You shouldn't spend much on home theatre surround sound and center channel speakers because they have modest power requirements. Why Stranded Speaker Wire Is Better Than Solid Unlike pure copper wire, copper-clad aluminum uses an aluminum wire core with a thin copper plating. From the outside, it misleadingly looks the same because of the plating. Stranded wire has a big advantage over solid in that it’s very flexible and not prone to breaking under stress. It’s also easier to strip the insulation to bare wire with a wire stripper. It’s also easier to work with if using spade connectors or inserting it into a crimp connector. In most cases for everyday listening at medium or low power levels (50W RMS or under), 18 gauge (18AWG) wire is what you need.

losses but they are secondary concerns to primary DC cable resistance. Although I have measured some exotic cables Also, a 14 gauge speaker wire should be used to connect an 8-ohm speaker within a distance of up to 80 feet whereas a 16 gauge speaker wire should be used to connect an 8-ohm speaker within a distance of up to 48 feet. It is true, however, that real copper wire is better than copper coated aluminum wire as I explain later. What gauge is speaker wire? (Wire size and wire gauge explained)For shorter speaker wire runs, 16-gauge wire is generally sufficient. For longer runs, 14-gauge or even 12-gauge wire may be needed to reduce resistance and maintain signal quality. It’s a good compromise between price and power handling as it’s usually affordable and easy to find. How to find the correct size wire for ANY length or speaker system Long (100ft+) speaker runs or higher power applications such as high-power 2 or 4 ohm subwoofers with a short length.

Braided cables utilize multiple individually insulated conductors (usually 22-26AWG) twisted in a pattern that helps to reduce series mutual inductance but usually at the expense of increased capacitance. Remember anytime you bring conductors closer together, the inductance gets reduced but capacitance goes up. I do appreciate these type of cable designs if they aren't overly blown out of proportion with high capacitance needing a zobel network termination to prevent amplifier oscillation for long runs. Braided cables are a fine choice provided that you aren't sacrificing resistance for the design. Some of my favorite braided cables are the mid priced cables like the 8PR or 8TC from Kimber Kable. However, some of their more expensive cables like the Bifocals exhibit lots of capacitance and are not something I'd recommend for very long runs especially because they are quite cost prohibitive and NOT worth the expense for no sonic benefit, in my opinion. Using a typical and reasonable example, we can use 16AWG stranded copper wire with 19 strands of 29AWG wire (“19/29”). Resistance per meter is rated at 0.0147Ω/m. [1] It’s always best to measure and be sure – and overestimate what you need to be sure you don’t run short.Likewise, each AWG wire gauge has an electrical current capacity (how many amps it can handle, also called ampacity sometimes).