Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater speaker wire length

I know this topic comes up every six months. I thought that I bookmarked it but can't seem to find the bookmark. I tried the searching past posts and can't find it. Can someone give the recommended gauge of speaker wire for different lengths that I may run. I think that my length will be about 60 feet.

- Nick

Nick,

A simple solution is to simply use 12-gauge for any length greater than 20 feet. Even at 60 feet, 12-gauge copper wire has insignificant resistance.

For lengths less than 20 feet, 14-gauge is fine, and for short runs 16-gauge presents insignifcant resistance.

Regards,

Alan

Nick, though not much more than Alan's suggestion is needed, you are probably thinking of the ubiquitous Roger Russel Wire Table

Do you get bonus man-points for using 10-gauge all around?

Jack's link above should help you out on what type of wire to use for various lengths and speaker types.

When I built my house in 2004, I bought 12 ga speaker wire at Home Depot. Since then, the wire has begun to turn dark, I presume from oxidation. It has not affected anything yet, I thought I would throw this out for comment?

Hi Argon,

Copper does oxidize over time when it's exposed to air--you know those rooves made of copper that turn greenish, as well as copper pennies. Where it's exposed at the connection point, electrical conductivity may be affected. You can use a bit of sandpaper to remove the oxidation if you are using bare-wire connections and return the lustre to the copper.

If memory serves, it seems that other forum members have warned users away from Home Depot's bulk generic speaker wire because it seemed to oxidize even under the plastic insulation, which is odd. Even so, that won't affect conductivity through the copper.

Does anyone else recall those posts?

Regards,
Alan

I have not heard that with Home Depots speaker wire but I have read on other forums various times of Monoprice speaker wire oxodizing under the insulation.

I don't recall what brand of wire but I have experienced what I think was oxidization under the jacket. The clear plastic ended up turning yellow in spots. It did not cause any performance issues.

Hmmm. I've never tried the monoprice speaker wire. However, I've used SoundKing from http://www.partsexpress.com and it's still fine after a decade or so--nice and shiny under the clear insulation.

Regards,

Alan

You mentioned that the cooper would turn green if it is oxidizing. Now if there is yellow discoloration under the jacket is this just a reaction of the plastic or is there some possible oxidization occurring?