Speaker Cable Gauge Table

Read our in wall wiring guide for more information.

Speaker cable gauge table.

D n in 0 005 in 92 36 n 39. You can buy speaker wire with connectors or without. Choosing quality cables from reputable sources such as blue jeans cable and monoprice is a good idea. Wire gauge calculations wire diameter calculations.

14 4 cable is another good choice that is easier to terminate and has an effective gauge of 11 awg. Speaker cable gauge isn t terribly difficult to understand so this won t be a very long article. The american wire gauge standard also less commonly known as the brown sharpe wire gauge is a standardized wire gauge system used since 1857 for the diameters of round electrically conducting wire. The n gauge wire diameter d n in millimeters mm is equal to 0 127mm times 92 raised to the power of 36 minus gauge number n divided by 39.

In the metric gauge scale the gauge is 10 times the diameter in millimeters so a 50 gauge metric wire would be 5 mm in diameter. Metric wire gauges see table below metric gauge. It s up to you to select the right gauge thickness and type of wire for your system. That means 12 gauge 12awg speaker wire is much thicker than 18 gauge awg wire so if you re looking for the thickest wire you d want 12awg.

Speaker wire is used to make the electrical connection between loudspeakers and audio amplifiers modern speaker wire consists of two or more electrical conductors individually insulated by plastic such as pvc pe or teflon or less commonly rubber the two wires are electrically identical but are marked to identify the correct audio signal polarity. Most speakers don t come with speaker wire. Essentially distance and the impedance of the loudspeaker are the two factors to consider when determining wire gauge. The n gauge wire diameter d n in inches in is equal to 0 005in times 92 raised to the power of 36 minus gauge number n divided by 39.

For in wall or ceiling speakers you ll need ul rated speaker wire labeled cl2 or cl3. The following table shows the approximate signal losses in speaker cable for a 100 foot amplifier to speaker distance at various impedances. When you talk about speaker cable gauge what you mean is the size of the wire used to transmit the electrical energy that represents the sound waves traveling through the wire from the amplifier to the loudspeaker. In the case of speaker wires you ll normally see choices of 12 gauge 14 gauge 16 gauge and 18 gauge with the smaller numbers thicker than the larger numbers.

The only issue here is this cable tends to be hard to work with and terminate. Speaker wire comes in a wide range of standard sizes based on the american wire gauge awg standard. Most commonly speaker wire comes in. Item 80398 model 64870101.