Cables for rear surrounds


I've got about a 50' distance to get my surrounds wired up from my receiver. Thinking of using 16 gauge pure copper insulated wire with banana plugs. Should I cut any excess lengths which may be about 10' or so. Or does it really matter?? Any tips other than the obvious in wiring for surrounds?

suncore
Anyone think 14g would be better?
Yes, I do. Depending on which of the PSB speakers that are listed in your system description you would be using for surrounds it appears that their impedance is either 4 ohms nominal, or 6 ohms nominal and 4 ohms minimum. IMO, in general it would be good practice to keep speaker cable resistance to about 5% or less of speaker impedance, and preferably less. It can be calculated from this wire gauge table that the combined 100 foot length of two 50 foot conductors of 16 gauge copper wire has a resistance of about 0.4 ohms, or 10% of a 4 ohm speaker impedance. 14 gauge would reduce that to about 0.25 ohms, or about 6% of a 4 ohm speaker impedance. Still not ideal, but probably good enough.

Another issue that can arise when using long cables is inductance, which can result on upper treble rolloff and sluggish transients with some speakers. In this case, though, I suspect that the impedance of the speakers probably rises significantly in the upper part of the treble region, which together with the fact that you are just using them for surrounds will probably reduce that effect to insignificance.

Regards,
-- Al

Check out table one in this article

http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/speaker-cable-gauge

Depending on the speaker Impedance, you might want 12 AWG. I used Blue Jean Cable for my surrounds
+1 to almarg & murphyb74.  Here's another chart:  http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable.  I went to 10 AWG KnuKonceptz cable all around with soldered Audioquest spade terminations and picked up audibly better definition and frequency response.  All of my speakers are 8 ohm nominal impedance and my rear surrounds are 40 and 45 foot runs, respectively.

There are some older threads that address the topic of different speaker cable lengths.  You can decide for yourself after you read through them.  good luck & happy listening!
I see some recommendations for BFA terminations, but I have found them very brittle and prone to breakage. I much prefer spades.
B
gdnrbob,

I've had the opposite experience. I've never experienced an issue with BFA connectors. I've used 5-6 different ones, all the low mass type without fancy screw-on collars,etc. I've never had one bend or break and I've never had one fall out or even become loose. I can't say the same about spades. I've had them come loose on several occasions. 

I can't speak for all of the various manufacturers of BFA type banana connectors. But the ones I've used, starting with Nordost Z-Plugs, have been rock solid.

The only time I would choose spades over BFA bananas is if I had to place the speaker directly against the wall. BFAs require a couple of inches of clearance for most speakers.