Speaker cable is literally the end of the line in a car audio system. It’s job is to send power from an amplifier to the speakers. Like power cable, speaker wire can carry significant amounts of power, and therefore the size of the wire depends on the amount of power it’s asked to carry. Also like power wire, speaker wire comes in various gauges (see Figure 18-9).
Figure 18-9:
A Stinger 16-gauge speaker wire.
Divide and conquer
Unwanted noise can occur in a car audio system when signal cables are in close proximity to components that radiate Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). Lots of components in a modern automobile emit EMI, but the biggest sources are those that require a lot of power, such as power-seat and power-window motors. Large factory power cables and car audio components and cables can also introduce noise into a car audio system's signal cables.
To avoid EMI, route signal cables as far as possible from components that can cause noise — even car audio power wires. That's why installers always route a system's signal cable on one side of a vehicle and power wiring on the other.
The higher the power and the longer the wire run, the lower gauge speaker wire you’ll need. Speaker cables are available in sizes from 10 to 18 gauge, but for most applications you’ll likely use 12 to 16 gauge. Oxygen-free speaker wire supposedly offers the best possible sound quality, and some speaker cables comes in a twisted-pair design to improve noise rejection, although it isn’t as much of an issue with speaker-level signals.
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