Speaker Wire!
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=80213
Printed Date: July 12, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Topic: Speaker Wire!
Posted By: audiocableguy
Subject: Speaker Wire!
Date Posted: July 12, 2006 at 5:17 PM
I found this interactive speaker wire selection calculator.
https://www.streetwires.com/Flash/speakerwire.html
According to this, you will loose 189 watts of power if you use ordinary 16 AWG speaker cable 12 feet @ 500 Watts. If you use Streetwires 16 AWG, you will only loose 100 watts. Wow!! must be magic oxygen free, spiril twist, radiation proof, siver and gold plated copper from the core of Mars.
Guess I understand where people get some of their crazy ideas after seeing this.
Replies:
Posted By: mobilesndfx
Date Posted: July 15, 2006 at 8:37 PM
Where are you getting loosing power from? Loosing 100 watts using Streetwires versus loosing 189 watts using no name wire? I agree theres probably going to be no audible difference between brands of the same gauge. On the other hand running 18 gauge speaker wire from a 1000 watt amp versus 12 gauge wire will make a difference. I think thats probably the main objective from that calculator.
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Alpine 9835, MB Quart components, (3) JL Audio 10w3v2, JL Audio 500/1, JL Audio 300/4, Streetwires wiring
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: July 15, 2006 at 8:48 PM
The main objective of that calculator is to sell Streetwire brand products. Use THIS calculator, it's much better. ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: mobilesndfx
Date Posted: July 15, 2006 at 8:51 PM
I agree 100% That wasnt my reasoning behind the post, I was trying to figure out the LOOSE POWER about the original post. You ONLY LOOSE 100 WATTS using Streetwires, is what I was commenting about.
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Alpine 9835, MB Quart components, (3) JL Audio 10w3v2, JL Audio 500/1, JL Audio 300/4, Streetwires wiring
Posted By: haemphyst
Date Posted: July 15, 2006 at 10:50 PM
Then it's NOT 16 gauge wire... 16 gauge wire is 16 gauge wire, is 16 gauge wire... the resistance will be the same, unless it's silver, and even then it will be only a 5% improvement in conductivity.
Street Wires, Monster, Kimber... All snake oil salesmen, praying to the almighty dollar, all the while sniffing out the weakest minded of us all, to sell the stuff to them.
Ah, the power of suggestive advertising...
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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."
Posted By: mobilesndfx
Date Posted: July 15, 2006 at 11:12 PM
audiocableguy wrote:
I found this interactive speaker wire selection calculator.
https://www.streetwires.com/Flash/speakerwire.html
According to this, you will loose 189 watts of power if you use ordinary 16 AWG speaker cable 12 feet @ 500 Watts. If you use Streetwires 16 AWG, you will only loose 100 watts. Wow!! must be magic oxygen free, spiril twist, radiation proof, siver and gold plated copper from the core of Mars.
Guess I understand where people get some of their crazy ideas after seeing this.
Im about to give up!! Is everyone reading this post blind? Like I said " The same gauge speaker wire, NO MATTER what brand will produce the same results! My comment was " If you use Streetwires 16AWG, you will only loose 100 watts" How do you loose 100 watts? Thats my comment, not comparing wire gauge vs wire gauge! ------------- Alpine 9835, MB Quart components, (3) JL Audio 10w3v2, JL Audio 500/1, JL Audio 300/4, Streetwires wiring
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: July 16, 2006 at 7:51 AM
audiocableguy, I didn't see such a large drop in power using that Flash demo as you did (with the numbers you used). However, it is still pretty far off reality. In comparing to this good Flash demo, - the Streetwires demo shows a difference in loss of 100 watts using total of 600 watts amp power with 16 feet of speaker wire...with 16 ga. wire as compared with 12 ga.wire.
- the h.o.alt demo shows only a loss of 40 watts with the same figures. I used a load impedance of 2 ohms for this comparison.
The power loss is indicated using full power as criteria and calculating voltage drop along the length of wire. It is interesting to note that the voltage drop and subsequent loss of 40 watts of power to the speaker is much less than 1 db, which is inaudible. The big problems with that Streetwires demo are that the impedance of the load is not accounted for, and the tiny dials in that calculator are not accurate. Knowing the impedance is necessary because of the differences in current going through the wire at different loads on the amp (Ohm's Law). That demo could be used for a complete novice in a retail environment but is not of any good use to anyone who knows a little about what's going on. Ahh, but here is something interesting: using the BCAE calculator that DYohn linked to (which corresponds very closely with the h.o alt calculator), there is a tiny warning that appears at the bottom of the calculator that "there is too much loss"...until you get up to 12 ga. wire for this scenario! Even when you try much shorter lengths of speaker wire! The criteria, it appears, is that there are too few circular mils of wire per amp (cm/A). ------------- Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: July 16, 2006 at 9:05 AM
mobilesndfx wrote:
[Im about to give up!! Is everyone reading this post blind? !
Dude, chill out. No one is arguing with you! ------------- Support the12volt.com
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