Quality internal speaker wire needed

[harrisni]

Hi,

For the internal wiring from the plug to the crossover to the driver what is the best quality cable to use? at the moment my HT is wired with 12 gauge cabling, I was thinking of using this. Does anyone else have other ideas?

[lndm]

That sounds OK. If this wire is old, check for corrosion when you strip and re-terminate the ends, or just replace it for good measure. Poor joints can undo the benefit of good cabling. If not already, you should solder at the driver terminals rather than use push on connectors.

Using a stranded wire is a good idea, as vibrations can cause solid cable to break, over time.

[harrisni]

thanks dude

[noodle_snacks]

Be careful if you solder wire to a tweeter in particular, i had the tinsel lead on one of my seas 27tdfcs disconnect then break while soldering a lead on, I did manage to fix it by removing the magnet from the dome/voice coil assembly and carefully soldering the wire to the underside of the tab it was supposed to connect to (a spare pair of hands with tweezers was needed). Whilst it was true i wasn't so good at soldering when it happened I now prefer to use gold plated terminal tabs (with the wire soldered to them).

[Andy G]

I always use thin wire to the tweeter, just a faint touch with the iron is all that's needed, and there is much less strain on the connections.

[lndm]

A valid concern, noodle_snacks. I do not fear soldering tweeters, but as a novice I could easily have broken them.

The trick is to have your iron hot and your joint clean. You want to avoid holding the iron on the terminal for too long as the heat travels down the braid in that time. If the iron is hot, the joint will flow quickly.

When I do this, I like to tin the leads first, and tin the terminal separately also. Thirdly, I bring them together and melt them. I like to make a good physical connection to a woofer terminal before soldering, but they can afford to take more heat.

Edit: Agreed Andy_Graddon

[omni]

How about using a heat sink ? Something like a pair of hemostats or the like to clip on the terminal. This will absorb some of the heat away from the delicate tweeter wires, keeping it cooler, making a safer solder.............Omni

[soongsc]

From terminal to XO, probably something like a 10 or 12 gauge multi-strand would be fine. It doen't have to be those exotic ones, just good quality copper not plated.

From XO to driver the size does not have to be larger than what they use from driver terminal to coil. Multi strand good quality non-plated copper.

The basic thing is to not have drastic guage differences between each section.

[nate]

For my last project, I used 18awg cardas chassis wire for the tweeters and 15awg for the woofers and from the binding posts to the x-over. In the past, I've used Kimber 4tc and 8tc, respectively, for tweeters and woofers. My main cabling for my system is 8tc which is as good as most mere mortals need.

The cardas has an incredibly smooth and extended sound that I really like. Vampire also makes some excellent wire as does XLO/ultralink.

Cheers.

Nate

[patch]

For the main drivers in our boxes, for each pole we use two 16 AWG stranded wires, twisted together. Its such a short run inside most cabinets, no need to go overboard with big wire there. Plain copper or silver plated copper work equally well on that end.

And so for the tweeter we use two stranded 22 AWG wires, twisted close. Soldered down at the crossover and each post. We use only silver coated copper there for the same reason we use it in all our speaker cables - to max out efficiency across the spectrum.

Be sure to velcro the excess wiring to one or more spots on the wall of the cabinet. Enjoy the project and the results!