For a 6 foot long cable with stereo connectors, what wire gauge would be best ? Connecting computer to speakers.
Audio cable question
- Thread starter vweosdriver
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18 gauge would probably work.
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I'm assuming the speakers are powered and we are talking about an RCA cable (line level) and not about speaker wire (high level)? If it's line level, any gauge will do at such a short distance. And if it's speaker wire, 18 gauge would be fine over 6 feet, like the previous poster suggested.
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Since it is a low power affair, I would use gauge 16 or 18 wire. My home theater system uses gauge 14.
I have a buddy that has spent thousands of dollars on cabling for his stereo system. Oxygen free, blah,blah,blah....set of 10' #12 cables, $600
and the list goes on. Waste of money. Even if you had high end stuff a roll of #14 or #12 wire on a spool from Home Depot could not be differentiated by ear. Go cheap.
and the list goes on. Waste of money. Even if you had high end stuff a roll of #14 or #12 wire on a spool from Home Depot could not be differentiated by ear. Go cheap.
For your purposes I'd use a cheap 16 gauge cable. For my primary and secondary HTS I use Blue Jeans Cable speaker cable and interconnects. High quality at a great price.
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Do they still make Monster Cable? I remember that stuff from the 80s.
Yep, Noel Lee's company is still out there making piles of cash from people.
I ran 12ga Monster cable for my 5.1 speakers when I had my home theater, but no more sold off mt speakers and now run a JBL soundbar.
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I remember maybe around 1982-83 there was this stereo shop that had these HUGE horn loaded speakers called Weber and they had the this super thick Monster Cable running to them. That's where I remember hearing about Monster Cable. The amp I remember well. It was a Phase Linear DRS-900.
Coming from your PC, you are dealing with a line level signal not speaker level. You do not need heavy gauge cables since you would have powered speakers. Just use a quality 18 guage cable and you will be fine.
+1 on this. "Computer sound card" and "consumer speakers" mean worries about the extremely subtle/ theoretical benefits inherent in audiophile cables are absolutely and utterly wasted time, energy and above all, money. Worry about their shielding from the hums and buzzes and varying interference your poor audio will be subject to.
Changing audio from one form to another (acoustic energy to electrical signal and vice-versa, electrical signal to digital data and vice-versa) is hard and inevitably imperfect; and requires some considerable expense to do "right". Sending an electrical signal 6' is not that hard. It would be better, especially in this interference-laden circumstance, to use a balanced signal but that is not how sound cards and (most) active/ amplified speakers are made at the consumer level.
