i got myself a 16 Gauge cable, is that ok? And can i find some kind of external EQ that i can connect between the receiver and the speakers so i can have a better customizable sound? Thank you so much for your info and videos!!
I've been using 14, will go 12 or maybe even 14/4 in the future with my surrounds, prob 14/4 with mains. Will have a set of 10s for mains too as spares/testing, etc.
Went quad 14 to all speakers. Turns out I was using 14 guage cca originally. Now all ofc
Big difference in my opinion
Nice to see some straight no nonsense discussion on speaker cables without the usual obfuscation. I've been in total agreement with what you said for 40 years (but then I'm a mechatronics engineer). I would like to point out one potential pitfall to someone looking to buy a lot of wire for setting up a new home theater. With 5, 7, 9 speaker runs and some of them pretty long, even simple 10 gauge wire cost can add up. So when I did mine a few years ago I was looking all over the net for the best price. I found some very inexpensive wire from one of the big online retailers so I ordered it. Well you know what they say, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. First the wire was undersize but even worse it wasn't copper. It was aluminum with a micron or two of copper plating to look like copper. I knew it was junk as soon as I picked up the box, it was way too light. Fortunately I was able to return it, only out the return shipping.
Thanks again for your honest videos. Never sell out! So many people waste so much money on overpriced cables.
Hi Gene and Hugo!
I just bought a couple of SVS wireless cable devices for my soon to be arriving SVS subs. I have watched this video may times and thought it would be the best place to post this question.
Q: What are your thoughts on the quality of a wireless connection signals between your amps and subs or speakers using wireless connection devices? Will there be any change to the frequency response range? Will there be any syn issues? I am running Mogami W3104 cables that I made and really love the quality of the sound they transmitted to my B & W 706 S2 speakers. To me convenience is not a substitute for sound quality so will I be lowering sound quality? Good cable not expensive cable make a difference. What advice can you give. Thanks.
P.S. Glad to hear Gene you won the battle with covid 19!
I left this vlog in a fb Hifi group and boy did it get negative feedback! It just goes to show how many gullible so called audiophiles? are out there! Great channel love watching honest advice! Cheers from England !
Thanks Gene and Hugo! Awesome show guys.
I'm a budding audioholic. I'm currently running 12 AWG CL2 speaker cable in my wall with runs of 30 ft or less. I currently plan to run 12.4 AWG speaker cable for the FL, FR & C speakers. If I wrap the two pairs together what is the approximate cable gauge and is this recommended?
Thanks, Marcus
9 Awg
Excellent topic and explanation! One question I have you mentioned 14/4 cabling, I had that ran for my front stage LCR however, on the amp side I have them doubled up Red&white joined and the black&green joined, on the speaker side they are terminated as 4 spades, which are connected via the 4 terminals on the speaker, HF & LF. Is that taking advantage of the resistance? Or should they be joined together as well into HF or LF and use the included jumper cables? Thanks!!!!
I'm glad Lou Ferrigno found a useful job, after all.
😂😂
You WISH you did as much as Lou Ferrigno. He was on a very successful sitcom for years. What have you done?
@@tonys4396 Relax Tony. It's a joke
😂 immediately thought it was him as well.
Even Lou would laugh at this comment, stop being so uptight people. Getting offended by something that has absolutely nothing at all to do with you or impacts your life none at all..... Man if everyone just took a joke the world would be half way tolerable but then again, democratic minds are well..... Mind boggling............ 🔥
What is snake oil?
Just got a vintage pair of BIG Klipsch speakers but only has spade connections. Should I go with spades or try to get someone to change the connection terminals?
any recommendations for onkyo rz 830 high current avr...... speaker wire gauge size for polk rti a7 8 ohm speakers?? and power inputs for avr.....will home suppy ll work fine or i ve to add online ups?
awg 10 is what I have, its 2.5 mm in diameter. And the price was around 70 cents (dollar cents) per 1 meter which is around 3 feet.
I use the standard emotiva speaker cables for my LCR and 12 awg monoprice in wall cable for the rears.
I've made my own speaker cables using Home Wired 10AWG stranded wire and Sewell Deadbolt banana plugs. Solid bass and a very well defined image. Saved a bundle, too!
Is monster cable really as good as they say and what's a good cheap cable for my bass speaker 20 ft
Does an RCA splitter have a large impact on much? I have a 5 channel amp and want to bi-amp my 2 channel system. Would RCA splitters on the preamp outputs create an issue or signal degradation?
I just need to install a wiring kit in my car. Actually I am pretty confused. I m using a 2 way components inside my car nd it is of 4ohms each. So is it ok to go with 12 or 14gauge wire? Will it stabilize or mess?
help me understand why there was no mention of watts or amps in the article when picking wire gauge size? always wanted to learn about the audio world, very interesting
I hope you guys can answer my question, I have 4 ceiling speakers for atmos, on two of them, the length of wire will be at 58 feet, and the other two 40 feet, this atmos speakers are rated 8 ohms, do you guys think that I will need a 14 gauge speaker wire, or the 16 gauge is good enough for that length of wires, also, the length of wire that I will be using for those speakers with at 58 feet on wire length , and those speakers with 40 feet of length should be the same length?
I want to bi wire a set of 8 ohm bookshelf speakers to a 120 watt stereo receiver amp that matches the speakers recommendations and shows A+B for 8 0hms with 3 or 6ft distance of speaker wire. What is your recommended gauge for this set up and should I opt for a bigger gauge for the woofers? My first novice inclination was 12 for the woofers and 14 for the tweeters. If higher gauge wont make much of a difference in this set up I can get cheaper cables that seem half decent.
Hi Gene. Long time fan of your channel! I hope you're feeling better after getting bit by the bug.
Question: I have a large room I'm wiring up for surround and wanted to bounce a speaker gauge/length question off you (or educated readers?). I have 2 rear height channels that will each be a 66 foot run from my Outlaw 7700 amp. I'm planning to use Monoprice 12/4 CL2 (12 gauge, 4 conductor) for the cable runs with 2 of the wires combined at each end (silver soldered together). If my calculations are correct, combining two of the four 12 gauge wires like this should give me effectively a 9 gauge wire. Based on your "Cable Distance vs Gauge" table I'm thinking (hoping) I should be OK for these long runs? I then terminate with Parts Express angled locking stacking banana's w/thumbscrew. My surround height channels are SVS Prime Elevation speakers rated at 8 ohms nominal impedance. Thx
I'm gonna make my own cables using: 12AWG, 10 feet long, with Nakamichi banana plugs, from ROTEL 1552 to KEF Q700 (a pair of pair cables to each speaker box). Is that ok?
I know this may be a little long winded but , I would like to set up a saround sound system using 2 Revel performa f-30, 2 KEF 104-2 1 Bag End Infra subwoofer 18in. & 1 Revel Ultra Voice Center speak. My system consists of a Carver Dolby pro logic pre amp & tuner, Adcom GFA 555 & or a Adcom GFA 2535 until I can afford better. I enjoy listening to 33 1/3 & 45's . I am old school. I would like to know what brand & what size cables to use for each. I have asked a lot but I like your input & knowledge .
PS I bought these speakers at estate sales of high end homes. Thank You
Thank you for your comment on the dielectric. Besides the resistance, what other important metrics should be considered when selecting a speaker cable?
Chung Wai CHEN shielding?
so the 16 guage i just wired into my living room is wrong will it make any difference 7.2.2 setup
I bought 12 AWG cable to upgrade the 22 AWG I had on my speakers, but it’s too thick to plug in the amplifier and the speakers. What I did was I joined both ends of the 12 AWG cable with around 4 inches of 16 AWG so they could fit. Is that ok? Or should I buy some plugs that make it thinner to fit the output holes and the speakers? I also read that taking out some of the copper strands would be ok for it to fit without damaging the sound, is that true?
you guys are great, subscribed ;)
I use Canare 4S11. Good stuff.
The z906 come with 18 gauge wires.I'm thinking of replacing the z906 surround speaker wires with 16 gauge for a 30 ft run. Is that fine?
what gauge will you suggest for a Yamaha RX-V377 receiver with B&M Matrix 804 floor speakers , which sit about 3 feet on each side of receiver, and looking to add about 4 more bookshelf speakers to this Yamaha receiver which will be about 16 feet away from receiver
Gene, you mentioned that you use 14/4 speaker wire. How do you terminate the runs?
I think it’s important to know about the works published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. In a nutshell, 12 AWG or 10 AWG copper cable from a quality manufacturer like Belden for a couple bucks per foot is imperceptible from the high dollar cables.
Great video. I'm building an entry-level stereo system so anything high-end would be overkill (but damn, they can be good looking!).
I have read that some cables add some kind of "color" or "warmness" to the sound. I don't know if that's true? True or not, I would prefer something neutral and the best resolution I can get if that's the case.
I kinda like that "audio jewelry" thing, lol. But it's more about home decor.
There is some local Monster distributor in my city but the wire I saw there was just thin copper with thick insulation. Didn't like it. Some other local audio store has Belden and HP Audio. Would you recommend any of those brands?
Cables should NOT be used as tone controls. Belden supplies most of the wire used in some of the so called "exotic" speaker cable. Belden is an industry standard.
What do you think about cable connectors? Thank you.
What gauge cable do you recommend to use from a passive crossover to speakers...mininum and Maximum....thanks
So, can I mix and match with different gauges on a 5.1 set-up e.g. 14 awg for the front stereo and the rest 10 awg.
Great Video's....would be useful to know about terminating: crimp / screw on / solder....silver coated copper / % of OFC and how this affects transmission...what about running solid core and braided etc.....any warning about running near mains cables, Eddy currents, effects of coiling excess cable etc....Thanks Guys (Vic UK)
I ran my Bose 161 rear heights with flipping copper colored sewing thread and they sound FANTASTIC!
Butt no seriously I used 18 awg I should revisit that because my new sony ZA5000ES arrives today and so there's a new sheriff in town!
How about for RCA cables? Are they the same theory?
Gene, You made my day. I’m installing 8 gauge wire in the home theater that I’m building for two reasons. 1) The runs to the far end of the basement are going to be rather long (65ft ? and 6 ohm speakers), and 2) I wanted the lowest resistance possible. Glad to hear the reinforcement on low resistance.
A few other things you could have touched on were silver stand wires, and tinned wires. Does tinning help at all? What are the pros and cons of silver strand vs copper?
Bummed about Leonard Nimoy.
Make sure the cable your choosing has the close spacing between the conductors to keep inductance low. I don't recommend tinning the cable to the termination. You're better off using compression instead to reduce contact resistance. I did discuss silver conductors. the slightly better conductivity of silver is washed away by using a little more copper.
Yes I'm bummer about Nimoy but he's gone to a far far better place... Perhaps the Genesis planet?
Hey guys , I really enjoy your no nonsense approach to explaining and de bunking the hi end audio market. I've been a journeyman electrical lineman for over 35 yrs, and the principals you explain in this vid about wire size and resistance are common knowledge to anyone in the electrical field. When I first got into hi end audio I was absolutely amazed at what they wanted for speaker cable! It's truly ridiculous! Proper wire size will definitely make a difference but what these companies sell , well there's a sucker born every minute!
I have an expensive 4 ohm speaker and have been told to spend big bux on cables. I have always been skeptical about cabling in general. I will have a speaker length of 6 to 8ft. What gauge would you suggest? Joe
Sorry for going to a video from 7 years ago, but I have a 8-ohm amplifier (50Watts RMS per channel driven into an 8-ohm load)(73 Watts RMS driven into a 4-ohm load) operating a set of 4-ohm speakers. I am using a 12 gauge CCA wire (will replace with copper) and I have tried a 16-gauge copper wire. These are relatively short distances, 6-12 feet from the amp. The 16-gauge wire makes my speakers buzz as soon as the amp goes on. The 12-gauge is quiet. Is it okay to go as low as 10-gauge even though I only need 6-12 feet of wire length? I hope this makes sense. Thanks
So I am using 12 awg cables for my center and front speakers on my home theater, the length of the cables are around 6ft is this ok?
Hey fellows fantastic video. Would be a problem to use let say 8 gauge or even 4 gauge as speaker wire on my higher end audio system ? I know you have 10 as your lowest , just cause I have some 8 gauge and 4 gauge at the house from one of my cars audio system . Thanks
Thanks for nice video. Could I run speaker cables with power cable and hdmi cable together in one raceway? Is there any static interference effect? Thanks for your comments.
Yongnuan Liu That's not really a good idea. If you run all 3 of these cables in parallel they have a chance of cross coupling. It's always a good idea to keep power separate and if you have to place cables next to each other, try to keep those parallel runs short and preferably run them orthogonally. Use shielded RG6 or RG59 for coax to help minimize coupling from adjacent parallel runs.
I use 6 guage stranded (7) Romex wire, left over from EV charger install for the garage. It’s only about a 12 foot run, I know it’s overkill.
Whats the burn-in time for cable elevating stands made of Wood vs ceramics? My dealer days that ceramics are
superior since they are not organic and do not need burn-in. Problem is they are very expensive.
And this is the Reason I did 14/4 in my new home theatre. ;)
thin cable vs much thicker from the same brand like 1.5mm vs 4.0mm or 2.5mm vs 6.0 mm = better bass, improvements in the bass?
What about ferrous metals like steal screws, springs and wire connectors in binding post and other various cable termination. Is the goal to be 100% non-magnetic materials through copper and brass?
To use bookshelfs speakers @6ohms on computer, 18awg is recommended ?
In Europe we use cross section area not gauge for cable metric, like 1,5mm2, 4mm2 ....
Question: what is the speaker on the right?
One audiophile place said their cables or what they called "the river path" went through a frequency by frequency electron alignment that enhances the free flow of electrons and compared to a clogged pipe vs clean. They said they didn't have any of the cables set up because no one would ever buy their other cables.
Can you do a video debunking aftermarket power cables?
is it possible to connect Tetra speakers serial# 10354 without the intermediary of a receiver... Meaning running 12 or 10 gauge zip cord directly to the television??? I own a Vivo E. series and would like to hook up the Tetra speakers with no sub-woofer (if possible.) I do have a Monitor audio radius 360 power subwoofer system if this is not possible with out it, but would be completely lost on what wires I would need to hook it up... And receiver to buy for optimum sound... Please,, any help would be much appreciated...
I like the table @6:20
Congratulations of real good video with trusted statements about audio real experience and science. I use Sommer (pro audio german brand) speaker cable Elephant 440 (4 x 4mm² )and use all that 4 leads (total 16mm², i dont know the translation to AWG but guess is thicker than 10awg) for each + and (-) pole of my home hifi-cinema2.0 rig consisting of Dynaudio passive floorstanders, Audiophonics Hypex Ncore NC500MP power amp, Hificollective TVC preamp and Arcam digital sources and it sounds great for my music and my ''home cinema 2.0''
Thanks again for your great video. With this and Bruno Pultzeys enginieer articles in your web, i really trust in Audioholics
hey guys i need some help i have a pair of audio engine a5+ and i got 10 ft of Canare 4s11 speaker cable 2 banana please let me know what you think
I’m totally new to the science behind audio wire. Can someone explain what poster means by 14/4?
Hi guy's, I don't have to much information on this cable that i use, its a 2.5mm wide, Clear PVC outer jacket, color coded (the negative is silver looking and the positive is cooper looking). Cost's about 2$ per meter. Now... my receiver is rated at 150wRMS@6ohms/CH and 2 subwoofer's with own stereo power amp rated at 550wRMS@4ohm & 400wRMS@8ohm. The speaker's config is 7.2, Cable's length are so: *front L/R 3 meter's to 8ohms 175wRMS *front L/R height 8ohms 100wRMS *center 1 meter 6.5 ohms 150wRMS *surround L/R 80wRMS 8ohms 8 meter's *subwoofer #1 3 meter's 8ohm 500w (don't think its RMS) *subwoofer #2 3 meter's 8ohm's 450w (do think it's RMS) do u thinks it's good or should I get a different cable's for different channel's and bigger cable for the sub's ?
I get what you say about speaker cable, but I am right in thinking you use Kimber 8TC?
That’s £85 per metre in the UK. Is that not expensive?
Pro Co 10' DB-DB Speaker Cable
I purchased this 12 gauge speaker wire from Seeetwater music store so I could biamp my speakers.
is this good cable? I’ve never heard of it, and I didn’t want to spend $500 on cable.
I am using 12 (front) and 14 (surround) gauge from Ice cable. They are pretty good for its price.
Any idea where to get pure silver wire, and silver rca?
Can I use 4 gauge speaker wire to connect from 12v batteries to 3000 watts inverter?
Can I use 4 gauge speaker wire as ground cable connect to solar panels to a ground rod?
On the right track whan you focus on resistance (moore resistance=reduced Dynamics) but you totally drop off when you start defending stranded wires. Avoid any stranded wires anywhere in a system, and go for thick solid single-core speakerwires. Thick begins at 9awg.
what AWG are Lou Ferrigno there's arms ?
The only one thing I would add is showing how thick a wire is according to the AWG. Other than that I always enjoy your videos.
I use C&E pure copper wire cable. Pure copper is better than standard copper clad because of it lower resistance. I use 16 gauge for very short runs (15ft or less); but an audio engineer tested the C&E pure copper 16 gauge extensively and said it was good for up to 30 ft runs. He also highly recommend C&E cables. They sell it in 12-16 gauge. It's affordable and good quality basic cable. I have some monster 16 gauge cables that I got free, I'm using a few of those cables too. They seem decent enough idk.
Wow, I subscribed to this channel cause of the sick name but when I watched some videos on it... MIND BLOWN Holy S*** Now I can get some real info when I'm building or making a surround sound or just a random setup :) lol
What is the resistance in ohm of these cables on a length of let's say 20 ft? I have two cables and the one is 22 ft and the other is 16 ft. a difference of 6 ft. Would that matter? I think the placement of the speakers to where I'm sitting is more important, but I still would like to know.
The code of my cable is I.T. CC 225 OFC. What does that mean?
*OFC = Oxygen Free Copper.*
In my office at home I use 10 AWG. In the living room we have some 14 AWG wire that came with our Onkyo system. I eventually am going to replace both the wire and the speakers.
+Cayenne Pepper Do not forget to replace the wiring inside your amplifier and speakers.!! Or did you make them AWG 14 also. Remember... once the AWG bottle neck is in place it is not coming back. LOL
I have new 18 gauge zip cord how long do I need to burn them in!
I've used 47 strand (2.5mm sq c.s.a) speaker cable before, which makes it much closer to 13 A.W.G than 14 A.W.G. It's not extremely thick, but thick enough to feel assured.
12 gauge type 2 in wall wire works great for me 5.1 surround system, & performance is awesome...
Pioneer supplied me with 2core 22AWG 25ft cables for my surround system's rear speakers (4ohms). Is it safe to use it or do I need to buy a different gauge?
I would DEFINITELY use thicker cable. Especially for 25 feet.
I bought a new set of speakers last week. My first real good speakers. Listened to them for a week before i got my cable in. The upgrade was from 16 gauge CCA to 12 gauge OFC. The difference is almost like day and night.
At 12 feet length, would i be able to hear a difference if i would switch to 10 gauge OFC?
The speakers are 4 Ohm Monitor Audio's.
I am using 7 AWG cables assembled of 4 x 16 AWG OFC polypropylene insulated cable. In one word: Nice.