What is The Truth About
Speaker
Wires & Speaker Cables?
What is the job of speaker wires and speaker cables?
It is to move the AC current from your home theater receiver or amplifier to
your loudspeakers without degrading the signal so the sound will come as close
to what was originally recorded.
After spending all that money on an expensive
home theater receiver, processor or amplifier and your music and video
collection of CD's, DVD's and LP's, you don't want the sound of your
loudspeakers to be distorted because of funky speaker wires and speaker cables.
The
signal moves through your speaker cables to your loudspeakers and then its the
loudspeakers job to transform that constantly changing signal into sound.
What's the difference between speaker wires and
speaker cable?
There is no difference and I'll be using both terms
interchangeably in this article.
How important are your speaker cables?
Very important, but some manufacturers of speaker
cables claim their expensive wires will actually improve the electrical
signals. Like water pressure through a pipe, the voltage produced by your home
theater amplifier is the driving force and it moves at approximately 90% the
speed of light. Resistance:
Resistance is what occurs when audio frequencies are moving through a copper
cable and this results in a waste of power. Thicker speaker cables will result
in less resistance. The lower the number then the thicker the speaker cable. For
example; 12 gauge speaker wire is thicker than 14 gauge and 14 gauge is thicker
than 16 gauge speaker cable.
Rule of thumb for choosing the correct gauge
for your speaker cables:
- 0' to 15': Use 16 gauge speaker cable.
- 25' to 15': Use 14 gauge speaker cable.
- 25' or more: Use 12 gauge speaker cable.
Loudspeaker Connectors:
Its important that the connections of your speaker
cables are bright and shiny without any corrosion. Speaker cable connections made
of copper will turn green or brown after years, so just use a piece of sandpaper
to make them clean and shiny again. For connectors you can use spades, pins,
banana plugs or even just bare speaker wire. Its mainly a matter of convenience
which one you choose. Gold connectors are sometimes used because they will never
corrode.
Audio Interconnects:
The cables that connect your DVD or CD player are
coaxial cables. These cables move much smaller signals than the power sent to
your loudspeakers. Coaxial cables can produce hum so its important that these
interconnects are shielded with a braided metal mesh. On good quality coaxial
cables you can unscrew the metal connectors to make sure they are clean and free
of corrosion.
Digital Connections:
It doesn't matter whether you use coaxial cable
or optical digital connectors because the audio signal will be the same. The
difference is that the optical digital connectors aren't subject to hum like
tarnished coaxial cable can be.
Video Interconnects:
High quality video cables are needed because video signals are more fragile than
audio signals, especially with cables over six feet long. So don't cheap out
when buying video cables.
Do I have to make all the speaker cables the same length for each speaker in a
5.1-channel or 7.1 surround system?
Regardless of what you have read, its NOT necessary that your speaker cables be
the same length and its just a ploy by the manufacturers to get you to spend
more money on their over priced speaker cables. Just use whatever lengths you
need to go from your loudspeakers to your home theater amplifier or receiver.
Make sure you buy enough since you might have to run them behind furniture or
carpet, etc. You can get
bulk
speaker cables and cut them to length.
Thats it! Now that you know what the pro's
know, there is no need to waste your money on
speaker wires
where the manufacturers use fake scientific language to justify their
ridiculously high prices.
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