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previous: Stan I just ordered the Weber California... -- 10/6/1999 7:37 PM	View Thread

Re: speaker wire gauge 18awg or 16 awg

10/7/1999 6:30 AM
Lord Valve	Re: speaker wire gauge 18awg or 16 awg Lord Valve Speaketh: Well, Stan...I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but considering the amount of wire necessary to reach the speakers in a Twin Reverb, you could probably use two pieces of coathanger and not hear the difference. NO, 16 gauge will not have more bass and less highs. The output impedance of your amplifier is so low that you'd need to use a capacitor in the micro-farad range to have any audible effect on the high-frequency performance of the speakers...not to mention which, typical guitar speakers don't reproduce much of anything beyond 6 KHz or so. The capacitance of a small piece of 16- (or 1 gauge speaker wire will be way down in the pF range, where it can't possibly make any difference. As for the difference between the two sizes, I use the Chicken Soup Principle..."it couldn't hoit!" 16-gauge wire will be more mechanically robust, and less likely to break or come unsoldered due to vibration. Hair- splitters may delight in pointing out that 16-gauge wire will have less resistance (than an equal length of 18-guage wire) and will therefor transfer a greater amount of power to the load. While this is true, the difference in power transfer between these two gauges in the length we're talking about (around a foot) would require some fairly sophisticated test equipment just to detect, and it's a lead-pipe cinch that no-one would be able to hear it. So sayeth the Lord. Lord Valve (sig lite)

10/7/1999 6:30 AM

Lord Valve
email

Re: speaker wire gauge 18awg or 16 awg

Lord Valve Speaketh:
Well, Stan...I know this isn't what you wanted to hear,
but considering the amount of wire necessary to reach
the speakers in a Twin Reverb, you could probably use
two pieces of coathanger and not hear the difference.
NO, 16 gauge will *not* have more bass and less highs.
The output impedance of your amplifier is so low that
you'd need to use a capacitor in the micro-farad range
to have any audible effect on the high-frequency
performance of the speakers...not to mention which,
typical guitar speakers don't reproduce much of anything
beyond 6 KHz or so. The capacitance of a small piece
of 16- (or 1 8-)

gauge speaker wire will be way down in
the pF range, where it can't possibly make any difference.
As for the difference between the two sizes, I use the
Chicken Soup Principle..."it couldn't hoit!" 16-gauge
wire will be more mechanically robust, and less likely
to break or come unsoldered due to vibration. Hair-
splitters may delight in pointing out that 16-gauge
wire will have less resistance (than an equal length
of 18-guage wire) and will therefor transfer a greater
amount of power to the load. While this is true, the
difference in power transfer between these two gauges
in the length we're talking about (around a foot) would
require some fairly sophisticated test equipment just
to detect, and it's a lead-pipe cinch that no-one
would be able to hear it. So sayeth the Lord.

Lord Valve
(sig lite)

Replies:

stan you are a veritable fountain of kno... -- 10/7/1999 2:56 PM