16ga adequate, Is 14ga better for 32' lenghts??

[bozobyte]

Hiyas,
I have purchased the new Yamaha RX-V665. 90wx7 / 630w AVR. This will be a 6.1 channel.

Thank you,
This is not rocket science, I don’t want to blow the speaker drivers by using the wrong gauge wire, I wish then NOT to look so obtrusive going up the corners or along the baseboards, but if the 14ga is not that much thicker than the 16ga,then..... I'll take this monster THX stuff back to FRY'S.

Excuse my redundancy trying to grasp what is the best for my small HSU satellites. They are not JBL, Mirage, or Definitive, floorstanders, they are rated as follows: 80hz-20khz / 90db Sensitivity,1 watt,1 meter / 8ohm /10-125 watt recommended amp power / less than 2lb speakers.
So thicker is better.

I just think the thicker the wire like 10, 12, and 14,will be difficult to manage, and will be very visible going up my corners. Not so?

__________________________________________________ ______

Here are the actual run lengths. I have to go along the baseboards, up the corners, and around two doorjambs to get to a few speakers.

Front left= 14' / front right=18' / rear surround left=26' / rear-center=31' / and the rear surround right=41'

Again, has anyone heard of having to cut all the different length runs the same length, or this is not the case?

I bought the 630w Yamaha RX-V665,along with the HSU Performance II package.

Looking for swivel/180 wall speaker mounts. Monoprice just has the ones ( less than $5.00 ea.) that go flush with the wall. (I think) The more expensive ones like Vantage point are about 100.00 for 5 mounts.


ANY TRUTH TO THIS BELOW?

"""Also, make the lengths to the similar speakers the same, even if the length is not needed - for example cut the speaker wire 32' for the 3 rear speakers and 10' for the 3 front speakers. This balances the resistance."""

Thanks!

[Dudley]

16 gauge should be fine. Yes 14 gauge would be a little better, but would you hear the difference - probably not. Would the amp run a little cooler - possibly.

In theory the last statement is ture, but again the difference is pretty minor.

Although sometimes setting your system up is just about getting it right and feeling comfortable, so as long as you are not buying some kind of goofy super expensive cable the 14 gauge won't cost much more.

Try parts express or monoprice.

[bozobyte]

Hi Dudley!,
I sent this over to the Tech support folks to try to make sense of this balance of resistance issue. Do you have any idea?

I picked up my performance II speaker package today and after talking to Ryan and Pete earlier, concerning using either 14 or 16 awg wire, I checked a few forums and I'm getting a few responses I did not expect, concerning the "balance of resistance" issues, if any hooking up the speakers.

My shortest REAR -Right speaker run length is about 26', and the longest REAR-Left is 32'.

If what they say below in the quotes are true, I'd have to have my center channel speaker also 15', the same as my longest front right run?

__________________________________________________ ________________________
On one site someone said .... Quote:
"Make the lengths to the similar speakers the same, even if the length is not needed - for example cut the speaker wire 32' for the 3 rear speakers (rear right,rear left,and rear-center) and 15' for the 3 front speakers. This balances the resistance.

Quote:
I'd make sure the runs for the rear surrounds and back surround are the same length, and that the fronts are the same length.
And another said this.... Quote:
"The rear and back surrounds don't need to have the same length wire as speaker delay and distance is set up in the receiver, however, naturally each speaker pair should have the same length wire. 16 or 18 gauge would suffice for those runs... imo
BTW, Monoprice has 14 gauge 150' of enhanced loud oxygen-free copper wire for $30.09,and the 16 gauge enhanced loud oxygen-free copper wire for $19.33. ($10.76 difference)

So what's the scoop on this? Thanks for any and all replies. :-)

[dmass]

I don't think that for any imaginable home room size that the difference in speaker wire lengths will make much difference.

the speed of electrons is about one nanosec per foot thru wire. So if your cables differed in lenght by 100 ft, you still would be talking about 100 nano secs of delay difference from the cables. I challenge anyone to say they can hear such a difference.

12 gauge speaker wire has about 1.5 ohm per 1000 ft of resistance. So again for 100 feet that is about .15 ohms difference. For a 8 ohm speaker .15 ohms would be on the order of 2%. Also likely not audiable.

[bsoko]

I have runs of 60 feet or more with 14 ga wire from Home Depot. It's by GE and is named "Ultra Prograde" and comes in a 100 ft roll. Been using this for the past 2 years now with no issues.

Bill

[bozobyte]

bsoko, (http://forum.hsuresearch.com/member.php?u=3420)
So you have those long 60' runs with the 14ga wire, are your closest front speaker wire the same gauge,or are they smaller like 16, or 18 gauge?

[bozobyte]

What I am going to do based on Leo's recommendation is to run both the Front and right speakers the same run lehnth of 18' using 14 ga wire.

For the surround rear R & L channel, from the receiver run One 26' to the rear left, and 41' to the rear right using 14ga wire.

Then from the rear-left and rear right channel into the CENTER-REAR. (Using 16 ga wire since the run will be less than 6'-8' on either side)

Does that mean I have to piggy-back or double wire the NEG and POS terminals from both rear R&L channels into the CENTER-REAR?

[bozobyte]

Ok..In Looking at the Speaker box illustrations for a 6.1 channel speaker, it shows from left and right FRONTS going into the center channel,then from the center channel into the receiver. All speakers have one connection.

But in the 5.1 set up,the rear right and left wires go to the receiver,then the from each r & l rear to the CENTER-REAR. (The front wiring is the same)

I think what leo told me to do is to go from REARS to CENTER-REAR, but this AVR is a 7.2 Receiver,and I'm going to use the 6.1 set up...

[bsoko]

bsoko, (http://forum.hsuresearch.com/member.php?u=3420)
So you have those long 60' runs with the 14ga wire, are your closest front speaker wire the same gauge,or are they smaller like 16, or 18 gauge?

I used the 14 on everything as that's what I had. For your mains for short runs you can certainly run 16 ga but why buy different size wire?

[bsoko]

Ok..In Looking at the Speaker box illustrations for a 6.1 channel speaker, it shows from left and right FRONTS going into the center channel,then from the center channel into the receiver. All speakers have one connection.

But in the 5.1 set up,the rear right and left wires go to the receiver,then the from each r & l rear to the CENTER-REAR. (The front wiring is the same)

I think what leo told me to do is to go from REARS to CENTER-REAR, but this AVR is a 7.2 Receiver,and I'm going to use the 6.1 set up...

I don't know where you got these instructions from. Mains (L & R) go to the reciever. Center, goes to the reciever. L & R surrounds, go to the reciever. And for the sixth speaker (rear surround) it goes to the reciever. If you can do 7.1, use it. Or if you don't, use the 5.1. The 6.1 is not used by too many people. Your reciever manual will have the proper setup for your speakers and if you follow it, you will have set it up right. Also, here is a site that has all the info that you will need (has links to articles and how to's) for HT: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824554.

Bill

[bozobyte]

Bill,
I bought the performance II VT-12 6.1 Speaker package and those hook up instructions were on the outside of the box. I will admit that this way of hooking up the front mains to the center front is weird, this is the way they recommend it at HSU sound for their setup on a 6.1.
Front left and right mains connect into the center speaker back,then from the center, two more wires...the Front right,and front left go into the receiver. Then the rear left and rear right surround go into the receiver. if I want to add 7.1, fine,or just plug the rear-center into both the rear-left and rear right to matrix the 6.1.

Sounds different than the regular way to do a hookup, I know. So it's up to me to decide on the 6.1 or 7.1 or just do the 5.1 for now. Thanks!

[Pete_Hsu]

I don't know where you got these instructions from. Mains (L & R) go to the reciever. Center, goes to the reciever. L & R surrounds, go to the reciever. And for the sixth speaker (rear surround) it goes to the reciever. If you can do 7.1, use it. Or if you don't, use the 5.1. The 6.1 is not used by too many people. Your reciever manual will have the proper setup for your speakers and if you follow it, you will have set it up right. Also, here is a site that has all the info that you will need (has links to articles and how to's) for HT: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824554.

Bill

The Ventriloquist system uses an unconventional hookup method. Two sets of speaker wire are run from the front (left/right) satellite speakers to the front center channel, and then three sets of wire are run from the front center channel to the receiver. This allows one to make use of the "Ventriloquist" effect, where the front center assists in reproducing upper bass/lower midrange frequencies sent to the left/right main channels. The VT-254 surround speakers for the Ventriloquist use a more conventional hookup directly to the receiver (with the VT-251 being a dual voice coil rear center satellite speaker).