Different Speaker Wire Lengths.

Is this a permanent installation? Generally the rule of thumb is no more than 5% loss in the line. That said, is the load 2, 4, 8 ohms?

As a practical matter, I'd cut the wire to the length needed if a permanent install. If we're talking temp, you have Neutriks on each end? Surely you jest. Run what ya brung. Plug it in dude. 100' sounds just a tad over the recommended length. It will have negligible effect on the effective power delivered to the speaker and make a marginal difference to speaker damping.

If you really want I'll work out the effective difference in db but it will be a fraction of a decibel.

Need to hear from the electronic dudes on this one...

Coiling wire, creates a magnetic field, even with good insulation...





On a lighter note, the signal slows down on the corners, just like NASCAR

I don't see how a magnetic field in this case would cause any issues. Even in big production rigs they have lines of Socapex coiled.

And the difference in dB is....

OK, the calculated difference is .2dB

Given: 8 ohm speakers and #12 wire with one side 25' long and the other 100'

Since the minimum generally accepted difference anyone can hear is 1dB, don't sweat the small stuff. 100 feet of #12 will measure .374 ohm (out and back 200') which is just under the recommended 5% (.4 ohm max). If you halve the speaker impedance (use 4 ohm speakers) you must halve the supply line resistance.

As a practical matter no one will know in either case.

I don't see how a magnetic field in this case would cause any issues. Even in big production rigs they have lines of Socapex coiled.

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Wow... This has come up before... and NEVER EVER EVER Coil andy wires that have any amount of power going down them...
This is coming from and Electrical Engineer, The wired can heat up, Burn, You can get feed back on the line, Interference with any other near devices....
Advice, Put the speakers closer or center the amp, or run some heavy gauge wire for the long 100' Run...

Think UHF antenna.

With the longer cables, the right number of coils in a nice symmetrical loop, you might even get a Smokey Bear report from that 10-04 good buddy guy.

The more strands within the wire enclosure, the less potential issues.

I dunno...

I remember coming across this before. There just isn't enough coupling to make a difference. What's more, the average power going through a speaker is a lot less than the rated power.

But let's go worse case, say 200 watts being dissipated over the entire speaker line, each foot of the 100' cable having to dissipate 2W. That's like a small Christmas light which coverts almost all its power to heat. You might not even be able to feel that with your hand if evenly distributed over each of the 12" sections.

Don't worry about coiled speaker or 115v power cords, my opinion, you can disagree. If it was a problem, we'd have fires all over the place.

Did anybody notice I mentioned socapex? Is that not heavy duty enough??? LOL.

We are talking about Speaker Wire, not a line-level signal!

What that be?

Travis B said:

Did anybody notice I mentioned socapex? Is that not heavy duty enough??? LOL.

We are talking about Speaker Wire, not a line-level signal!

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Maybe because you didn't tell us what that be.

Can I plug my aluminum refinery plant into it?

Balanced Line Whose posts are you responding to?

Very simplistically stated regarding power, it is agreed that transmitters require the power, while receiving antennae are quite passive. Typical audio power amplifiers are more likely to actively reproduce rfi, tvi, and other random artifacts when fed the ideal noise frequency range strength but igniting fires is a stretch. One would suspect that if true, the government would require a safety warning such as required on clothes irons, e.g. "Do not press against face when hot."

Solid core wires offer less resistance to power handling thus most heavy duty AC/DC power conducting are single strand or a few strands to aid in flexibility. Audio frequencies tend to migrate and flow on the outer surface of the wire strand with the least resistance. Multi-stranded audio cables are more desirable than solid ones for that advantage.

Cap, I was responding to JKcomputers. You sort of snuck in there in the time I was responding to him.

Skin Effect
My research indicates at audio frequencies skin effect just doesn't make much difference. The majority benefit for stranding is a mechanical. There's a tremendous amount of urban myth about speaker wire but even at 20kHz it just doesn't make much difference with regards to skin effect. I cannot absolutely positively affirm this but my recollection is Sawdust ran the numbers on skin effect at audio frequencies and it wasn't a practical consideration. That jived with my prior understanding.

Cap, regardless of what I say, neither you nor I will hook up solid wire to speakers. Have you ever tried to coil solid Romex #12/2 ? So the point is moot any way. Nobody in their right mind would use solid except in a pinch and in that case again the point is moot, just make it work.


Inductive Heating
In regard to coiling and inductive heating of AC , at the power levels 99.99% of the applications experienced by users on these pages it is very unlikely to be a problem. The fact is UL registered devices coil wire all the time. How many retracting cord reels do you see in garages for trouble lights and extension cords? They're all over the place. I'd be far more worried about the trip hazard of an uncoiled cord than I'd be about inductive heating. Then again if you're wrapping a few hundred amps around an iron bar I'd think twice.

Purely as an academic exercise, I'd like to hear the setup necessary in order to make inductive heating a problem. In other words, show me the conditions to reliably burn up my extension cord. I bet it is a little bit harder than starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together, a lot harder than everybody thinks.

Recap
Just to recap, this started as a tread about the practical consequences of having one speaker wire four times longer than the other. By running the numbers, we found there is a negligible .2 dB difference in power delivered to the speaker. This meant there was no practical value to leaving 75' coiled on the ground in an attempt to apply the same level of power to both speakers.

BL, You have good knowledge, I'm surprised your unfamiliar with socapex.

Socapex is a specially designed lighting cable snake which is the best way to sum it up. Google it

I may have Ephasized the burning wire too much but It happens... Not alway a fire, but you have wire shorting out, etc. Honestly if its a pro perminate install, there is no wire coiled up... Again, without knowing the power hes sending down the line, its hard to tell, but your increasing the losses in the cable by coiling... Your making a Giant Inductor (Like a coil in a speaker)

Coiled wires make great antennas -- I can pick up almost any close radio signal through my security camera monitors, because I have the cables coiled


What I find interesting, is that the people that throw around the loss specs, have probably never seen how they are tested, or do it themselves. I've never seen any tests done on coiled and/or kinked cables -- they always lay them out flat.

Keep It up Hippy! I'm gonna lay you out flat!


I dunno, just tired and it sounded funny to me... like Rick is a hippie, I could go back and change that, but I'm just to tired....

Chuck The DJ said:

I could go back and change that, but I'm just to tired....

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Tough day at the lagoon, eh Gilligan...

SoftJock Rick said:

Tough day at the lagoon, eh Gilligan...

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If the Skipper, Mary Ann, Ginger, the Howell's and the Professor would have killed Gilligan in the first few days they would have made it off the island quite fast

Who?

Who the hell is Gilligan?

I'm pretending to be young again.