Cabinet Wire and Gauges

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Aristocat

Aristocat

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Going along with my other thread, what kind of speaker wire/gauge do you guys use in your cabs?

Any benefit to the tone from a 14ga vs a 20ga wire?

Right now I'm using some cheap RadioShack 18ga wire. It's soldered in (as I prefer) but I've heard of guys like Bogner using 14ga wire.

Or is this all this talk of wire gauges just corksniffin' at its finest?
 
In. I'd like to know as well.

I've heard of people having tonal preferences when it comes to speaker cable gauge so.......
 
Use a high quality AWG copper stranded 16 gauge and you'll be fine. 18 is ok, too, as many manufacturers use it, but I prefer 16.
 
stoneage cabs":subs4ehv said:
Use a high quality AWG copper stranded 16 gauge and you'll be fine. 18 is ok, too, as many manufacturers use it, but I prefer 16.
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Any reason as to why? Smoother highs; tighter lows?
 
From what I remember in my electronics class, the signal actually is carried out the outside of a strand of wire, so theoretically a bunch of small strands will carry more information/signal than one big strand. I'd suspect that translates into more top-end.

I'm interested in hearing from people with practical experience.
 
20-22 is too thin for my personal taste. i have always found the cabs to sound fuller with 16. Anything heavier than that is basically overkill, but I am sure some will disagree on that. And, the heavier wire can be a strain on speaker terminals. But for me, with my amps, and all cabs I ship, it's 16 all the way.
 
I may get tarred and feathered for this, but I think the size/BRAND of wire inside the cab isn't that big of a deal. Here are things I think affect the tone a hell of a lot more than the stock wire on your speaker cabs:

1) construction of cab/materials. I tried to cheap out in the early 90s with a Crate cab - put new celestions in it, still sounded like shit. Construction/materials DO matter.
2) construction of the BACK of the cab - MDF vs plywood. I prefer plywood.
3) GRILL CLOTH - Cloth is going to affect the highs. Basketweave Marshall cloth attenuate highs quite a bit, for example
4) general tightness/seal of cab back and associated parts.
5) whether or not cab is on casters on direct on floor, also placement in the room (and the room!)
6) slant cab vs straight
7) Tolex. One of the best sounding cabs I ever heard was an old marshall that literally had the tolex torn off of it from years of abuse. I think the tolex can dampen the sound a bit

I just think the entire 'heavy gauge wire inside the cab' is a rabbit hole to fall into. Ditto for guys who use speaker cables that look like a garden hose. If you're going to beef those up, why not go into the amp and put 12 ga wire off the output transformer to the speaker jacks? Oh hell, how small is the wire in the windings on the output transformer?

Reminds me of the guys who get the several hundred dollar power cords for their boutique amps, not even thinking about the shitty wire in their WALLS and the miles of wire running to the power company. Changing out a few feet isn't going to make a difference!
 
stoneage cabs":3bwfsms4 said:
20-22 is too thin for my personal taste. i have always found the cabs to sound fuller with 16. Anything heavier than that is basically overkill, but I am sure some will disagree on that. And, the heavier wire can be a strain on speaker terminals. But for me, with my amps, and all cabs I ship, it's 16 all the way.
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Gotcha.

I heard of guys putting insulation on their baffle boards (or that cabinet backings) to reinforce the sound and getting something tighter out of it.

Any experience?

Where do you get your wire from if you don't mind my asking?
 
I have used everything from the thin wire all the way up to 12AWG. Never heard of felt any difference at all. :scared:
 
Adding insulation can increase the apparent size of a cab (interior volume) by up to 20%.
 
I won't use 14 gauge wire again.... too thick and requires too much heat to solder onto the speaker terminals. I was finding that I was overheating the terminals which was starting to affect the solder joints holding the coil wires. Or maybe my soldering technique sucks :lol: :LOL:, but 16 gauge will be what I use next.
 
I don't know honestly if it's a total bust in terms of improvement but I like to do minor mods before huge ones (string gauge/cables/caps etc).

I'm very, very happy with my sound but I'm always looking to improve any where I can before major costs are incurred.

I think new grill cloth would help immensely. Something thick too to help control the highs (Basketweave).
 
There is no mechanical reason to use anything larger than 16 gauge with a 100 watt head. Tonally, I have never heard a difference between 14, 16, 18, and 20 gauge.
 
Aristocat":yq7lsp9i said:
Going along with my other thread, what kind of speaker wire/gauge do you guys use in your cabs?

Any benefit to the tone from a 14ga vs a 20ga wire?

Right now I'm using some cheap RadioShack 18ga wire. It's soldered in (as I prefer) but I've heard of guys like Bogner using 14ga wire.

Or is this all this talk of wire gauges just corksniffin' at its finest?
Click to expand...

Bogner uses 10 awg.

The best improvement you can do is to have stoneage build you one and if you can't do that, listen to him. Dude builds some killer stuff.
 
lester":2co0io9u said:
Aristocat":2co0io9u said:
Going along with my other thread, what kind of speaker wire/gauge do you guys use in your cabs?

Any benefit to the tone from a 14ga vs a 20ga wire?

Right now I'm using some cheap RadioShack 18ga wire. It's soldered in (as I prefer) but I've heard of guys like Bogner using 14ga wire.

Or is this all this talk of wire gauges just corksniffin' at its finest?
Click to expand...

Bogner uses 10 awg.

The best improvement you can do is to have stoneage build you one and if you can't do that, listen to him. Dude builds some killer stuff.
Click to expand...

:lol: :LOL:

I've actually visited their website several times.

I'm blacklisted from gear right now as College is coming to a close and I'm moving to FL next year. Alternatives are my best option right now.
 
I use either 14 or 16awg. Beyond that is a bit hard to work with and my speaker cables are only 12 or 14 AWG.
 
I went thought this when I was pimping by cab from scratch.
I ended up with 11 guage VDH 19 strand blah blah blah
Personally I couldn't tell the diffence between the boutique vs standard copper wire but the $35 I spent on the "upgrade" gave me piece of mind that it all matched rather than making a specific piece of tonal difference.
The comments above from the cab manufacturers are interesting though as they do this every day so..hmmm I'm may "downgrade" just to try what fits totally for shits and giggles.
 
When I went to 12-14 gauge wire (lamp cord) my cabs sounded like someone had removed a blanket off the front. Now I always go with 12-14 gauge wire.
 
steve_k":v58hdd02 said:
I use lamp chord.
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