Diameter of wires

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mymindinside

Member
Joined 2007
Hi ads2,
What i use is:
Line Level signal: 23AWG
Mains, Secondary AC and DC Power: 2.5mm2 (not sure what it is in AWG)
Speaker out: 2.5mm2

The power and speaker out guage is larger than it needs to be, but the cost difference is almost nothing, and it saves me the hassle of having to run out and buy more wire for different projects :)
If your lengths are much longer than usual, you will need to calculate the required guage.

Cheers,
Mymindinside
 
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AndrewT

R.I.P.
Joined 2004
If I need to specify a cable for a particular duty, I would decide first on what current it might have to pass. Then I would look at whether it might get warm/hot in worst case conditions. Finally, I would look very carefully at the voltage drop along that wire to see if that may cause a performance detriment.

If I found that worst case operating conditions developed 1uVac along my chosen cable, then I would have to look at what effect that 1uVac had on the sound that comes out of the speakers.

It is not simply "what gauge do I use?"
you will need to calculate the required gauge.
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A

AndrewT

R.I.P.
Joined 2004
as an example, I am building a stereo integrated amp as a friend's Birthday present.
The "amplifier" part is squeezed into the last ~65mm at the back of the chassis, where all the signal selecting, volume setting, amplifying and output is done. The Input leads are either 15mm long or 25mm long The volume pot leads are ~50mm long.
The speaker leads are either 20mm long or 60mm long. If I have room, I will squeeze in a 15mm long inductor to replace 15mm of that speaker lead.

I am considering using single core, insulated, 0.6mm diameter copper for all that wiring.
Do I have reason to consider using different diameters or different stranded combinations? I may double up on the 60mm long speaker output lead, I have yet to do that calculation, but is it worth it?
BTW,
my main audio ground is the strap between the two speaker return terminals, 19mm c/c. Will I use a copper wire, or a thin brass plate or should I use a thick copper plate?
 
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zygibajt

Member
Joined 2003
Use Cardas chassis wire, 20,5 AWG for speakers terminals and supply (no need for thicker here, tried thicker but it was inferior in each aspects of the sound) and 23,5 AWG for signal wire. You will have extremely hard time to get any better than with these cardas cables, belive me. I have tried virtually hundreds of diffrent cables and these are by far one of the best I tried. hard to solder though as this is true litz wire, each individual strand is enameled and ou have to have quite high temperature soldering station. Use the cardas Euthetic solder for best results (have tried few others but find this extremely fine). The fewer conectors the better, use as few as possible in the signal path. Also use good speaker and RCA connectors. Just solder directly to the PCB if you need to use PCB (why use PCb at all at such simple circuits??) Cheers
 
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