In this guide, let us understand the importance of Speaker Wire. We will see the important characteristics that you need to look for in a Speaker Wire. There are several more things we are gonna cover here. So, if you are a beginner, then we hope this article will clear some of your doubts.
What Is Speaker Wire?
A Speaker Wire or Speaker Cable is an electrical conductor that is responsible for making an electrical connection between the power amplifier and the speaker. In its simplest form, the core of a Speaker Wire is made up of either solid or stranded copper. A protective PVC Sheathing then surrounds the core to prevent interference and external noise. As the speaker wire is similar to a regular electrical wire, does this mean we can use any copper wire as the speaker wire? No. Don’t do this. You may blow up your speakers. Even though the purpose of speaker wires is to carry electrical signals from a source such as an amplifier to the speaker, this doesn’t mean you can rip your spare extension cord and use it as a speaker cable. There are certain physical and electrical characteristics of the Speaker Wire that differentiates it from a regular electrical wire.
Characteristics Of Speaker Wire
The main purpose of the speaker wire or speaker cable is to carry low-voltage electrical current from the power amplifier to the speaker. The speaker upon receiving this current will oscillate the coil back and forth in a magnetic field. As one end of the coil connects to the speaker cone, it also oscillates with the coil and thus creates sound waves. This is an oversimplification of the working of a speaker but you get the idea. The takeaway here is that it is the responsibility of the Speaker Wire to carry the electric current to the speaker with very minimum delay and also the full-frequency audio signals and power. So, what’s the important characteristic of the speaker wire that makes this possible? There are several crucial parameters and characteristics of a speaker wire but the one that needs the utmost attention is its Resistance.
Resistance Of Speaker Wire
The Electrical Resistance of a wire or any electrical component is its ability to block or restrict the flow of electric current. If the wire has higher resistance, it will block the current flow from the power amplifier to the speaker. So, instead of delivering full power to the speaker, the wire wastes a lot of power as heat and the speaker underperforms (sometimes it doesn’t even perform). So, this means we need a lower resistance wire. But how low is good? What determines the resistance of a speaker wire? There are several factors that determine a wire’s resistance. But the three important ones are:
Conductivity Length of the Wire The thickness of the Wire
The conductivity of a material is its ability to conduct electric current. We all know that copper is a good conductor of electricity. Hence, we use copper as the main conductor for all our electrical wiring. Even most speaker wires use copper at the core. Another common but not preferable option is copper-clad aluminum. Copper has significantly less resistance than aluminum. But as aluminum is a lot cheaper than copper, some speaker wire manufacturers use it as an alternative. We recommend pure copper wires. Coming to the other factor that has an impact on the resistance of the wire is its length. Shorter wires have lower resistance than longer wires. This is because the electric current has to travel more distance, which will result in a loss of signal and power. So, keep the length of the wire as short as possible. Next, we have the thickness of the wire. When we say thickness, we actually mean the cross-sectional area of the wire. As the cross-sectional area of the wire increases i.e., its thickness increases, electrons have more area to flow and as a result, the resistance is less. This means, using a thicker wire.
Wire Gauge
But how thick is good enough? We measure the wire’s thickness using its gauge as specified by the American Wire Gauge or AWG. We already made an elaborate guide on AWG and Wire Gauge Chart. Do check it out for an in-depth understanding of wire gauges. But on a brief note, the larger the “gauge” number of a wire, the thinner the wire is. We know this is confusing. For instance, the diameter of a 12 AWG Wire is 2.05 mm while it is only 1.63 mm if you take the 14 AWG Wire. From the above discussion, it is clear that a shorter, thicker, and copper wire is the best possible speaker wire combination. The following is a small suggestion from our end for the gauge and length of copper speaker wire that you can consider depending on the impedance of your speaker.
4 Ω Speakers: 20 AWG for 10 feet, 18 AWG for 15 feet, 16 AWG for 20 feet, 14 AWG for 40 feet, 12 AWG for 60 feet, and 10 AWG for 100 feet. 6 Ω Speakers: 20 AWG for 15 feet, 18 AWG for 20 feet, 16 AWG for 35 feet, 14 AWG for 60 feet, 12 AWG for 90 feet, and 10 AWG for 150 feet. 8 Ω Speakers: 20 AWG for 20 feet, 18 AWG for 30 feet, 16 AWG for 45 feet, 14 AWG for 80 feet, 12 AWG for 120 feet, and 10 AWG for 200 feet.
If you want the best possible experience, then we recommend not going over 50% of this length for decent sound output.
Common Core (Conductor) Material In Speaker Wire
We already touched on this topic in the previous section. But let us understand a little bit more. The two popular conductors used in speaker wires or speaker cables are Copper and Copper-clad Aluminum.
Copper
100% Pure Copper Wire is the best possible speaker wire. Period. It has been an industry stable for several decades. Copper has a relatively low resistance and is an excellent conductor of electricity. Also, copper wires are available on all gauges. You can go for a solid copper wire or wire with multiple strands. Several kinds of research show that it doesn’t make a significant difference. One problem with pure copper wire is the chance of oxidation. While the rest of the wire is insulated with plastic or PVC material, it is near the termination that causes the oxidation problem. Oxidized Copper will lose its conductivity and also its resistance increases. Cashing on this, some manufacturers are producing “Oxygen-free” Copper Wire. These fancy wires cost significantly more than regular copper wires, but the performance improvement is very marginal.
Copper-clad Aluminum
The second most popular speaker wire material is copper-clad aluminum (CCA). In its basic form, the core of the wire is Aluminum. But the surface of the wire has a thin layer of copper. Price is the main advantage of this material as the cost of aluminum is very less when you compare it with pure copper. So, many speaker wire or speaker cable manufacturers promote CCA Wires as a budget-friendly alternative to copper wires. Note that the conductivity of aluminum or even copper-clad aluminum is still less than that of copper. Also, the resistance is slightly more than copper if you take the same length and gauge wires.
Silver
There is a third wire that has a niche market in the audiophile community. It is the Silver Wire. Silver is an excellent conductor of electricity, even better than copper. The resistance of silver is less than that of copper. This means you can get away with higher gauge wire (remember, the higher the gauge, the thinner the wire) than their copper counterparts. But the cost of silver wire is very high. Even then, some high-end audiophiles with fancy money to spend use silver wires.
How To Terminate Speaker Wires?
Speaker Wire Termination means using an appropriate connector to connect the wire to the device, be it the power amplifier or the speaker itself. The type of termination depends on the terminals available on your speaker as well as the amplifier. One of the simplest ways to terminate the speaker wire is by using only the bare wire without any connector. This is possible if your equipment has spring-loaded terminals. Alternatively, you can use flex pin plugs instead of bare wires if you are worried about exposing the metal part of the wire and risk oxidation. Keep in mind about the gauge of the wire before purchasing the flex pin plugs. The most popular way to connect a speaker wire between amplifiers and speakers is by using Banana Plugs. With these plugs, you can simply and quickly connect or disconnect the wire from the terminals. If your devices have binding post style terminals, then another useful connector is Spade Plugs. Irrespective of the type of connector you use, make sure it is gold-plated. Gold doesn’t oxidize easily. Hence, we see a lot of connectors with gold plating.
Things To Consider When Buying Speaker Wire
We will try to summarize the topic by listing some essential things that you need to consider while looking for speaker wires.
Conductor Material
When we speak of the core conductor materials used in different types of speaker wires, then we have pure copper, aluminum, copper-clad aluminum, oxygen-free copper, and silver. Silver Wires are ridiculously expensive while copper-clad aluminum wires are very cheap. We think the oxygen-free copper wire is just a marketing gimmick for copper wire with better insulation. Pure copper with enough plastic or PVC Insulation is our recommendation. Do not even consider aluminum wires.
Length Of The Wire
Position your speakers in your desired place. Measure the exact distance between the amplifier and the speaker. Then use the wire that fits that length precisely. Okay. Don’t make the length so tight that the wire is suspended in the air. Keep a small amount of room for you to move or reposition your equipment. But definitely do not go excess than what’s necessary.
Wire Gauge
The gauge of the wire determines how thin or thick the wire is. There are two more things that you need to consider before determining the gauge of the speaker wire. They are the length of the wire and also the speaker impedance. As a rule of thumb, here is a small list of different AWG speaker wires that are made up of pure copper corresponding to different lengths between the amplifier and the speaker and also different speaker impedances.
8 Ω Speakers: 20 AWG for 20 feet, 18 AWG for 30 feet, 16 AWG for 45 feet, 14 AWG for 80 feet, 12 AWG for 120 feet, and 10 AWG for 200 feet. 6 Ω Speakers: 20 AWG for 15 feet, 18 AWG for 20 feet, 16 AWG for 35 feet, 14 AWG for 60 feet, 12 AWG for 90 feet, and 10 AWG for 150 feet. 4 Ω Speakers: 20 AWG for 10 feet, 18 AWG for 15 feet, 16 AWG for 20 feet, 14 AWG for 40 feet, 12 AWG for 60 feet, and 10 AWG for 100 feet.
Termination
Finally, we have the wire termination. Bare Wire, Flex Pin Plugs, Banana Plugs, Spade Plugs, and RCA Connectors are some popular ways to connect the speaker wire to amplifiers and speakers.
Conclusion
There is a continuous debate around the topic of Speaker Wires. Some buy a cheap wire to connect the speakers to amplifiers. But some audiophiles do a lot of research, and look for the best-performing speaker wires, even if they are expensive. In a simple sense, a speaker wire is just a wire that carries the electrical signals (audio and power) from the power amplifier to the speaker. This doesn’t mean we can go just use any electrical wire. If you are thinking of doing this, please don’t. You might cause harm to your speakers. Even though a speaker wire is just a “wire”, there are certain things that you need to look for before buying one. In this beginner’s guide, we looked at the basics of speaker wires. We saw some important characteristics of a typical speaker wire that you need to consider. After that, we saw the importance of wire resistance and how different parameters such as core material, length of the wire, and also thickness of the wire affect it. We also saw different ways to terminate speaker wires. Finally, as a summary, we listed out a couple of things that any user who is setting up a home theatre or audio system must consider while purchasing a speaker wire. We hope that this guide could clear some of your doubts regarding speaker wires or speaker cables. There are still a lot more things surrounding speaker wires such as wiring, the procedure to terminate using different connectors, and many more. If you are interested, we can cover all these topics. So, do let us know in the comments section for any additional information. Comment * Name * Email * Website
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