Home Theater Wiring: Speakers

When buying a new set of speakers don't forget to add in the cost of speaker wires and connectors into your overall speaker budget.  Until we advance to the era of wireless speakers with affordable, high quality sound, we will continue to need to run wire for each set of speakers.

Speaker wire size

The question I see asked more then anything about speaker wiring is, what size speaker wire should I get?

There are several options, but generally speaker wire ranges from 16 guage to 12 guage with 16 being smaller and 12 guage being bigger.  Some people assume that the bigger the cable, the better the sound.  This is often times not the case, for example a short run with 16 guage speaker wire will sound just as good as a short run with 12 guage speaker wire.  Where the bigger cable does become important is in long cable runs of 200 feet or more.

Speaker wire types

There are several kinds of speaker wire types.  It is important to note that when running speaker wire in your walls, make sure that you are using in wall rated speaker wire.  I have heard horror stories of people's insurance companies refusing to pay a fire claim because of not using the proper rated wiring, even though the wire had no impact on the fire.

While the best way to wire is to plan and run speaker wire during the construction phase, sometimes that is not possible.  What options do you have to hide unsightly speaker wires?  Some companies produce special flat speaker wire that you can place and paint over to hide the cable.  Many people run speaker wire behind the baseboard or install special cable tracking to hide wiring.

Speaker connections

There are several speaker connection options to consider.  Many low to mid end speakers will have spring terminals allowing you to insert the speaker wire into a terminal and the connection is made through a spring loaded connector.  A better option is the binding post terminals.  Binding post terminal allow for a more secure connection by screwing down over spade connectors or accepting banana plugs.

A banana plug is a connector that gets placed on the end of speaker wire to easily connect to the speaker.  Banana plugs are convenient and easy to connect.

What about bare speaker wires?  Although the use of connectors make for a secure and convenient connection, some will argue that the direct bare wire connection will sound better because of the direct connection.  There are many connection choices.  Take a look around at connection options and choose what best works for your individual system.

Cost

As with other home theater wiring options, beware of overpriced connectors and speaker wires.  Some manufacturers will try to sell you on the benefits of their wire or the sound quality of thick wires, the truth is generally low to moderate priced 16 guage speaker wire will sound nearly identical to the overpriced, over marketed speaker wire options.

Check out the home theater wiring page for additional information about audio and video cables as well as HDMI.