Does too small of speaker wire cause extra imp rise

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

I had never thought about it and somebody mentioned to me using too small of speaker wire has too much resistance ....... And I started to think... I wonder if too small of wire affects imp rise. So does it? and if so how much? I know it will vary depending on how undersized the wire is. But is it something in most cases will it will be .05 or less or something like 50 percent

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[DDSC 10+ year member]

any diffrence in size effects imp. I try to use 8 gauge wire whenever possible. not for the impedence rise but for the fact that my voltage stays higher longer when the cars off and the radios on so I can listen to it above more than a wisper for more than 1 minute

 

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

Ok that is fine> But lets hear how much it affects it

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

P=I^2*R

P = Power in Watts

E = Electromotive Force in Volts

I = Electrical Current in Amps

R = Electrical Resistance in Ohms

SQR = Square Root

http://www.bcae1.com/

It depends on how far out of spec you are for the application. For car audio 16-18 ga is fine for well over 1000 watts with less than .1 % loss of voltage or change in impedence. 12 ga is good for over 2000 watts. In cars the legnths are short. Lengths of 100 - 500 feet would require cables to be several times as thick.

You would notice a much larger swing if you tried to use 28 gauge wire. Probably over 50% swing.

Electrically the most significant thing is the voltage drop. The impedence rise is not significant until you get to the point where your heating the cable, then you have other problems anyway; like melting the insulation and setting things on fire.

Thin cables can also negatively effect dampening factors in amplifiers, but again the calbes would have to be way too thin to have a significant impact.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Imp rise is caused by the motion of the coil in and out of the gap. Speaker wire size will not affect this beyond limiting coil motion due to losses from the extra resistance in the circuit (if the wire is too small). Too small of wire will affect how much power transfers through the wire and to the coil, but will not directly affect the imp rise caused by the coil's motion.

 

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

Imp rise is caused by the motion of the coil in and out of the gap. Speaker wire size will not affect this beyond limiting coil motion due to losses from the extra resistance in the circuit (if the wire is too small). Too small of wire will affect how much power transfers through the wire and to the coil, but will not directly affect the imp rise caused by the coil's motion.

Yeah I was kinda thinking along the lines of this. But with this idea being put in my head I always like to research because always willing to learn something new

 

[Plutoman 10+ year member]

Just go with 12/14 gauge or higher and you'll be good. If you ever need more than that, you'll already know enough about it to figure out what you'll need.