What are the Potential Improvements Going from 12 Gauge to 9 Gauge Speaker Cables?

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Generically speaking, what improvements (if any) might I expect to hear going from a pair of 12 gauge speaker cables in an 8 foot length to the same brand and length of 9 gauge cables?
 
Shadowfax said:
I was always curious why tiny wire is used inside the speaker and not 10 or 12 gauge like we feed it with.
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Could it be because the current only has to go from point-to-point inside the cabinet? :skeptical:
 
Complex multi component crossovers eat up a lot of power.
once the frequencies have been divided the load is reduced thus smaller wires are used to the drivers.
Feeding the crossovers with a reasonable sized cable is similar to feeding your system with decent sized main power feed wires.
As per an audible difference between 12Ga and 9Ga speaker cables of the same make, type and length, I would be very doubtful that you could notice a difference.
In my many DIY speaker cables, wire size was one of the least distinguishing traits.
 
Shadowfax said:
I was always curious why tiny wire is used inside the speaker and not 10 or 12 gauge like we feed it with.
Click to expand...

Having PAP Trio 15 Horn speakers, I can select the gauge wire from my crossover to driver. My woofers definitely like larger wire. I have about 12 AWG to the woofers and 14 awg to the horn. With 14 awg to the woofers, they loose bass power and depth.
 
jadedavid said:
Complex multi component crossovers eat up a lot of power.
once the frequencies have been divided the load is reduced thus smaller wires are used to the drivers.
Feeding the crossovers with a reasonable sized cable is similar to feeding your system with decent sized main power feed wires.
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Click to expand...
Well that's not exactly how crossovers work. Unless the crossover has big resistors, it uses almost no power. The crossover would get very hot if it did use a lot of power. Most of the power is to the woofer and that's before and after the crossover.

The difference between before and after the crossover has to do with the total end-to-end resistance of the cable in respect to the impedance curve of the loudspeaker.
 
Speedskater said:
Well that's not exactly how crossovers work. Unless the crossover has big resistors, it uses almost no power. The crossover would get very hot if it did use a lot of power. Most of the power is to the woofer and that's before and after the crossover.

The difference between before and after the crossover has to do with the total end-to-end resistance of the cable in respect to the impedance curve of the loudspeaker.
Click to expand...

I was not aware that ohms law changed, allowing for a "free lunch".
But then it's good to learn something new everyday.
 
You need heavy gauge wire for long runs and current hungry speakers. Many years ago, when I bought a pair of Magnepan MMG's,
all I had was 18g zip cord and 16g Monster wire that was 15' long. I tried them out of curiosity. Both became hot and the 18g developed charring at the speaker end. No problems when I inserted 10g.
 
Tubes said:
Generically speaking, what improvements (if any) might I expect to hear going from a pair of 12 gauge speaker cables in an 8 foot length to the same brand and length of 9 gauge cables?
Click to expand...

Are going to actually test this? Or, is this just hypothetical?

Anyway, it is a pretty substantial difference.
 
Tubes said:
Generically speaking, what improvements (if any) might I expect to hear going from a pair of 12 gauge speaker cables in an 8 foot length to the same brand and length of 9 gauge cables?
Click to expand...

In case you're still interested in reading subjective experiences with this, the closest thing you may do is to find reports from people who "double run" their speaker cables, especially among the DIY cable users. Doing a double run lowers the AWG value by 3, i.e. with a double run of AWG 12 you get an effective AWG 9.

There is also a cable company whose Level 3 AWG 9 speaker cable product offering is just a double run of its Level 2 solid core AWG 12 product. So you can read its manufacturer claim of the benefits with this upgrade and user reports.
 
Shadowfax said:
I was always curious why tiny wire is used inside the speaker and not 10 or 12 gauge like we feed it with.
Click to expand...

It's really a matter of length. The resistance of a wire goes like length/(cross-sectional area). Wires inside a speaker don't need to be very long (say, a few feet for towers) compared to the length of speaker cables (room size, say 8 feet or more). The shorter the length of the wire, the smaller the acceptable diameter.
 
No difference. 8 feet of 9 gauge cable is 0.0063 ohms, 8 feet of 12 gauge wire is 0.0127 ohms, about a factor of 2 bigger. The (complex) impedance of each of your speakers is, well, complicated, but it's real part will almost always be above a few ohms at audio frequencies. This means you should compare a few ohms to the difference of a difference of about 6 thousandths of an ohm. It's like a foot out of 100 yards.
 
Tubes said:
Generically speaking, what improvements (if any) might I expect to hear going from a pair of 12 gauge speaker cables in an 8 foot length to the same brand and length of 9 gauge cables?
Click to expand...

Potential is always there... Reality is something different. Your household wiring is either 14 gauge on 15A line or it is 12 gauge on the 20A line. If your amp/speakers can dissipate more than the 1500w sustained/1800w circuit breaker tripping, available to them from the 15A household line, then you got some serious potential for the 9 gauge speaker cable!
 
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