Question by youknowwho: speaker wire for sony DAV DZ510 home theater system surround sound speakers..?
I got the above system , but the installation guy says i need a longer speaker wire for the surround sound system… i found a 1.5 wire (don’t know what that means) in the nearby market is it good enough ?? …. i need 32m of it
Best answer:
Answer by Carlton your doorman
Well, this question creates a bit of a quandary for me. Playing Sherlock Holmes, I can make the assumption that since you use a metric reference that you are in the UK or some part of the former British Empire. Perhaps Australia. Your Yahoo profile gives me no clues. Given that, I hesitate to use the standard American Wire Gauge (AWG) with which I am familiar in my answer but it appears that I am forced to. Also, the 1.5 wire is a mystery. It corresponds to no wire gauge cross reference that I can find. Perhaps it has been rounded off from 1.45mm which is a standard metric wire measurement. Additionally, you state that you need 32 Meters of wire. (!) That’s more than 100 feet! I’ll assume that you want to buy a 100′ roll of wire and that your surround speakers are not in a stadium like environment 100′ away from the main speakers.
The system to which one attaches the wires makes no difference unless it is of an extreme nature, high power PA style or commercial line voltage type for example. Given that, the typical home system that you are setting up should need no special wire. However one should always use wire with adequate conductor thickness. This reduces resistance and power loss. Generally, 16 AWG wire is adequate for most installations. If the runs are inordinately long, say 50′ or so, 14 gauge might be a better choice. If nothing else one should avoid the thin, 20 gauge, “zip wire” that is often sold as speaker wire. Therefore, my suggestion to you is to look at that 32 Meter roll, try to verify that it’s conductors are at least 1.44 thick (the actual copper wire, not the plastic insulation) and / or find a marking that gives it’s size in either AWG or SWG. 16 For AWG and 17 or 18 for SWG. Another clue to wire quality is if the conductor is a single or multiple strand. The aforementioned zip wire is usually a single strand. It is undesirable for a number of reasons. Any adequately thick speaker wire would be too inflexible for home use if it’s conductors were of a single strand.
http://www.technick.net/public/code/cp_dpage.php?aiocp_dp=guide_awg_to_metric
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_gauge
http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/conductor.html
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