Speaker wire ...(yes I searched!)

[george graves]

Just ripped out my carpet today (and I do mean ripped) - And *now* is the time to rewire for furture stuff, both audio, and alarm, maybe some extra interior lighting.

But, what should I be looking at for speaker wire up to the front? Gauage and number of conductors is my question?

Audio plan would be quality speakers in kick, and door sails up front - nothing fancy. With some rear fill, but with amps mounted in the trunk that's can wait. Just wanted to lay down wires now for the furture.

So, I *assume* that any componet speakers would have a very small passive cross-over I can stick in the kick panel recesses right? No need to run 4 strands up to each side?

And what about signal from the head to the rear? I come from a video production background, and use to always make balanced/unblanaced cables myself from wire from belkin, and rca or xlr conectors from Tec-Nec. Would this work in a noisy car audio world? And now many stero pairs should I plan for? front, Rear and sub?

I'm very open to cheap solution such as the "home depot" poewer cord wiring. That sounds like something I'd be into. Cheap and 90% the quality at 10% of the price kind of thing.

Besides a amp "remote" or "power on" wire, is there anything else I sould run while I'm at it audio wise?

Come on Luke...and don't let me forget to run something for a center channel!!!

[StereoInstaller1]

and don't let me forget to run something for a center channel!!!

Baaaahahaha!

OK, so IMHO, here are priorities for cables: 1.OFC. 2. Twisted pair (duh) 3. LC.

Speaker wire is just fine in OFC zip cord, imo. It is damn near impossible to get noise in high level, this is 12V!

Let me kill a topic right fucking now....

ALWAYS run 4 pair of wire from the trunk to the fronts.
ALWAYS run 3 pair of RCAS. Remote, too.
ALWAYS run a 12GA ground wire from the head unit to the trunk

I will take a $150 4 channel amp being fed by a $120 3 way crossover on stock premium speakers ANY DAY over $300 front speakers being fed by a $300 amp...and you have to run 4 pair of wire to do that.

Tri-amping is the shit.

Plus, if ya crossovers look cool, trunk mount is pimpish!

Luke

[Tree18is]

wow, my brain is seriously melted... this is too much for me

[DSchultz325e]

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

Believe what you will, but remember this guy used to be with McIntosh...

[george graves]

A++++++ link. I owe you a huge thanks. I picked up 100 ft of indoor extention cord. For thoes that done want to read the whole article, here is what I picked up from it. All wire will have some impeadence. The key is that for the length of run you need, the wire will have no affect on the sound quality (assuming good conection) as long as the wire is a small percentage of the impeadence of the speaker.

So longer runs=thicker wire
and low impeadence speakers (2 ohm) = thicker wire needed.
"oxygen free" = marketing term, no real work benifits.

HTH...

[europeanplates]

I have to disagree, there are several wire companies out there making Equal guage wire that does sound better. I am talking home of course but why not use it in car. I remember the days when I used $16 foot wire to run in car stereo but that was a while ago and it was a large system, big$$$.

Tyler

[DJB]

Hmmm, well, I agree with that web page.

Why should people put more weight on my opinion than your opinion? I'm an electrical engineer with a degree from MIT. (Yes, I took a class from Dr. Bose. And I did quite well in it.)

Errrmm, unless you were talking about silver wire. An equal gauge would have lower resistance, which would be audible for a long enough or thin enough wire. Or you could define "sounds better" as the sound from a high resistance wire and use a poor conductor of the same gauge.

[europeanplates]

I hate the sound of BOSE speakers. BOSE = no highs and no lows.

Tyler

[DJB]

I hate the sound of BOSE speakers. BOSE = no highs and no lows.

No disagreement there. And Dr. Bose himself would likely reply, without apology, that Bose produces speakers that many consumers like. They understand the engineering of their speakers in great detail, especially including the compromises.

[george graves]

ALWAYS run 3 pair of RCAS.

I guess this is assuming that the deck will output front, rear and sub channel?

...

[george graves]

Paging luke...

ALWAYS run 3 pair of RCAS.

I guess this is assuming that the deck will output front, rear and sub channel? Can you elaborate?