8 Gauge Speaker Cable


Hey. I recently moved to a new house and just finished ripping out a closet to make my audio room bigger. :-) I want to run my rear speaker cable through the ceiling and behind the wall I haven't put up yet.

1) Is this a good idea? There is nothing up there now except some plumbing. The outlet power lines are 6-8 feet from where I'm running the speaker wire.

2) Extrapolating from www.alphacore.com, in order to run 150 Watts 35 feet, I should use 8 gauge wire or larger. Does 8 gauge mean per terminal (+ or -), both terminals, the outer cover, or something altogether different?

3) Considering the cost of 8 gauge cable and that I only use the rear speakers 2-4 hours a week I'm considering using car audio grade wire and soldering the spades on myself. I used a blue/silver wire twisted into clear tubing in my car. It's $1.50 a foot on eBay. Anyone have experience with this? Good idea or am I missing something? Do I even need the braided wire or can I go with cheaper 8 gauge that isn't twisted?

Thanks!
leoturetsky

Showing 2 responses by jvia

After monitoring this rather long open forum on speaker cable runs, would some one please write and assure me that this is not for the rear channels of a Bose AcoustiMass System? Thanks so much