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14ga solid copper wire? (for Wayne) [message #36033] Thu, 18 April 2002 15:17 Go to next message
mhammill is currently offline  mhammill
Messages: 23
Registered: May 2009
Chancellor
In an previous post you said not to use thin gauge magnet wire due to the resistance but to use 18 or 16 ga stranded copper and then added not to use heavier gauge solid strand copper either. This was in a post on the bottlehead forum to Garland.
Just curious why not the 14ga solid copper?

Thanks
Mike H.

Speaker cable and wire properties, revisited [message #36035 is a reply to message #36033] Thu, 18 April 2002 19:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18704
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Actually, I said the larger solid core wire would be fine. Please revisit the post called "Speaker cable and wire properties".

Since audio frequencies are low, you will not have the skin effect to be concerned with, and that's the main reason to use stranded wires. The main thing in this application is resistance, so large solid wire is acceptable. However, it is much easier to use stranded wire because it is more flexible, so that and its superiority at higher frequencies makes large stranded pure-copper cable the best option.

you can only tighten binding posts so much [message #36037 is a reply to message #36035] Fri, 19 April 2002 05:46 Go to previous message
Sam P. is currently offline  Sam P.
Messages: 307
Registered: May 2009
Grand Master
but with pin connectors, and solid wire, any movement of the speaker cable will tend to allow the connection to loosen. Sure, you can get pliers and crank them tight enough. I feel a large gauge stranded cable, with many fine conductors, allows the wire to "crush" nicely when the binding post pressure is moderate. As Wayne said, stranded cable is more flexible, so movement won't strain the speaker wire/binding post connection. I think the mechanical concern of maintaining a tight and worry free connection precludes the use of large solid wire. Sam
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