Chip Amp Wire Gauge

[filholder]

Ok so i have built BrianGT LM3886 kit.
I have bough a fair amount of 22AWG teflon insulated silver wire to do all the hooking up in my amps from Home Grown Audio (very prompt service by the way).

One thing i was wondering was wether is is worth double it up in various place. I imagine that for signal in one wire would be enough but would it be better to use multiple runs in parallel for speaker hook up. And the same for power would multiple runs be in order. This sort of thing seems quite complicated., you read things about skin effect etc which i have no understanding of. What have other people done.

Kind Regards

Fil

[chipco3434]

I would save the silver for the signal stuff. Copper might be more convenient for power.

I don't thing that doubling the wire on the output would be unreasonable as 22 is pretty light on its own.

[I_Forgot]

Skin effect is essentially non existent at audio frequencies.

Doubling up wire will double current carrying capacity, so it can be beneficial in high current parts of the circuit such as power supply and speaker connections, however at the power levels found in chip based amps it probably won't do much for you. For long speaker cable runs, multiple insulated wires reduces inductance at the expense of increased capacitance. You'll have to decide if you think that matters.

The main benefit of teflon insulated wire comes not from the silver plating on the wire but from the high melt temperature and chemical stability of the insulation. When you solder the wire, you won't have problems with the insulation turning to goo and looking ugly, and possibly "poisoning" the solder joint. In 50 years or 100 years, after the plasticizers in PVC insulated wire have evaporated and left the insulation cracking and crumbling, the teflon stuff will still be flexible.

I_F