speaker wire - did I get too small of a gauge?

  • 27 March 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 86 views

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Bought some 16 gauge outdoor speaker wire, 4x 60ft runs to some Yamaha 6 ohm speakers controlled by 2x Sonos Amps.

These guys:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00141CTQ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001VHARY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Before buying I researched quickly and bought 16 gauge wire based on this Sonos article:
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4764?language=en_US

 

Once I stripped the wire I started second guessing myself, and now I’m wondering if I should have gotten 14 gauge based on some other things I’ve read.

I could pull new wire fairly easily since I haven’t tied everything down yet.  Should I upgrade to 14 gauge, or should 16 gauge be sufficient? 


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4 replies

Userlevel 7

For less than 80 ft runs, Sonos recommends 16 gauge wire, so you are good.

Are you connecting more than one pair to each Amp? I believe Sonos recommends 8 ohm speakers if you are connecting more than one pair. https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4730?language=en_US

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No, 1 pair of speakers per Amp.

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My concern is all these other charts out there that say 16 gauge is not sufficient, like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_wire


Why the discrepancy?

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Thanks guys.  I decided to leave it.  Quality seems good considering the speakers and volume level is more than enough.