Tips On Choosing The Right Silver Speaker Wire For Your Sound System

By Juliette Cruz


Amplifiers, speakers, and subwoofers are the only things that people consider when they build their sound system. Most of the time, the importance of a silver speaker wire is overlooked. But in fact, these cables play a significant role in improving the sound quality of any audio system. An expensive set of speakers coupled with a decent amplifier would not even sound that good if a cheap wire is used.

There are several kinds of wire available. And in choosing the best one for your system, you need to carefully consider some things before buying one. It is a general rule that the most expensive one is not always the best one. For example, you have a low quality speaker paired with a cheap amplifier. With this, you cannot expect to have a beautiful sounding system even if you equip it with the most expensive speaker cable available.

Selecting the best cable for your system is not really that hard because you only need to take in to consideration a few things. These are the length requirement, type, and gauge. The word gauge may sound a bit technical for some but is simply describes the size of the cable.

Speaker wire thickness is usually described by its gauge number. The lower the gauge number, the thicker it becomes. And thicker ones have more capacity to transmit amplified sound signals. Gauges commonly range between 12 gauge and 16 gauge.

The gauge required is dependent on the length of cable you need, power that could be delivered by your amplifier, speaker quality, and budget. Longer length requirement translates to higher transmission losses so a thicker is required. If you have powerful amplifiers, you will also need a thick cable that could handle all of the current that will be delivered by the amplifier to the speaker through it.

But do not base the quality of a wire solely on its thickness. The type of conductor also matters. The use of high quality metals greatly improves conduction capability and thus the quality. So try to purchase a cable from trusted manufacturers.

In order to have an idea of the length of cable you will need, just use a string to measure the distance between your speakers and amplifier. It is also a good practice to provide enough slack when you measure so you will have an allowance in length. This is to avoid extending cables resulting in transmission losses to a discontinuity in the cable.

The last thing to consider is the type. If you do not intend to run the cable through walls, then you may purchase a standard wire that could be painted and match the color of your walls. But if this is not the case, to ensure your safety, make sure that you purchase a UL rated one since current running through the conductors generate heat and may be a possible fire hazard. A silver speaker wire with the UL mark has passed a series of quality tests and serves as a sign of assurance that the product will not pose any hazard during its usage.




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