Well we get to open 1 gift early before Christmas so I opened the biggest box for me of course. Wife has given me a surround sound theater system for the TV,cool! Problem is that the supplied speaker wire (22-2 AWG) for the rear speakers is way to short. So can I run my 14-2 speaker wire that I use for the car? If I use this wire does it hurt or help the systems performance? If I use it should I run it to all the speakers or just the rear speakers. TIA and have a real Merry Christmas!
Doug : The issue is whether by on one leg using a heavier gauge wire which generally has less resistance per foot you would cause the impedance of the output load to be out of the design spec for the amplifier. I doubt it but if you want insurance use the same wire around the horn. The quality of your connections are more important in my opinion if you are not going to buy wires with the plugs already installed. Jim Lore
I am a professional installer and have had no problem with using larger guage wire for installs. Most home theater systems come with wire. I personaly would up grade to a larger wire especialy on the longer runs. It is like trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose. easier on the amps power supply. most amps will have no problem with the ever so slight change. As long as the wire is twin stranded speaker wire you can use it. Tim
go with the bigger wire ... wire designed for car audio applications usually is made a lil more flexible and the jacket is made to withstand the elements better .... so using it in you home ends up being a no-brainer. it usually a lil more expensive. FYI: most home theatre recievers only send a mono signal (from a singal amplifier channel) to the rears. so running only one wire to the rear of the room and paralleling one speaker from the other can be done with no problems(using 14ga. or better). i dont reccomend doing this unless you know how to test your reciever to confirm its configuation. if you are wrong, you might need a fire extinguisher.:af:
Do not parallel your rear speakers! With home theater and even with car audio every audio channel (front, rear, left and right and center) has its own audio. Remember when you wire speakers in series, impedence is added and when speakers are wire in parallel the impedence is cut in half (when you run 2 speakers). So with most home audio amps, they can only work at 8 ohms (ohms = impedence). I suggest with speaker wire, buy the best you can afford. All your better wire will be 100% copper, oxygen free wire. Remember, your connections are a important part of the chain. If you use low quality connections (rca, speaker wire, svga cables) your system will only be as good as the connections. I know I am going a little over board, but when I build pro audio systems I squeeze as mush as possible out of what I have. John...
Thanks for all the info. The wire has (14 AWG CL-2 High Performance Speaker Wire) written on it and it is the copper wire on both sides not the silver type on one side like I usually see. The speakers have just that little guillotine type connector for the wires. Should I apply a little solder to the wires ends (tinning?) to help the connection? Looks like I'll need speaker stands too for the surrond sound (rear) speakers too. Thanks again all, enjoy the H O L I D A Y S :Comp:
Parallel wiring I believe yuk was refuring to dolby pro logic recievers that are that only. Most of them(read: not all) are wired in palallel internallyand are supplied with two sets of connectors and are one mono channel. Therefore it would make no difference were it became a parellel circuit. However, I would not suggest to a regular joe to to do this and try to tell him how to find this out on his own. For your purposes two runs of 20-2 speaker wire from radio shack or the hardware store would suite a low wattage application with/in a living room like this, just fine. Delirious is correct though, some recievers are 5.1 or simular and have discrete rear channels and would be damaged easily w/ a 4 ohm load(readarallel wiring) would not get the other discrete channel either! Enjoy!:Comp:
I think the previous posts sum it all up! However, do this for your own peace of mind. Hook up the "factory wire" and listen. Now connect good wire ( I like the 14-16 gauge size) and listen. Just a huge difference in the sound quality. Great analogy, fighting fires with a garden hose... Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Drive safely around New Year's Eve. Russ
