How To Choose And Install Speaker Wires

When you buy speakers they usually don’t come with the speaker wires and choosing speaker wires can be a bit confusing and frustrating. After all with all those selections how do you know which speaker wires to buy.

The most important thing to remember is that the type of speaker wire you choose is directly reflected in the quality of the sound on your stereo. You can buy the best speakers in the world but if you choose poor speaker wire they aren’t going to sound great!

You need to understand how to choose the correct gauge and the correct length of speaker wires. And the answer depends on your system.

Speaker wire is available in 12 to 16 gauge. The lower the number the heavier the wire. The thicker the wire the better able it is to send the amplified audio signal through without distortion or break down. The higher the gauge the more the wire costs.

When you choose the gauge of your speaker wire take into account the quality of your speakers and stereo components, as well as your budget, and what you want to achieve. Remember the longer the run you have to make the more loss that will occur so you’ll need heavier gauge wires.

If you are wiring a room you will want to use thicker gauge wires if you are going to using a Dolby 5.1 Digital surround sound system. If you have to make a long run then you’ll also want to use thicker gauge wires so that you don’t loose sound quality. And of course any time you want to ensure you are getting the best available sound use thicker gauge wires.

That sounds pretty simple except the thicker gauge wires are quite expensive and so you may have to decide if the cost is in your budget and if its worthwhile for your situation. Sometimes you can get away with a lower gauge wire especially if your system is quality middle of the road. And if you have to weave the wire around baseboards or through cupboards remember the thinner wire is easier to work with.

If you are wiring multiple rooms the wire gauge in the remote rooms is very important. Chances are your runs are going to be long so there is a good chance that you’ll need to use heavier wires to ensure sound quality. The industry recommendations are as follows. If your run is less than 80 feet you can use 16 gauge wires, 80 to 200 feet you can use 14 gauge wires, and more than 200 feet you need to use 12 gauge wires. If you are doing in-wall installations you need to refer to the building code for your area.

Once you’ve decided on the type of wire you’ll need to calculate how much wire you will need. A string is a great way to determine the exact footage you need. Always buy more rather than less because having to join wires affects your sound quality.

Once you’ve determine how much wire you need, decided on the wires gauge and purchased your wire you are ready to start your install. Installing and hooking up your stereo or surround a sound system is not that difficult just be sure to follow the diagrams supplied by the manufacturer.

Using the right stereo wire you’ll have wonderful sound and you’ll feel like your at the movie theater when you are watching your favorite DVD.

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.