Shotguning cables

chargerman426
chargerman426 Posts: 419
edited November 2008 in Speakers
I'm not sure if I understand this concept. Is "shotguning" were you take to speaker wires and twist them together to make a bigger gage wire? Please help and whether or not its worth doing.
If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
Post edited by chargerman426 on
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • McLoki
    McLoki Posts: 5,231
    edited November 2008
    Shotgunning is running 2 lenghts of speaker wire to the same speaker. It can be used to bi-wire or to lower the overall gauge by 3ga. (i.e. a shotgun run of 12ga. speaker wire will effetively end up as 12ga if used for bi-wiring or 9ga if used as standard cable.)

    Michael
    Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
    Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
    Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
    Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
    Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
    Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pablo_rodz
    pablo_rodz Posts: 331
    edited November 2008
    Talking about gauge... What gauge should I use for my speackers? RTi10's, CSiA6; receiver is Pioneer Elite VSX-92. The speakers are about 6-7ft. from the receiver.

    Thanks
    HT:
    Projector - JVC HD100, 100" Fixed Screen, A/V Receiver - Pioneer Elite VSX-92TXH, Power Conditioner - Panamax M5300-EX, BluRay - Sony PS3, (2) ADCOM GFA 555 Bridged, Speakers - LSi 15, LSi C, LSi FX, Sub - 12" M&K VX-1250.

    Living Room:
    Schiit Saga, Parasound HCA-600, OPPO BDP-103D, LSi7
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • VSchneider
    VSchneider Posts: 443
    edited November 2008
    at those short runs anything from 18ga up will do
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • thsmith
    thsmith Posts: 6,082
    edited November 2008
    McLoki wrote: »
    Shotgunning is running 2 lenghts of speaker wire to the same speaker. It can be used to bi-wire or to lower the overall gauge by 3ga. (i.e. a shotgun run of 12ga. speaker wire will effetively end up as 12ga if used for bi-wiring or 9ga if used as standard cable.)

    Michael

    McLoki, can you expand on your answer?

    I had my Polk RTi8s bi-amped so I know what that is.

    I had not heard of shotgunning until recently. Is it the same as bi-wiring ?

    Thanks,
    Speakers: SDA-1C (most all the goodies)
    Preamp: Joule Electra LA-150 MKII SE
    Amp: Wright WPA 50-50 EAT KT88s
    Analog: Marantz TT-15S1 MBS Glider SL| Wright WPP100C Amperex BB 6er5 and 7316 & WPM-100 SUT
    Digital: Mac mini 2.3GHz dual-core i5 8g RAM 1.5 TB HDD Music Server Amarra (memory play) - USB - W4S DAC 2
    Cables: Mits S3 IC and Spk cables| PS Audio PCs
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • curved
    curved Posts: 664
    edited November 2008
    It's pretty much the same thing as bi-wiring for speakers that are made to be bi-wireable (2 speaker inputs - 1 for the highs and 1 for the lows). If you only have 1 speaker input, then you would be upping the overall gauge going to the speaker.
    Living Room:....................[HTML] [/HTML] Zone 2 (Workout Room):
    AVR - Yamaha RX-V757......JBL 4312 Pro Monitors
    Pre - Nak CA-5
    AMP - Adcom 555 (Main)
    Main - Polk RTI8**/RTiA5
    AMP - Adcom 545II (Center)
    Center - Polk CSiA4**
    Sub - Snell Basis 300:p......Zone 3 (Outside)
    CD - Yamaha CDC-555.......Def Tech AW5500
    TV - Pani TH-42PZ80U
    BR - LG BD390
    Monster HTS1600 Power Center
    Dedicated Circuit - (2) 20amp, (1) 15amp
    Ben's IC, Canare 4S11
    **Dayton and Sonicap Caps with Mills Resistors**
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited November 2008
    But is it a noticeable upgrade? I mean i don't believe in the cables make a difference but I think big gauge is something that matters.
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,205
    edited November 2008
    pablo_rodz wrote: »
    Talking about gauge... What gauge should I use for my speackers? RTi10's, CSiA6; receiver is Pioneer Elite VSX-92. The speakers are about 6-7ft. from the receiver.

    Thanks
    A nice 16 or 14 gauge wire will do perfect. Buy good quality wire.

    Dan
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • McLoki
    McLoki Posts: 5,231
    edited November 2008
    pablo_rodz wrote: »
    Talking about gauge... What gauge should I use for my speackers? RTi10's, CSiA6; receiver is Pioneer Elite VSX-92. The speakers are about 6-7ft. from the receiver.

    Thanks

    You are talking about pretty short lenghts so I would imagine the cost will be pretty low as well.... 12ga or 14ga wire would be overkill for that length run but will fit your speaker fine so that is where I would start. Do you NEED it no - but the cost difference will probably be under $10 so why not?

    Then again - thats just me, I like to overbuild things....

    Michael
    Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
    Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
    Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
    Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
    Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
    Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • McLoki
    McLoki Posts: 5,231
    edited November 2008
    chargerman426 wrote: »
    But is it a noticeable upgrade? I mean i don't believe in the cables make a difference but I think big gauge is something that matters.

    Is it noticable to someone who does not believe cables make a difference and probably believes their wire is already of sufficient guage? - No. Shotgunning will increase the ga. by 3. So a shotgun of 18ga wire will be the same as if you purchased 15ga. to start with. (assuming you are not bi-wiring)

    Michael
    Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
    Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
    Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
    Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
    Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
    Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • curved
    curved Posts: 664
    edited November 2008
    mantis wrote: »
    A nice 16 or 14 gauge wire will do perfect. Buy good quality wire.

    Dan

    Agreed.
    Living Room:....................[HTML] [/HTML] Zone 2 (Workout Room):
    AVR - Yamaha RX-V757......JBL 4312 Pro Monitors
    Pre - Nak CA-5
    AMP - Adcom 555 (Main)
    Main - Polk RTI8**/RTiA5
    AMP - Adcom 545II (Center)
    Center - Polk CSiA4**
    Sub - Snell Basis 300:p......Zone 3 (Outside)
    CD - Yamaha CDC-555.......Def Tech AW5500
    TV - Pani TH-42PZ80U
    BR - LG BD390
    Monster HTS1600 Power Center
    Dedicated Circuit - (2) 20amp, (1) 15amp
    Ben's IC, Canare 4S11
    **Dayton and Sonicap Caps with Mills Resistors**
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • BottomFeeder
    BottomFeeder Posts: 1,684
    edited November 2008
    Ok, please help me understand this...

    I have bi-wireable speakers (Aerial Acoustic Model 6) and I know I need to get some good cabling & intend to, but funds are short right now. So how, exactly, would I bi-wire my speakers by using regular speaker wire?

    Would I wrap two strands around each amp binding post and then separate them at the speaker terminals? Is there a precise way of doing this? I'm afraid that I might screw something up!

    Thanks for your help. Please spell it out cuz I gots me no clue!
    "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." Bob Seger
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,814
    edited November 2008
    If you're hung up about what gauge this, what gauge that, you've missed the boat.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 33,020
    edited November 2008
    F1nut wrote: »
    If you're hung up about what gauge this, what gauge that, you've missed the boat.


    Short and sweet......I dig it.:)
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • NJPOLKER
    NJPOLKER Posts: 3,474
    edited November 2008
    F1nut wrote: »
    If you're hung up about what gauge this, what gauge that, you've missed the boat.

    I understand what your saying regarding gauge but I have to wonder why your cables are the size of garden hoses.
    Drew
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • McLoki
    McLoki Posts: 5,231
    edited November 2008
    F1nut wrote: »
    If you're hung up about what gauge this, what gauge that, you've missed the boat.
    NJPOLKER wrote: »
    I understand what your saying regarding gauge but I have to wonder why your cables are the size of garden hoses.
    Drew

    He's compensating for something. (go ahead and ask him why the ends are so shiney.....) :D
    Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
    Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
    Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
    Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
    Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
    Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MLZ
    MLZ Posts: 214
    edited November 2008
    BottomFeeder wrote: »
    Ok, please help me understand this...


    Would I wrap two strands around each amp binding post and then separate them at the speaker terminals?

    Yep, that's it.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • NJPOLKER
    NJPOLKER Posts: 3,474
    edited November 2008
    McLoki wrote: »
    He's compensating for something. (go ahead and ask him why the ends are so shiney.....) :D

    OK here we go
    Nut why are your ends soooooo shiney?
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • curved
    curved Posts: 664
    edited November 2008
    To make this easy, get the Bluejeans Quad cable. Yes, you would pair the two up on the amp/AVR side.
    Living Room:....................[HTML] [/HTML] Zone 2 (Workout Room):
    AVR - Yamaha RX-V757......JBL 4312 Pro Monitors
    Pre - Nak CA-5
    AMP - Adcom 555 (Main)
    Main - Polk RTI8**/RTiA5
    AMP - Adcom 545II (Center)
    Center - Polk CSiA4**
    Sub - Snell Basis 300:p......Zone 3 (Outside)
    CD - Yamaha CDC-555.......Def Tech AW5500
    TV - Pani TH-42PZ80U
    BR - LG BD390
    Monster HTS1600 Power Center
    Dedicated Circuit - (2) 20amp, (1) 15amp
    Ben's IC, Canare 4S11
    **Dayton and Sonicap Caps with Mills Resistors**
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • chargerman426
    chargerman426 Posts: 419
    edited November 2008
    If i had know this was going to be about who's hose is bigger i would have bought 1 gauge and shot gun that. :D;)
    If life had more tubes it would be a lot smoother.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pablo_rodz
    pablo_rodz Posts: 331
    edited November 2008
    VSchneider wrote: »
    at those short runs anything from 18ga up will do

    Thanks for the response...

    I have audioquest X2, it doesn't say the ga.:rolleyes:
    HT:
    Projector - JVC HD100, 100" Fixed Screen, A/V Receiver - Pioneer Elite VSX-92TXH, Power Conditioner - Panamax M5300-EX, BluRay - Sony PS3, (2) ADCOM GFA 555 Bridged, Speakers - LSi 15, LSi C, LSi FX, Sub - 12" M&K VX-1250.

    Living Room:
    Schiit Saga, Parasound HCA-600, OPPO BDP-103D, LSi7
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • BottomFeeder
    BottomFeeder Posts: 1,684
    edited November 2008
    MLZ wrote: »
    Yep, that's it.

    Thanks, MLZ!

    I'll try it!
    "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." Bob Seger
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter