Is 18 gauge wire OK for speakers?
For most low power home or car speakers (not subwoofers) 18 gauge (18AWG) is fine. 18AWG wire is good for about 50 watts for 4 ohms and 100 watts for 8 ohm loudspeakers up to 50 feet (15 m) or 100 feet (30 m) respectively. For higher power systems or longer lengths, 16 gauge is a great choice.
Is Solid speaker wire better than stranded?
The most significant difference between stranded and solid cable is performance. Because higher gauge conductors (thinner) have more insertion loss than lower gauge (thicker) conductors, stranded cables exhibit 20 to 50% more attenuation than solid copper conductors (20% for 24 AWG and 50% for 26 AWG).
How many amps can 18 gauge speaker handle?
16 Amps
A conservative estimate for several feet of 18 AWG (American Wire Gauge) wire is 16 Amps. However, length plays an important role in the amount of Amps a wire can carry. If you have only 12 inches of wire, the 18 gauge wire can handle more than 16 Amps.
What AWG should speaker cable be?
between 12 to 16 gauge
Speaker wires that are anywhere between 12 to 16 gauge are most commonly used for connecting speakers to an amplifier or an Audio/Video (A/V) receiver. A lower-gauge number indicates a thicker wire, while a higher-gauge number indicates a thinner wire.
Which is thicker 16 gauge or 18 gauge wire?
The gauge is the size of the wire. The higher the number the smaller the wire. If your stereo is high power you might want to use 14 or 12 gauge wire for better power handling. Smaller wire 16 gauge or 18 gauge can get warm or hot with high power amps.
Is AWG wire solid or stranded?
Smaller electrical wire sizes are generally made of solid conductors while wires larger than Number 6 AWG are generally stranded.
Why do houses use solid wire?
Solid wire is thicker, which means less surface area for dissipation. The thinner wires in stranded wire contain air gaps and greater surface area with the individual strands, translating to more dissipation. When choosing between solid or stranded wire for house wiring, the solid wire offers higher current capacity.
How many watts can 18 AWG handle?
18-gauge automotive wire can handle anywhere between 3 and 15 amps, depending on the distance (12.2 ft to 2.4 ft). The shorter the wire, the more current it can handle.
What is 18 gauge wire rated for?
Breaking Force for Copper Wire
| AWG gauge | Conductor Diameter Inches | Maximum amps for chassis wiring |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | 0.0508 | 22 |
| 17 | 0.0453 | 19 |
| 18 | 0.0403 | 16 |
| 19 | 0.0359 | 14 |