Best kind of wire for in-wall speaker wire installation?

Question

Over the summer we will be finishing our basement (at least partially) and would like to move our Home Theater setup (5.1 Surround Sound + Buying a new HDTV) to the finished room in the basement.

For cosmetic purposes, we would like to run our Surround Sound Speaker wires through the walls. I was wondering what kind of Speaker Wire I should buy? I've been reading online and I see a lot of recommendation for 16-guage, some for 14-guage/2, I really don't know what those numbers mean (except for the lower the number the thicker the wire) and I don't know what size wire is best for in-wall wiring.

Also, does Brand Name for speaker wire matter? If so, what brand names could you recommend? Is THX Certification something to aim for?

We don't really have the best quality sound system, but definitely want to leave room/capability (at least in terms of wiring) for upgraded speakers sometime in the future.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

Answer 1

16 or 14 guage does infact refer to the thickness of the wire. The more power (watts) you are delivering through the speakers the heavier guage wire you want to use. (14g is thicker than 16g). The 2 in 16/2 or 14/2 refers to the number of conductors that are inside the plastic jacket. So 16/2 is 2 wires of 16 guage in the jacket.

I have been running speaker wire for various uses for 15 years this is my advice. Yes, quality of wire matters; to those who can hear the difference. If you are someone who listens to their system a lot, you will hear a difference. If you are a casual listener then you may not hear the difference. I can hear the difference.

I personally choose Monster brand wire for home theatres. If you don't want to spend the money look into "belden" wire or "genesis" wire. These are lesser brands that I like. For the love of Pete, DO NOT BUY RADIO SHACK WIRE!! Or really anything Radio Shack branded, consider yourself warned.

In regards to guage selection. I have found that 16g is ok for runs of less than 50' and are carrying 100W or so of power. (Your average theatre with the typical receiver/amplifier)

If you are going to use more power 150W+ I would recommend 14g wire.

Answer 2

Best In Wall Speaker Wire

Answer 3

Installation of Home Theater cables is different than security cabling. Security cabling is usually a CAT5e or similar type cable. It is easier to pull and smaller holes on floor joists are required. HIFi cables are much thickeer and less flexible, and you don't want someone yanking them through small holes and bending them around corners, especially coaxile cables. If you over bend a coaxile cable, it will compromise the signal flow at the distorted point. I would see if your security system guy has installed HiFi cable before, and if he or she has, it might be okay. I am sure you are encountering a huge markup from the home theater installation guy, but they most likely gave you advise on what to buy, and there is a cost related to that. Also, they may warrantee the installation is something goes wrong, or is something is not connected properly. If you split the service, forget about any warantee. A $1500 cable project is not really that large, and it might be simple, letting you forget about warrantee's. How many cables are being installed, and what type of cables? If they are mostly speaker wires, you can let the security guy do it. If you have remote locations for DVD players and other components, and are running a number of line level audio and video cables, HDMi or DVI cables, you might want to think about it a bit.

Answer 4

HOLD THE PHONE!!

DO NOT buy monster cable. It is ridiculously expensive and you WILL NOT hear a difference. 14 guage wire will probably be good enough but for longer runs (which surround speakers are) I would go with a good quality oxygen free 12 guage wire. The Radioshack brand will be fine for your application. People will always advise you to get the most expensive stuff when they're spending YOUR money.

Answer 5

I would definitely look into a good quality name brand speaker wire ( such as monster cable), but if on a tight budget, there are many home theater rated in-wall cables you can go with, i used Belden 16 Ga for my whole house system and went with Monster 16 ga for my home theater and both sound good. Also before you decide to go with 14 or even 12 ga cable, make sure your receiver and/or amplifier can accept those larger cables. And whatever you do don't buy the most expensive cables out there and connect them to a $49.95 budget in-wall speaker.

Answer 6

Hello, I've been doing custom installs for several years now and I think that for in-wall speaker wire runs you definately want to go with custom in-wall speaker wire. In-wall wire is more flexible than regular speaker wire and it has a special jacket that resists interference and is smooth and low on friction so that it's easy to pull it through walls and tight spaces.

As far as brand name goes...the name is not as important as the quality of the wire. I see a lot of responses on here that say go with 14ga or 12ga, but that really isn't necessary if this isn't a high-end system with a ton of wattage going to the speakers. Add to it, we are talking about surround speakers which aren't quite as critical as say the center channel. How long is the run from the receiver to the speakers? If it's less than or about 50 feet, you'll be just fine with 16ga wire. I guarantee that if you spent the money for 14 or 12ga you and probably everyone else answering this question (myself included) would not be able to tell the difference.

THX certification....is it cool? Is it worth the money? Yes, I think it's cool but you're the one who has to decide if it's worth the money. To buy THX speaker wire would be a little pointless if every other component in your system is not THX certified all the way down to the acoustic treatments of your room. Plus, I've heard a ton of non-THX systems that sound absolutely phenomenal and rival the sound in local movie theaters. If you want to use THX speaker wire so you can go all THX in the future, by all means do it but you will be spending more money for it.

Okay, down to the details. I used Monster Custom Install (CI) Cables for my latest installs. I use a website called shopallmonster.com that has some really good deals and fast shipping. I went with the Monster Standard® Plenum Two Conductor UL CL3P Speaker Cable and it costs about $.80/foot. Let's say you have regular 5.1 surrround sound right now but you want to pre-wire for 7.1 where you have 4 surround speakers as opposed to 2. Let's assume the rear speakers are 50 feet from the receiver. You would need 200feet of wire (50x4) and at $.80/foot = $160. Not a bad deal if you ask me. You can also use the same wire for your front speakers as well. I assure you...you won't be disappointed.

If you want to go all out and pre-wire for an overhead projector some day, you could also look at the custom install component video cables and run a long cable from the receiver location to where you would mount the projector in the ceiling. The wire runs about $7/foot but it's worth it.

These are all ideas of course but they will save you money down the road if you ever do decide to upgrade. I hope my information was useful and I'll post the links to the products I mentioned below. Good luck, have fun, and enjoy your system!

Answer 7

Without knowing how much wire you will be running, I would recommend 16 or 14 Gage wire, depending on the length of your speaker wire run.
Whether to use regular speaker wire or Monster Cable, that should be entirely up to you and whether you could afford the price difference or not.
You might want to also check with your local zoning laws, and check whether the have laws governing speaker wires in Walls and their specifications.

Answer 8

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Well, it depends on how big the room is, and a few other factors. Are you wiring for just the speakers? Will all of your components be in one place or will they be far apart? I'm not sure what all the cables are that he wants $500 for, but if they are good cables then that's not bad. As far as the $1000, then I guess that also depends on if you have your walls up yet, and again - how big the room is.

Answer 9

Moster Cable would be best, but quite spendy esp. considering your current system .......
I would suggest 12 guage shielded, still gives
you decent quality even with future upgrades.
Just check electronics stores to see what the
difference is for going with thicker speaker wire.
It's always best not to "go cheap" with anything
that involves speakers, since your overall sound
quality is deeply impacted by the speakers you
have. Even the best quality audio components
will sound poor when played through low-end
speakers.

Hope this helps.

Answer 10

If you are running short runs and your amp is under 700 watts, 16 guage is fine, over 700 watts, go 14 guage. Go high end if you amp is high current. If the wires are going to be inspected, then you will have to use a wire that is "fire skinned", if you don't, you will have to rip it out and start over.