voice coil guage size

what guage wireing should i use on 12 inch l7 when pushing them with 1100 rms a piece the wires for in side the woofer on the voice coils

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rafael rodriguez

ANY size wire will be acceptable... For the 4 feet you will be running to your woofer terminals, I wouldn't worry about it. Appearances count for some people, so use whatever looks good to you...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

^^^ well within reason ofcourse but ya any standered sized speaker wire will be fine.

you don't just want to use any gauge wire  12,10,8 gauge is ok. 

al i use is 8 gauge wire on my subs but thats just me.  now my highs i use 12, 16 gauge

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4-15" RF T2
6-7" RF Component sets
8 Planet Audio 900d
10 Batcap800
1 250 amp alt
1 300 amp alt
2" sound deadner roof,doors,floors

hardknocks, the way I see it is you have your priorities backwards. The larger the wire the lower it's resistance across the board, but SPECIFICALLY, larger wire will offer a better path for highs, due to reduced resistance and lower SKIN EFFECT. As frequencies get higher, they travel on (really - closer to) the surface of a wire, and the higher the frequency, the shallower this effect is. As frequencies get lower, they use more of the wire, so smaller wire can be effectively used with lower frequencies.

Other than that, please look at this link. I entered 2000 watts into 4 ohms through 8 feet of 24 gauge wire, an there is only .84 dB loss! As I said in my first post, appearances count for many people (myself included) so use whatever wire you want, but, personally, I'd reconsider the use of the 12 or 16 for your highs...

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Dave, from what I understand skin effect takes place well beyond the audible bandwidth, so it really isn't an issue either.  I agree, just run whatever size wire you want. 

Actually, Steven, skin effect comes into play WHEREVER you have an AC signal, even at 50Hz. While at 50Hz it is negligible, at even as low as 10Khz, (skin depth=.66mm, a #16AWG, insures 100% current density at this frequency) you shouldn't use a wire smaller than #16, or your AC reactance will start to climb very quickly. As frequency goes UP, current density goes DOWN for a given wire size; i.e. you can use a smaller wire for higher frequencies. A higher frequency on a wire that is "too big" will simply move with only the DCR of the wire in the way.

Lower frequencies will require larger wires still. (100% current density for 250Hz is equivalent to a #0AWG) Using for example, a #14, would present more resitance (reactance) than DCR at less than 10Khz. 100% current density also ensure you are using ONLY the amount of wire you need, and not more, as you will gain nothing except current carrying efficiency from more conductor cross-sectional area.

BCAE has a skin depth calculator (where I got these numbers, actually).

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I asked Dan Wiggins about skin effect a long time ago, and he said it only becomes audible well outside of the audible bandwidth.  That is why I made the position I did.  If I'm reading that link right, it looks to me that skin effect is only an issue within the audible range when the wire is used as a transformer (wired around a large chunk of metal).  The inductance would be much greater causing added resistance.  But I'm not too sure it has to do with regular speaker wire.  Otherwise wouldn't BCAE1 have mentioned it in their wire size page?

haemphyst wrote:

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hardknocks, the way I see it is you have your priorities backwards. The larger the wire the lower it's resistance across the board, but SPECIFICALLY, larger wire will offer a better path for highs, due to reduced resistance and lower SKIN EFFECT. As frequencies get higher, they travel on (really - closer to) the surface of a wire, and the higher the frequency, the shallower this effect is. As frequencies get lower, they use more of the wire, so smaller wire can be effectively used with lower frequencies.

Other than that, please look at this link. I entered 2000 watts into 4 ohms through 8 feet of 24 gauge wire, an there is only .84 dB loss! As I said in my first post, appearances count for many people (myself included) so use whatever wire you want, but, personally, I'd reconsider the use of the 12 or 16 for your highs...

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you need to check what you are saying big guy 24 gauge wire and u loss .84 DBs as a posed to 10 gauge  loss 0.03 DBs 

the wire resistance  24 gauge wire 0.4062,  10 gauge wire 0.016

power loss to sub 24 gauge wire 9.08 volts, 10 gauge wire 0.36

voltage at amp 89.44 for both wires

voltage reaching subs 24 gauge wire  81.2 , 10 gauge wire 89.09

total wattage to subs 24 gauge wire 1648.23, 10 gauge wire 1984.12

I'm not even going to use 8 gauge wire in this  now young man u are wrong.

now u can use 24 gauge if you like and not tet the full affect of your systemif you like.

the smaller the wire number the bigger the wire with less resistance = more power to speakers and the bigger the number  the smaller the wire and the higher the resistance = loss of power to speakers.  Again if you want to correct some one do ur self a favor and ensure ur not steping on ur D**K and things turn on u.

Now that i have that off my chest I don't mean to take ur thread ralphpylayanum1 but some people. like a said before i would recomend using 12 or 16  gauge speaker wire for ur subs

this way u don't loss a lot of power and u get the full affect of ur amps  

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4-15" RF T2
6-7" RF Component sets
8 Planet Audio 900d
10 Batcap800
1 250 amp alt
1 300 amp alt
2" sound deadner roof,doors,floors

12,  10,or 8  gauge for ur L7 

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4-15" RF T2
6-7" RF Component sets
8 Planet Audio 900d
10 Batcap800
1 250 amp alt
1 300 amp alt
2" sound deadner roof,doors,floors

You don't need to go that large though.  16 or even 18 awg wire will work just fine with no audible losses.

ur right 16 or 12 would do just right, I stated that I use 8 and 10 gauge wire

I gave him a list of sizes that i usually recommend to all my customers with systems of 1000 watts and above . that is  all i did . and for  this other guy that has no clue to what he is talking about wants to jump my case and gives me a site that I used to step on his D**k with doesn't know what he is talking about he needs to learn what OHM's Law is and how it is applyed.

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4-15" RF T2
6-7" RF Component sets
8 Planet Audio 900d
10 Batcap800
1 250 amp alt
1 300 amp alt
2" sound deadner roof,doors,floors

hardknocks wrote:

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I gave him a list of sizes that i usually recommend to all my customers with systems of 1000 watts and above . that is  all i did .

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And that's fine.  I just made the point that he doesn't have to us that size wire if he doesn't want to. 

hardknocks wrote:

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and for  this other guy that has no clue to what he is talking about wants to jump my case and gives me a site that I used to step on his D**k with doesn't know what he is talking about he needs to learn what OHM's Law is and how it is applyed. 

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You really need to check that attitude at the door.  Dave is a very intelligent guy.  I may not agree with him on this one point, but I would never say he has no clue.  And he definitely does not deserve that attitude.  He merely pointed out his point of view that was contrary to yours, and did it by providing quite a bit of data to back his position.  If you disagree, point out where he is wrong.  But don't hurl insults.  Especially without data to back up your position. 

... I got nothin' ... I don't even know where to begin ...




I was going to publicly defend myself, but I don't think I have to against this guy. My record on this forum speaks for itself. And thanks, Steven.

And someone, please tell me when was the last time I had nothing to say.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

hardknocks , please stop the attacks on other members.

This thread is locked.

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