General Home Automation Adding length to speaker wires

The speaker wire that came with my rear surround sound speakers is not
long enough for the room in which I am installing.  The wire is hard-
wired to the speaker and it has a special connector at the end that
goes into the receiver.  I want to try to splice in more length in the
middle but have a few concerns before I start
The factory wire is 22 guage.  Do I need the same exact guage when
splicing?  It seems like this is a really uncommon thickness.  Also,
some of the wire is going to be running either under carpet or in
wall.  All of the in-wall speaker wire I have found is around 14
guage.  How can I most effectively accomplish what I'm trying to do?

TIA

22 gauge wire is a very poor speaker conductor, at bes. For any length you
should replace the whole length with a decent gauge of conductor. If you
must splice the cable use a heavier gauge if adding much length.

22 gauge speaker cable is quite common, for some reason that audiophiles
will never understand. I am not a supporter of the ridiculous vehicle
booster cables promoted by the salespeople but 10-14 gauge makes a much
better speaker hookup, if quality of sound is any concern. I used to buy
extension cords cheaply and cut the ends off, for the most economical
source.




** Posted from http://www.teranews.com  **

Install the wire in-wall and use wallplates with spring clips in them.  Cut
the wire are the speaker and run that to the wall plate.  At the receiver,
use the other end of the clipped wire to run from that wall plate back to
the receiver.

If it's using such a paltry wire gauge and proprietary connectors then it's
likely a crappy system anyway.  What is it, a Bose?

Use 14 gauge, that way you'll have decent wire in there when you get around
to buying a better solution.  But even if you don't go in-wall, use the
higher gauge.  Electric extension cord wire is an acceptable cheap solution
for a cheap system.  With the higher gauge you won't, at least, lose volume
and clarity due to the loss caused by the added distance.

-Bill Kearney

There's not a lot of evidence that larger wires for speakers makes much
of a difference unless they're going to be hundreds of feet long. You do
not need to match the wire size, either; for audio frequencies, it just
doesn't matter.

Go to the hardware store and get a roll of "speaker wire" which will
probably be #22, but it really does not matter. Cut the existing wire
about a foot from the connector, and splice in whatever lengths of the
new wire it takes to get from "A" to "B". Stripping the conductors back
about an inch, twisting tightly, and taping will work just fine, or use
wirenuts of the proper size (hardware store again).

The most important part (actually, the *only* important part) is to make
sure the conductors don't get swapped. In both the existing wire and the
new stuff, there will be *some* way to differentiate the conductors --
maybe different wire colors (silver, copper), maybe a ridge lengthwise
along one (but not both) conductors, maybe different colors of threads
running along side the conductors, maybe something else. Make sure that
you don't cross over the wires when you add the length. No damage will
occur if you do, but the stereo image may suffer, and the low-frequency
stuff may, too.

Running the wires under a rug is fine; if you do, make an effort to keep
the wire "flat" (no twists), so that even if you walk on it, the
conductors can't cut through the plastic insulation and short. You can
cut the wires in two places if necessary, and splice the new stuff in
the middle, to keep the joints from winding up underneath that rug.

Isaac

Just to make sure I understand correctly: it is okay for the wire to
come out of the speakers at 22 gauge, then switch to 14 and then back
to 22 for the receiver connection?

It is a Panasonic PT-SC660 btw, a cheap system, but aside from this
wiring glitch, I have no complaints.