Will spliced speaker wires work ?

larry777

I had to move my surround speakers back to get behind all listening positions in my room. I currently use 16 Guage speaker wire connected to my RTi4 Surrounds. To get the proper length wire for this new distance, I had to splice together another 7 Ft of wire to the original length. Will this procedure cause any problem for the sound comming out of these speakers ? Does splicing wire degrade the signal getting to my speakers ? I will likely replace this wire with 12 Guage wire anyway....and will have one wire the correct length to each surround. But I thought it would be a good question for the Forum.

mantis

As long as you properly Splice the wire , it will be fine. You don't need 12 gauge wire unless your runs are over 50 feet each. Even then 14 gauge wire will work.

Use the best quality wire you can.

larry777

Thanks for the update Mantis. I will need speaker wire in another room setup, so I thought since I will need to buy new wire, I should upgrade my main H/T with the increased Guage while I was at it. In another recent post I started, t was recommended by most to get 12 Guage wire although not everyone agreed with this. Maybe I will rethink this and possibly go with 14 Guage. Maximum length to surrounds would be aprox 35 ft when considering the run along the walls at floor level and up my stands etc.

mantis

14g is all you need for your speakers

mdaudioguy

mantis wrote: »

14g is all you need for your speakers

And if you made a decent splice, no need to re-run anything.

dvran

Do not do it in a place of business though. OSHA regulations require a continuous piece of wire.

BlueFox

When using generic wire the bigger gauge is preferrable to the smaller. In your case 12 gauge is preferable. Of course, other sizes will work.

My HT is in a 11x12 room, so the longest cable run is 18'. Originally, it consisted of both single piece, and spliced together runs of 16, maybe 14, gauge wires, and seemed to sound okay. One day I went to the hardware store, bought 100' of low voltage, generic 12 gauge twisted copper, and cut each speaker wire to its exact length. The audio improvement all around was obvious compared to the smaller gauge wire.

mantis

BlueFox wrote: »

When using generic wire the bigger gauge is preferrable to the smaller. In your case 12 gauge is preferable. Of course, other sizes will work.

My HT is in a 11x12 room, so the longest cable run is 18'. Originally, it consisted of both single piece, and spliced together runs of 16, maybe 14, gauge wires, and seemed to sound okay. One day I went to the hardware store, bought 100' of low voltage, generic 12 gauge twisted copper, and cut each speaker wire to its exact length. The audio improvement all around was obvious compared to the smaller gauge wire.

You saying Rti4's require 12 gauge wire? Really why?

wout

Just building a new house and I put 16 guage wire in for the speakers and the runs are 100' long. Just came here to have a look at in wall speakers and I see I should possibly have used 12 guage. Mmm, too late.

So what then happens when I hook up my NAD AVR to my newly to be purchased Polk in wall speakers through the 16 guage instead of 12 guage. Some signal loss? Something else?

I was looking at getting the really nice in walls, will I not get the sound I am looking for due to a thinner cable? Should I therefore not the spend the money on the best speakers but buy a notch lower quality speaker because I have 16 guage instead of 12 guage wire?

Another boo boo: I ran substantial portions of the wiring along AC wires. Per the in-wall installation guide that is against code. What will be the effect of this? Too late to re-wire in wall though. Should I re-wire with 12g along the baseboard?

I looked around but did not see a post that addressed this directly. Appreciate the feedback. Thanks.

mantis

Yes at 100 feet you will have signal loss and higher resistance. 16 gauge is not a good gauge wire to run long runs like 100 feet. 14 gauge would have been a much better choice and a good quality Cl2 or Cl3 rated wire.
As far as running with power wires , thats a huge NO NO!!! You most likely will have hums in those speakers. Shame you should have a professional do this type of work if you don't know what you are doing. It's a bigger waste of money to do it wrong then what you think you would have saved by not allowing a professional do this type of work.

Yes wires can be ran after a house is fully built. It requires work hole to but cut and patched. This is what you need to do . Hire a professional to re run the runs you beat. Then you will have a solid back bone in your system to allow for better quality speakers and years of enjoyement.

WilliamM2

Another boo boo: I ran substantial portions of the wiring along AC wires. Per the in-wall installation guide that is against code. Too late to re-wire in wall though. Should I re-wire with 12g along the baseboard?

How did you pass inspection? Can you run new wires through the attic or basement?

DelRiverVol

I just got 16-gauge for fairly short distances. Is that OK or too heavy?

wout

Thanks Mantis. I will have to re-run the wires correctly then. This was simply a matter of not knowing what is required. Too bad I did not read the forum before my install. Yes indeed a wate of time and money, but I can fix it.

Thanks again. indeed always better to get it right - especially the first time.

wout

I ran them after inspection.

Mr. Sharpe

mantis wrote: »

You saying Rti4's require 12 gauge wire? Really why?

some people prefer bigger wire... like me. doesn't matter if the speaker is 2 feet from the amplifier and 16 ohms, I'm using 12 gauge:biggrin: not that he does that but just sayin

BtrSound

I just wanted to add, I ordered some 14 guage wire pretending to be 12 guage wire from Amazon, and spent the time wiring my entire house. It sounded worse than it did before that, so then I ordered 12 guage wire from bluejeans wire, and it made a world of difference. I was previously very sceptical of those claiming they could hear much difference in wires, but the stuff I got from Amazon must have been junk. I recommend Blue Jeans wires.

BlueFox

Mr. Sharpe wrote: »

some people prefer bigger wire... like me. doesn't matter if the speaker is 2 feet from the amplifier and 16 ohms, I'm using 12 gauge:biggrin: not that he does that but just sayin

Yes. It isn't as if the cost difference is going to break the bank, and, for me, the sonic improvement is there. My rule of thumb is for inexpensive wire 12 is better than 14, which is better than 16, etc.

Once you get into higher grade wire then other factors come into play, but we are not in that area in this thread.

Of course, we are splitting hairs here, so buy and enjoy whatever you want.

Mr. Sharpe

Oh yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like 12 gauge is twice or three times as much as 14 lol my bad.