speaker wire assistance

[cashlz]

hello again, i am curious if there is any problem with running two different guage wires i.e. if i run say 16 to my surrounds and 12 to my mains. Long story short i have everything run in 16ga and it was a royal pain to run the wires to my surrounds. any thoughts on that?

[cam]

The longer the run the thicker guage wire you should run, but since you have already run your surrounds with 16G it wont matter if you use thicker wire to your mains. If you are like me it will drive you nuts that you used 12G for your mains and 16G to your surrounds and even though it was a pain to wire up your surrounds you will probably end up rewiring with 12G. Sound wise with your mains being most likely very close I doubt you will hear a difference between 12-14-or 16G wire but your surrounds you will most likely hear an improvement going from 16G to 12G wire for the fact that our surround speakers are usually a fair distance from your receiver. To answer your question there would be no problem.

[fasterjames]

I just set up my surround system 3 weeks ago. I studied and researched everything I could to get the best components for my small budget, including speaker wire. I found a closeout of 4 conductor 16G Monster Cable and bought it. My neighbor who owned a car stereo store in the past told me that a thicker guage wouldn't matter and that it is better to have all currents running equal. I don't know how accurate that is but we spent all day running wire through my old house. The rears which are attached to just over 60 feet of wire do not get as much sound as my mains so I would tend to agree with cam's reply on this. Like him, I will eventually rerun these, not so much because I am unhappy with them, but just because it will drive me crazy.

[pctower]

hello again, i am curious if there is any problem with running two different guage wires i.e. if i run say 16 to my surrounds and 12 to my mains. Long story short i have everything run in 16ga and it was a royal pain to run the wires to my surrounds. any thoughts on that?

The speaker wires to my 3 front speakers are of a much lower guage (meaning bigger) than my much longer runs to my two rear speakers and I think my system sounds fantastic. As far as I can tell, a properly calibrated surround system doesn't put much demand on the rears that are there primarily to provide ambiance.

[Tony_Montana]

The rears which are attached to just over 60 feet of wire do not get as much sound as my mains so I would tend to agree with cam's reply on this. Like him, I will eventually rerun these, not so much because I am unhappy with them, but just because it will drive me crazy.

I don't know what type of cable 4 conductor 16G is, but for 60 feet, you may have look beyound ordinary cables (such as lower resistance and inductance) to achieve good result. I have couple of them in mind if you decide to change them

[mtrycraft]

As far as I can tell, a properly calibrated surround system doesn't put much demand on the rears that are there primarily to provide ambiance.

Yep, how true Maybe he forgot to level match?

[fasterjames]

I don't know what type of cable 4 conductor 16G is, but for 60 feet, you may have look beyound ordinary cables (such as lower resistance and inductance) to achieve good result. I have couple of them in mind if you decide to change them

Thanks. I am using Monster Cable In-wall wire. What would you suggest replacing them with if I decide to do this?
Thanks again for the advice.