Speaker cabinet cable

[Larry Hopkins]

Maybe someone could shed some light on this,I was watching a clip on you tube,and it said using a regular guitar cable from amp head to speaker cabinet can damage equipment,that a regular speaker cable should be used,I did not know there was a difference.I guess the speaker cables are not shielded,just 2 wire cable.I would like to know more about this.comments are appreciated
Larry

[Donny Hinson]

To be brief, low-level (instrument and microphone) cables need shielding to limit noise from electrical fields, but the center conductor can be very small. Whereas, speakers are not affected by noise from electrical fields, but they require far more power to drive them. While a short (3 feet or less) instrument cable might be used for a speaker in an emergency, using a longer cable could risk melting the center conductor of the cable, which could cause catastrophic damage to an amplifier.


More info here:

https://carvinaudio.com/blogs/guitar-ba ... mple-guide

[Jack Stoner]

The problem is the small size of the conductors in a regular guitar cable. Potentially the power (wattage) output can overheat the small wire and cause shorts or opens and even damage the power amp electronics.

"Speaker" cables are usually 16-gauge wire and larger depending on power wattage and length of speaker cable.

[Larry Hopkins]

Hey thanks guys
Larry

[Dave Grafe]

The small size of the conductor is only half the issue of using shielded guitar cables as speaker leads, the other hazard is the capacitance created by the shield, causing flyback voltages that can mess up the amp's output components.

[Jack Stoner]

Saw this on Facebook. Fits this thread.

[Larry Hopkins]

You know it’s kind of embarrassing,that I did not realize,the difference in these cables ,lucky I haven’t messed something up,I have speaker cables on the way 14 G,thanks again for the help
Larry

[Jerry Overstreet]

You're not the only one Larry. When I first stared using stereo rigs with satellite speakers, I figured the George L's standard guitar cables would be the thing.

I used them for quite a while before I found out they were not suitable for equal stranded, twisted pairs cables designed to carry speaker current.

Quite honestly, I don't know if there was much difference sonic wise between the proper ones and the GL's that I had been using.

We're talking only short lengths of about 10' here. If they had been longer runs, the outcome would probably have been problematic, perhaps even disastrous.

[Nic Sanford]

Uh-oh. Which cable is right from a preamp to a powered speaker?

[Dave Mudgett]

Uh-oh. Which cable is right from a preamp to a powered speaker?

Shielded instrument cable is correct from a preamp to a powered speaker. This is a low-level voltage signal that is going INTO the power amp of the powered speaker and doesn't carry much current and thus needs the shielding. But coming OUT of a power amp into the speaker itself, you need speaker cable.

I totally agree with Dave G. that both the low current capacity and higher electrical capacitance are major issues with using instrument cable to handle power signals into a speaker.

There are a bunch of threads on picking speaker cable. The higher the power and longer the run, the heavier gauge cable required. Lower gauge number corresponds to heavier gauge. E.g., 10 gauge is heavier than 16 gauge.

[Nic Sanford]

Thanks Dave

[Brooks Montgomery]

So, a speaker 6 to 10 feet from the amp: what gauge speaker cable do you recommend?

[Jerry Overstreet]

I use 12 or 14 but 16 is quite adequate for that distance.

[Brooks Montgomery]

Thnx Jerry!

[Jerry Overstreet]

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/choos ... ire-gauge/

There are a few discussions concerning this here and there.
Here's one and take from it what you will.

I don't know if your ear can tell, but it seems 16 is the most common ga. for relatively short lengths used by the players I know in our common head/cabinet and stereo rigs.

14 is a good compromise, I believe. When you go to 12 ga. and possibly some 14s if building your own, keep in mind that the cable jacket dia. determines the size of the phone plug used.

Most of those sizes require what is referred to as Jumbo Barrel Phone Plugs or FatBoys which are obviously larger and more expensive as is the cable. Pre made cables get to be progressively expensive the larger dia. they go.

Going larger will not hurt anything but it may not be beneficial either. I reckon it depends on the application.

[b0b]

I've used lamp cord for speaker cables. Very inexpensive and works well if you have good soldering skills.

[Bill A. Moore]

I used it for years bob, mostly for stereos, it is even marked for polarity!

[Donny Hinson]

I posted this chart some years back; seems like a good time to post it again.

[b0b]

This may be an ignorant question, Donny.

I expected that the wattage of the amp would be a factor in calculating the wire gauge. Is it really all dependent on the speaker impedance? Assuming an 8 ohm speaker, would a 20 watt amp require the same gauge as a 400 watt amp?

[Earnest Bovine]

Resistive heating in a shielded cable between amp and speaker is wasted energy. For example, if your shielded cable's DC resistance is 1 ohm (total for both sides, not impossible for a thin wire) in series with a 4 ohm speaker, then 20% of your amp's power is producing heat, not sound.

[Donny Hinson]

This may be an ignorant question, Donny. I expected that the wattage of the amp would be a factor in calculating the wire gauge. Is it really all dependent on the speaker impedance? Assuming an 8 ohm speaker, would a 20 watt amp require the same gauge as a 400 watt amp?

Not an ignorant question at all, b0b. And though it may seem counterintuitive, the quick answer is that the significant factors for determining the proper speaker wire gauge are the wire length and speaker impedance. While the amount of power does matter, the amount that it actually matters is low enough so as to be considered almost insignificant. For example, if you were to increase the power level from 20 watts to 400 watts, you'd have to increase the wire size only to the next largest gauge! (By the way, that chart I posted is old, and very generous in it's safety factor.)

Also to be considered is the amount of power actually used. While many pedal steelers have multi-hundred watt amps, the truth is that they almost never actually use that much power, or anything even close to it. Typical playing, even in loud environments, utilizes only about 30w-50w. All that "extra power" the amp is capable of is used for tone sculpting and to sustain notes and chords for long periods. Keep in mind that the maximum power rating for amps is usually measured with all the knobs turned all the way up, and the signal source (guitar) plugged straight into the amp, with no volume pedal used. But nobody plays that way.

[Bobby D. Jones]

This post got me curious about Speaker Wires, Since I have an Evans AH-200 and a QUILTER Tone Block 202 that must have speakers plugged into them.

I have 2 12' speaker cables, They have writing on 1 conductor and Very heavy unique insulation. The cables have heavy machined 1/4" male plugs soldered on the cable ends.

Patent No. 4,734,544 is printed on the wire. Which traces back to Noel Lee and Monster Cable Company in California for a very special designed Speaker Wire.

[Dennis Detweiler]

Many years ago, the lead player next to me was using a shielded guitar cable for speaker cable. I smelled something burning and got off my seat to check the amps and saw his cable burst into flames.

[Jack Hanson]

Since the mid-sixties I've used what we always referred to as "zip cord" (same as lamp cord) soldered to Switchcraft 228 right angle plugs to connect the heads and cabs of my Fender piggybacks. Never started a fire or blew anything up in over 50 years of use.

[George Biner]

Zip cord will work but it doesn't look very cool and it doesn't "lay" well.