Under carpet speaker cable

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I have spent ages looking for speaker cable to go under the carpet. I have some lovely Gale flat cable that gives about 2.5mmsq of copper and is still very flat. Unfortunately I have two 6 metre lengths and now I have moved house I need 8 metres and this cable doesn't seem to be available any more.

These are the best options I found:

IXOS XHS233 - this is 1.7mmsq and looks good enough but it seems to be out of stock everywhere.

Belkin - This is AWG15, does anyone know if this is ok? It looks quite lightweight and they don't quote the thickness and number of strands. It gets mixed reviews on Amazon

QED Ultra flat - this is only 1.17mmsq which is bit thin. On an old thread someone recommended doubling it up but I can't believe that is the best solution.

Fisual low profile. This is quoted in some places as 44 strands and elsewhere as 88 strands. If it is 88 strands it will make a reasonable 1.6mmsq. However, from studying the diagrams, I am pretty sure someone is naughtily counting the strands across both wires and actually you are only going to get 44 on the positive and 44 on the negative so it is really a 0.8mmsq cable.

This one 189 x 0.10mm 99.999% Spaced Ofc Speaker Cable Only £1.91 at TVCables has 2 x 1.5mmsq and is about 3mm in thickness which is a bit thicker than you want under the carpet but might work.

What's your advice? Would I be better getting 2 x 2 metres of 2.5mmsq round cable and connecting it to my existing cable which is long enough to do the part under the carpet? If so, what is the best way to do the connection?

Many thanks.
 
If you run cable under the carpet, it has to be OUT of high traffic area. Otherwise, over time, the abrasion of the carpet rubbing on it will wear through the insulation.

With that one caveat, you can still get Flat Cable -

Flat Speaker Cable - Audiovisual Online - Home Cinema and Hifi Specialists

It is a little hard to determine the wire gauge. I think some of the Fisual might be 1.17mm². That is between 16ga (1.31mm²) and 17ga (1.07mm²). AWG 18ga (0.832mm²) is good for 24ft to 6 ohms, and 32ft to 8 ohms. AWG 16ga (1.31mm²) is good for 36ft at 6 ohms and 48ft are 8 ohms. With 50ft being about the longest recommended wire length.

Sources:

Wikipedia - American Wire Gauge

Roger-Russel - Speaker Wire

Searching Google-UK Shopping for "flat speaker wire" bring up multiple sources of QED, Tesco, Belkin, Monacor, and several others.

For what it is worth.

steve/bluewizard
 
Thanks, BW, and nice to see you are still posting quick and helpful replies here. It's one of life's little consolations (like good music).

Take care

PS I am greatly enjoying my Dali Lektors though I could have got bigger speakers as the gf problem is distant history.
 

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