Gauge of wire for speakers?

[Shugarra 10+ year member]

Well, I'm going to be replacing my speaker wire here pretty soon and I'm wondering what size to get? I've seen some tables for gauge of power wire but nothing for speaker wire. The wire will be run about 13-15 ft from a 180x2 amp. I've heard 16 ga is good for speakers but that seems awfully small. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Mike

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[mattj 5,000+ posts]

Use 12 and you will have no problems. 16 would be fine too but its up to you.

 

[Derek123 10+ year member]

Dont know about for speakers but for subs the size of wire really makes a difference.

 

[mtech2 10+ year member]

12ga will be fine...I did a quick calculation (for fun) and found that your 12ga wire (at 15ft) should have a resistance of .0238Ohms. You should only lose 1.1Watts of power at the NOMINAL impedance with a 180W power source. This does not take into account impedance dips and power levels above 180W, which will lead to more power loss.

 

[Shugarra 10+ year member]

Wow! Thanks for the help, 12 gauge it is ;0)