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Can I use 24 gauge speaker cable?

I’ve been trying to google this but I only get vague answers.
I want to know if I can use 24 gauge cable as speaker cable. And if not: why not?
Usual answers are “no, you should use xx gauge”, but I’m looking for why is that? Will the speakers of the amp go off in flames if the resistance is too high? I don’t even get that because the resistance isn’t even that much of a difference between speaker cable sizes, compared to the speakers resistance.

I’m talking about ca 16ft / 5m distance between amp and speaker. By the way should that measure 16 ft or double (32ft because one cable is plus and the other minus)?
sjeesjie
danvignau's avatar
danvignau
935 posts
 
As long as you use no more than the speaker uses, a few inches.
rwwear
2,850 posts
 
Actually you would need a bigger amp because the wire would have so much resistance it would burn up a lot of power and probably get hot. If you could quadruple the wire it would be fine.
vassils's avatar
vassils
41 posts
 
http://www.audio-consulting.ch/?Parts:Silver_Wire
Speaker wires. They provide better bass than any higher diameter. For systems above 96 dB/W/m a non twisted pair of up to 3 meters will outperform any other speaker cable. And it costs you CHF 72.00 per side!
For lower speaker efficiency you may use two or three runs per polarity.

This is a 24 AWG wire. 
magicrobert
16 posts
 
To the OP, wire your home with this gauge wire. Watch lights flicker. Figure out why. I will give an intelligent answer to an intelligent question. Like phase coherence. But questions that are answered, in this case, without even getting past resistance, without even considering capacitance or inductance don't even qualify for high school science. BTW, when I was young and broke, I used telephone wiring to connect some candy-ass speakers in a bedroom. It worked fine. Low powered amp, small speakers - and they made background music nicely. Why are you asking this question here? Do the math. It isn't hard.

hifijones
115 posts
 
Quote: "I even think I’m the last one to laugh, as there are seriously people who believe their system will sound like a Grand Opera House because they spent literally tens of thousands of dollars on a couple of feet of cable, putting them on tiny wooden elevations costing just as much... "

Laugh and you laugh alone. While it’s true that you don’t have to spend mega-bucks to get great sound, you do have to spend an appreciable amount of money, usually more money than the majority of non-audiophools are comfortable with paying.

So go ahead and get that 24-gauge wire and tell us how it sounds.
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