Which Speaker Wire for AV Amp?

nwgarratt

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I am about to setup an old Sony DB930 100W amp and B&W 602/601 speakers (probably just use the 601's). It will be used mainly for music. I have some old wire which was taken off the amp but I need longer wire now. I have no idea what spec the wire is so need something from ebay that will do. I see there are different gauges which makes it more confusing. The amp is set on 4 ohms but thinking of switching it 8 ohms as that is the nominal impedance.

I think the furthest speaker will be about 13m away and the other will be about 10m.

This ok?

 
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I am using AWG13 which is 2x2.5mm2. It costs around £1 per meter.
Just make sure it is OFC 99.99% copper.
 
That is still twice the price of the one in the link.

Found this CCA one


From what I found on the net, OFC has no benefit with audio.
 
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CCA will have a higher resistive load than copper and will place additional strain on your Amplifier to drive your speakers. Over 13m that maybe noticeable.

£1 per meter is a reasonable price for budget speaker cable.
 
OFC reduces the chance of corrosion on the cables which can affect the resistance of the cable (Thus possibly influence the sound) at the connections over time. (It’s nothing to do with making things sound different when new)
Avoid anything that is not pure copper (CCA for example) as it is difficult to manage successfully.
For your length of run 2.5mm sq. OFC will be fine, (Just stick to basics and avoid anything made by Hi-Fi cable manufactures) however if you are paranoid you can go with 4mm sq.
Bill
 
Just realised that it will need to bend around corners as the wire I used before was in trunking to hide it. It will also go up the wall a bit as the speakers are going on a shelf.

This is the wire, I used it ok for 17 years without any problems (on 2 amps). I tried to measure the thickness and it is closer to 2mm than 3mm.


P1110256.jpg
 
OFC reduces the chance of corrosion on the cables which can affect the resistance of the cable (Thus possibly influence the sound) at the connections over time.
Bill

Not true - it is about lower impurities than non-OFC copper though whether that actually affects sound is not proven.
 
Another vote here for KabelDirekt. Recently wired up an entire 5.1.2 system with the 2.5mm cable. Really well made, 100% copper, not copper over an aluminium core as some of the cheaper stuff is.
Really good quality outer on the cable. Will only use this in the future. Really good value too.
 
Not true - it is about lower impurities than non-OFC copper though whether that actually affects sound is not proven.

And what does impurities in copper cable cause, Corrosion, thus the less the impurities the less corrosion over time. (In worst case scenarios you will also get Verdigris)

Bill
 
Verdigris is caused by oxidisation of the copper when it comes into contact with air - the purity of the copper makes minimal difference to audio signals. And then you connect it to brass banana or spade connectors which are less conductive and they are connected to more brass terminals etc. etc.
 
Oxygen in the copper leads to impurities which affect the crystalline structure of the metal lattice and makes it irregular. Irregular crystal structure leads to poor electron flow an hence increases the resistivity of the copper. Now some ‘high end’ speaker cable manufacturers assert that irregular lattice structures lead to ‘colouration’ of the sound. Overall OFC cable is better for conductivity of electricity through the cables and therefore is better for your equipment.
 

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