Rear Surround Speaker wire

[kleggett]

Alright here's the deal, i'm putting my 500 rear surrounds up soon in a new house. I have to run flat wire under the carpet. My question is does any have any suggestions on size of the speaker wire. All I can seem to find is 16 g is the run will be about 50' i'm estimating. Thanks for the help in advance!

[HBombToo]

I run the Flat 16 g from the shack but it is only about 30 ft. I have had no problems and even with the spl calibration the rears ended up on the same gain as the front. I think the final setting was about +3 over the range -10--->+10 on my h/k 520.

HBomb

[RuSsMaN]

16awg should be fine on a 50~ft run.

Cheers,
Russ

[PETERNG]

I have the contractor put in the MC 10 awg on mine, about 65 ft (two pairs), go up inside the wall, run across the attic, down on the other side and to the speakers (FX500i), cost me $50 (labor) plus the cost of the speaker cable.

[kleggett]

Peter...i wish I had an attic to work with, the it wouldn't be an issue at all. It's a 2 story condo, so there is no way to go above or below. So i'm stuck with the flat wire under the carpet up the wall option it would seem. I'm almost positive the two runs would be about 50' max, but should the runs be longer at what distance would you say 16 awg would reach max? thanks again guys!

[PETERNG]

if you run cable lengths in excess of fifty feet, you should use at least 14 gauge, 12 gauge is optimal.

[HBombToo]

If your running flat under the carpet, couldn't you just run 2 strands of 16 flat and tie the 2 positives into 1 Bananna plug? I could not find 14 or 12 flat... on the cheap that is.

Just a thought.

HBomb

[RuSsMaN]

As a general rule of thumb, bigger is usually better, but 16awg will work very well in runs of up to 50 ft (give/take), and 14awg for runs of up to 100 ft, anything more than 100 ft - 12awg.

I've got 16 on 32 ft and 44 ft runs to my patio, but went with 14 for the rest of the house rig (up to 80 ft runs), and went 14 on my rears (35 ft runs).

Cheers,
Russ

[JLM2tlistw2]

Try to run the wire under the base board, there is usally a gap small enough for the wires. As far as running up the wall taht is always a problem unless you can find a decoration that would mask the wire or use speaker stands if possible.

[mantis]

Is there any reason you can't run the wires in the wall??

Do you have access underneath or above???Like a basement or attic???
You at least can fish the wires up the wall so you don't see wire on the outside of the wall.Cut out a P ring and use a cable plate,remove the barrel and instant wire plate.Run wire up or down wall.