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Topic: Invisible (flat) speaker wires |
Vern Wall
From:
Arizona, USA
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Posted 8 Sep 2005 12:43 pm |
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"Invisible" speaker wire—no fishing inside the walls.
No drilling necessary. Just press Taperwire™ on the wall and attach your speakers and sound system. Hidden by paint, wallpaper or spackle, this paper-thin wire will go unnoticed. You can even lay it under carpets—no bulges!
LINK
I would guess this is not durable enough for professional use. At $29.50 for a 25 foot roll, you might or might not want to try it. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 8 Sep 2005 1:01 pm
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| I notice it's 18 gauge wire. That's not enough for any musical or PA speakers. You'll get a lot of loss with that small wire. |
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Michael Garnett
From:
Seattle, WA
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Posted 8 Sep 2005 4:18 pm
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So long as we're reading about interesting speaker wire possibilities, here's an interesting link to a do-it-yourself professional grade speaker wire job that you can do with ordinary CAT-5 (ethernet) wire.
Not very easy on the eyes, and would not handle constant setup and teardown, but something for you guys wanting to set up a studio or something on a budget.
http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html
-MG |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 9 Sep 2005 3:23 am
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| That's a lot of labor. |
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Bob Martin
From:
Madison Tn
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Posted 9 Sep 2005 3:43 am
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Thanks Vern that looks like it will work great with my home theater surround sound system. I think 18 gauge will do fine for my low powered speakers such as my sattelite speakers. I wouldn't want to use it for the sub woofer but then again there's no need for that due to the positioning of the sub.
Bob |
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Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 9 Sep 2005 4:51 am
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18 gauge wire can handle well over 10 amps at 120vac, that's 1200 watts! The problem is long runs of wire to a 4 or 8 ohm load. The resistance of the wire is in series with the load (speaker)and will create a voltage divider. That allows some of the power to be dissipated over the wire itself. Ideally for an 8 ohm load more than 0.8 ohms of total wire resistance is not desirable. Depending on the stranding, 18 AWG wire can run 5.5 to 8.5 ohms per 1000 feet. So for the worst case wire (8.5 ohms per 1000', 16 strands of 30 AWG copper)100 feet would be 0.85 ohms. Ideally then a 50 cable would create a 10 percent max loss in signal. Ever notice how the speaker-connect wire in the back of your amp is about 16 to 18 awg! It can handle the power. Distance is the problem.
When designing low voltage (25 volt and 70 volt) sound distribution systems in schools and public buildings we used 18 to 22 AWG for paging speakers. Each speaker was tapped typically at 1/2 watt (1250 ohms at 25 VRMS or 9800 ohms at 70 volts). These speakers had such a high impedance in relation to the wire resistance that long runs were very efficient. The high impedance is accomplished with a line matching transformer with selectable power taps on the typical 8 ohm speakers (4 or 8 inch cone, typical).
There is probably a lot more that could be said here, but a general statement that 18 AWG wire is not good for sound reinforcement is not totally correct unless the math is done first! People make a fortune selling too large a cable for home theater applications! [This message was edited by Ken Fox on 09 September 2005 at 05:54 AM.] |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 9 Sep 2005 6:50 am
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I'd watch that "under the carpet" thing! I was having carpet laid in my master bedroom once and I ran some speaker and antenna wires across the room to use and I'll be danged if the carpet layer didn't cut right through 'em when he laid the pad and carpet. All my work was for nothing. I'd tacked the antenna wire down all the way across and even tacked the speaker wire down with little clips and his carpet knife went right through everything along the wall. The wire's still there but I can't use it....JH in Va.
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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!
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Mark Herrick
From:
Bakersfield, CA
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Posted 9 Sep 2005 9:43 am
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| Quote: |
| ...here's an interesting link to a do-it-yourself professional grade speaker wire job that you can do with ordinary CAT-5 (ethernet) wire. |
I have seen this site before. It would be a lot of work to make any long run of this cable, but I always wondered if it would work for connecting the speaker in an amp cabinet...
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Michael Garnett
From:
Seattle, WA
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Posted 9 Sep 2005 2:17 pm
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Sure, that's a lot of work, but figure with the brand of CAT5 they're talking about, you're getting 6' of cable for $45. 5' of Kimber 8tc retails for around $185. Is a little bit of labor worth a %75 percent markdown for a better quality cable?
-MG |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 9 Sep 2005 4:27 pm
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A general rule of thumb is not to spend gobs of money on speaker wire unless you've spent gobs of money on a speaker! Speakers costing thousands of dollars each, driven by amplifiers that also cost thousands of dollars, may indeed dictate "audiophile" wires. If you've got a couple of "Experience Music 300-B" single power tube amplifiers ($9,500 per pair), and a pair of "2nd Rethm Lowther DX4" single-speaker enclosures (about $6,500), you might be able to justify using fancy CAT5 or Kimber speaker wires.
But for 99.99% of the people out there, it's probably just a waste of money.  |
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