You have your sound system purchased. Now, you are in the process of completing your audio setup. Then, you come across the many, many questions that surround speaker wire and how to use it.
For the tech-savvy, this can be very easy. For those of us not technically inclined this can be a process where you’re wondering, “How far do I place my speakers from my system?”.
The following will hopefully give you a guide as to what length of speaker wire is needed to obtain the best quality of sound.
What Questions To Ask Yourself
Speaker wire comes in several different lengths when you are purchasing it. Mainly, you will find 50 feet
or 15.2 meters and up to 100 feet or 30 meters, and sometimes even more.
A few of the questions that get asked are things like, “Does the length of speaker really affect the sound
that I wanted?”
“If I place my speakers more than 50 feet away from my system, will my home theater speaker wire affect
the quality of sound that I expect to hear?”
“If the speakers are five feet away, will the sound quality be better?”
Sound In Terms of Speaker Wire Length
The length of speaker wire depends on what you are planning on running.
If you are looking to run a speaker system for a home stereo, you want to make sure that you have the proper gauge first and foremost.
Length of the wire itself can be up to around 25 feet. This will still give you average power levels. This will not diminish the sound quality that you hear.
Specifications
Manufacturers of speaker wire really don’t give any technical specifications that could possibly help you determine what can happen to sound quality for extended lengths.
You could follow the American Wire Gauge standard to help you know what the resistance per foot can be the most appropriate for your system. Do keep in mind, the lower the number of gauge of the speaker wire, the longer the length to speaker wire can be for your system.
Applications
If the power applications of your system are high, such as 2 or 4 ohm subwoofers with a length of 100 feet plus for speaker wire, you’re going to want to have a 14 gauge at least.
Since most home systems generally have speakers set up within 25 feet, this will give you adequate-to-excellent sound quality. Please note, extremely long lengths of wire can affect the frequency response slightly. You may not notice this but it’s there. It also depends on which speaker wire you are using.
The length of speaker wire does have an impact on the sound coming from your speakers. An extreme length of speaker wire with a higher gauge (such as 18 gauge) will unfortunately diminish the quality of sound that you should receive. Find out a little more about length, gauge, and get other questions answered when you shop high-quality speaker wire in Canada today from PrimeCables.ca.