16 Gauge Speaker Wire Best Buy
The best speaker cables (speaker wire to our American friends) can't make your system sound better than it really is, but they can and should ensure that every last drop of performance makes its way from your amplifier to your speakers.
16 gauge speaker wire best buy
Do remember to budget for the lengths of speaker wire that you need (and the number of speakers you're wiring up if it's a surround system) and bear in mind that the cable prices we quote usually don't include the banana plugs that you'll see in the pictures, largely because you don't necessarily have to buy them.
QED has always been about clarity, detail and insight, with the Reference XT40i speaker wire being no exception. It will allow any budget-to-midrange system to show off all the information at its disposal, providing it with accuracy and precision. Just what you'd expect from this Award-winning stable.
To figure out how much speaker wire you need, run a string from your receiver or amplifier location to each of the speaker locations. Measure the string, and then add a few extra feet (to provide some slack for easier connection to your gear).
With a 4-conductor cable, you pull a single cable over the long distance from your amplifier or receiver to an in-wall volume control in another room. You can then run 2-conductor cables from the volume control to each of the stereo speakers in that location. Four-conductor wire is also good for connecting stereo-input speakers.
Spring clips are very easy to work with. Simply press down on the clip, insert the speaker wire, and release. The spring-loaded mechanism holds the wire in place. Spring clip terminals can accept bare wire and pin connectors, but not spade connectors, banana plugs, or dual-banana plugs.
Audiophile types almost always say thicker wire is better to transmit sound: 'thicker cables sound better.' On the other side of the spectrum, hardcore non-audiophile skeptics say there is no difference in cables, so get the cheapest speaker wire you can find. For them, even 18 gauge is too expensive; that 24 gauge wire for pennies a yard is enough.
Next, we compared the Monoprice 2747 to the Pyle PSC1250. This test was similar to our first test, in that it was the same thickness of wire but different brands. The result was less apparent than the result from 14 vs. 12 gauge test, but there was still a noticeable difference. The Monoprice sounded a little more open and slightly richer.
Since the difference between the 14 and 12 gauge wires was the most obvious difference, we re-did this test with the less expensive speakers. The difference was far less noticeable than with the big Krell speakers. We were fairly confident in our choice (not nearly as much as we had been with the other test), and that choice turned out to be... the 14 gauge. Defeat snatched from the hands of victory.
Should we have done another round of testing, and figured out what the best 14- or 16-gauge wire was for the Hsu? We could have, but to what end? That would just have just told us what was good for those speakers.
Speaker cables are simply wire that connects different parts of an electrical circuit, as I mentioned earlier. This wire has three different electrical properties: resistance, inductance and capacitance. These can change depending on the gauge of the wire, the length of the wire, the material of the wire, and so on. In general, the thicker the wire, the lower the resistance.
It turns out that the cable shown in the Amazon review is a different product. The cable is packaged differently, and the Amazon reviewer says they counted 87 strands within a single wire. Our sample of the 2747 cable had 64 strands, each measuring 0.25 mm (30 gauge), which conforms to one of the standard configurations for 12-gauge stranded wire as shown in this chart (PDF).
To support the suggestion that the conductors in the wire are too loosely packed to conform to standard 12-gauge stranded wire construction, the Amazon reviewer states that the conductors in the wire they purchased weighed 6 grams per foot instead of the 9 grams per foot expected of 12-gauge stranded copper. However, in the 2747 cable we tested, 1 foot of a single conductor with the jacket stripped off weighed 9 grams. We conclude that the 2747 cable is what Monoprice advertises it to be, and we stand by our recommendation.
Although AWG specifies a wide range of sizes, when it comes to AWG speaker wire, the most common ones are 14 and 16 gauge, which will all work just fine for most home theater and stereo music systems.
But passive speakers, like the kind found in home audio and hi-fi systems, for example, use wire connected to an amplifier and to the speakers themselves for power. In a studio context, the famous Yamaha NS-10s are a perfect example of a passive speaker requiring an amplifier source and speaker wire to connect them all up.
Are you wondering what speaker cable gauge to use for the best performance? This article discusses the most important metric in loudspeaker cables and how it affects the performance of your system. If you're serious about getting all of those precious watts from your amplifier to your speakers, you'll want to carefully read this article and watch our related embedded Youtube video.
In order tominimize the potential of audibility here, I have established a guideline ofthe maximum acceptable degree of insertion loss that a cable should present tothe system so that when a real world amplifier and loudspeaker are connected,the cable resistance will have a negligible contribution to the overall systemresponse. I plotted the Insertion Loss(dB) vs Distance (ft) for various cable gauges from 18AWG to 10AWG using an 8ohm speaker load.
As you cansee in the graph, once your distances exceed about 10 feet, you should considerspeaker wire 16AWG or lower. If you areusing a loudspeaker that is rated at 4 ohms, the critical distance becomesabout half that. It is really important touse thicker wire for long cable runs, especially when driving a lot of powerinto low impedance loudspeaker systems.
In order tominimize the potential of audibility here, I have established a guideline ofthe minimum acceptable System Damping Factor between a cable and a loudspeakerso that when a real world amplifier and loudspeaker are connected, the cableresistance will have a negligible contribution to the overall systemresponse. I plotted the Damping Factor vs Distance (ft) for various cable gaugesfrom 18AWG to 10AWG using an 8 ohm speaker load and correlated the results withthe data we gathered on Insertion Loss in Figure 1.
Ipersonally run 10AWG speaker cable for all of my audio systems in theAudioholics Showcase home. The onlyissue here is this cable tends to be hard to work with and terminate. 14/4 cable is another good choice that iseasier to terminate and has an effective gauge of 11 AWG. Choosing quality cables from reputablesources such as Blue Jeans Cable and Monoprice isa good idea. I always recommend you avoid snake oil when purchasing cables. Otherwise you'll likely find yourself spending more money than you shouldon nebulous claims and fancy packaging. To add insult to injury, you may also end up compromising on the parameters that actually matter, such as wire gauge.
Q I'm confused about what gauge of speaker wire to use. Do the different gauges have to do with the distance and size of speaker? I'm planning to buy the Insignia NS-B2111 speakers for my surround-sound system and want to make sure I wire it properly.
The rule is the total resistance of the wire should be less than 5 percent of the rated impedance of the speaker. Your Insignias are 8-ohm speakers, which means 16 gauge is good for up to a 48-foot run (per speaker). Speaker wire of 14 gauge is good for an 80-foot run, and 12 gauge is good for 120 feet.
A useful wiring chart can be found at audio engineer Roger Russell's site (www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm). He also goes into great detail discussing speaker wire and the scams associated with it. It's a must read if you are putting together a sound system.
Would you believe that there is speaker wire selling for more than $1,000 per meter? Using hyper-expensive speaker wire is like filling up your toilet tank with bottled water at $1.29 per pint, in the hopes it will flush better. Copper is copper and electrons are electrons, and no amount of made-up pseudoscience by the wire companies can change that.
If you are putting together a sound system, buy inexpensive wire and use the money you save for something that makes an audible difference, such as a better pair of speakers or nice stands to place them on. You'll not only get better sound, but true value for your hard-earned money.
If not, you can follow the general rule of thumb that 12 or 14 gauge speaker wire is needed for long wire runs with low-impedance speakers (4 or 6Ω). Meanwhile, 16 gauge wire is fine for runs under 50 feet to 8Ω speakers. For headphones and short connections to active speakers, essentially any cable will do as the power transfer is much lower.
While some speaker wires may sound slightly better with some sound systems, it really does go down to personal preference. For the best all-rounder, the Monoprice 2747 12-gauge is a great deal as it offers a sturdy and very reliable available cable. When we tested it, it sounded cleaner than many of its competitors, especially those with thinner wire gauges.
The InstallGear speaker wire is a great alternative option for those that have an established car audio system. It has a dual-colored jacket that makes polarity detection much easier than other options out there. In addition, the jacket is made from soft PVC, which is much easier to manipulate and maneuver under carpets and through walls and other small panels.
These speaker wires come in an all-black PVC jacket that is UV-resistant and entirely secure while maintaining your connection. The outer jacket has sequential markings that denote each foot of length, assisting in more accurate measurements. 041b061a72