Too big of speaker wire?

[Xander]

I am planning my IB build. It will be an "outie" manifold with the subs reversed, so the baskets will be visible.

I have a bunch of 8awg leftover from my car installation and wanted to use it as speaker wire for the subs, just for the heck of it. It would look pretty awesome. Subs are 4 of the AE IB15s.

My question is, will the capacitance in the wire be high enough to have a negative affect on sound quality? Will it be noticeable in the <60hz range? I can't seem to find much on the maximum speaker wire size, only minimum based on the "less than 5% of the speaker's nominal impedance in the speaker wire" rule.

edit: Forgot to mention cable length. It will be pretty short, probably 10 feet max from amp to first sub, and all 4 subs will be in line next to eachother. So in all...30 feet round trip max.

And the 8awg cable is made up of a ton of really thin strands. It's not welder's wire. It's StreetWires I think.

[ThomasW]

I am planning my IB build. It will be an "outie" manifold with the subs reversed, so the baskets will be visible.

Okay that's a first..

I have a bunch of 8awg leftover from my car installation and wanted to use it as speaker wire for the subs, just for the heck of it. It would look pretty awesome. Subs are 4 of the AE IB15s.

It's very important to have wire that's so big it looks like a dead python lying on the floor. This is a requirement and seen at all high-end audio stores. So you're in good shape.... :T

My question is, will the capacitance in the wire be high enough to have a negative affect on sound quality? Will it be noticeable in the <60hz range? I can't seem to find much on the maximum speaker wire size, only minimum based on the "less than 5% of the speaker's nominal impedance in the speaker wire" rule.

edit: Forgot to mention cable length. It will be pretty short, probably 10 feet max from amp to first sub, and all 4 subs will be in line next to eachother. So in all...30 feet round trip max.

And the 8awg cable is made up of a ton of really thin strands. It's not welder's wire. It's StreetWires I think.

If you have an LCR meter you could measure the capacitance. If you don't have a meter, I certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over this...

[---k---]

It will be an "outie" manifold with the subs reversed, so the baskets will be visible.

Can I ask why? Just to look cool?

[joecarrow]

To make a rough estimate of the capacitance, you look at surface area and separation. Here's a link:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/pplate.html

The surface area between the positive and negative wire ought to be small, the separation is much larger than a purpose-built capacitor, and so I say that the capacitance of these subwoofer wires ought to be several orders of magnitude smaller than would have a measurable effect on the subwoofer output.

I don't think that this size and length of wire will have capacitance issues for any analog audio signal.

[Xander]

Can I ask why? Just to look cool?

Not 100%. The other side of the wall is the bathroom, with a shower (and a fan). I would rather have the subs' cones exposed to the humidity than the baskets and motors.

I did buy an LCR meter for my dad as a gift. I'll be home for Thanksgiving, I could measure the wire there.

Thanks for the info guys, and the laugh.

And don't worry, I'll be posting pics during the build. Hopefully the first week of January.

[fjhuerta]

Not 100%. The other side of the wall is the bathroom, with a shower (and a fan). I would rather have the subs' cones exposed to the humidity than the baskets and motors.

I think that's a bad idea, regardless of the side that will be exposed to humidity. But don't quote me on that.

[Undefinition]

It's very important to have wire that's so big it looks like a dead python lying on the floor. This is a requirement and seen at all high-end audio stores. So you're in good shape.... :T

:rofl:

[Xander]

I think that's a bad idea, regardless of the side that will be exposed to humidity. But don't quote me on that.

ThomasW said it'd be fine. Over on the IB Cult forums I had a small thread about planning it out. I know it's not optimal. But it's pretty much the only spot I could do it (small college house) and I really want to try IB.

And my friends and roommates are excited about having 4 15" subs in our theatre :B