Speaker cable placement question

[jay b]

Hi,

I just bought a new surround sound speaker system. I've had it for
a week , but I'm hooking up the rear speakers now. I've got 16 gauge
wire which the guy at the store told me was thick enough, and I've got
both the speakers wire lengths evenly matched. But my question has to do
with what wires can run along with the speakers wires. I've got my
television coaxial running along with one of the cable for around 25'.
Is that okay ? Or will it cause interference ? I hope it won't but I'm
just checking beforehand.

tia,

jason





--
((¯`'·.¸(¯`'·.((¯`'·.¸ * jason bean* ¸.·'´¯))¸.·'´¯)¸.·'´¯))

For me , said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine bottle,"
and he reached his hand up for it.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~jbean3
http://musicpage.kicks-ass.org/

[Michael R. Kesti]

jay b wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just bought a new surround sound speaker system. I've had it for
>a week , but I'm hooking up the rear speakers now. I've got 16 gauge
>wire which the guy at the store told me was thick enough,

Speaker wire gauge requirements depend on their length and the amount of
current that will flow through them, so 16 gauge may well be adequate, but
I'd probably use something heavier.

> and I've got
>both the speakers wire lengths evenly matched.

That's nice, but it's completely irrelevant to all aspects of system
performance.

> But my question has to do
>with what wires can run along with the speakers wires. I've got my
>television coaxial running along with one of the cable for around 25'.
>Is that okay ? Or will it cause interference ? I hope it won't but I'm
>just checking beforehand.

Because amplifier outputs and speakers are very low impedance devices, it
is difficult to induce interference on them. You can probably run your
speaker cables along any kind of signal or power cable you're likely to
have in your home and not be able to detect any ill effect.

--
================================================== ======================
Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
| - The Who, Bargain

[Todd H.]

jay b > writes:
> Hi,
>
> I just bought a new surround sound speaker system. I've had it
> for a week , but I'm hooking up the rear speakers now. I've got 16
> gauge wire which the guy at the store told me was thick enough, and
> I've got both the speakers wire lengths evenly matched. But my
> question has to do with what wires can run along with the speakers
> wires. I've got my television coaxial running along with one of the
> cable for around 25'. Is that okay ? Or will it cause interference ? I
> hope it won't but I'm just checking beforehand.
>
> tia,
>
> jason

16 ga should be fine for surround speakers for most sane cable
lengths. I wouldn't use such wire for main speakers or subs though
since their current requirements tend to be far heavier.

Parallel runs of anything with coax cable shouldn't be a problem
either. You've got several things here working for ya--for one,
coaxial cable by its very construction doesn't radiate much, and its
outer shield makes it fairly impervious to having interference induced
in it. Second, the frequencies these two are dealing with are very
different--relatively high voltage audio signals topping out at 20kHz
in the speaker cable, fed by a low impedance audio power amp, versus a
low voltage well shielded cable running things in the hundreds of MHz
frequency range.

So yer fine! Enjoy!

Best Regards,
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Todd H
\ / | http://www.toddh.net/
X Promoting good netiquette | http://triplethreatband.com/
/ \ http://www.toddh.net/netiquette/ | "4 lines suffice."

[Laurence Payne]

On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 13:22:17 -0400, jay b
> wrote:

> I just bought a new surround sound speaker system. I've had it for
>a week , but I'm hooking up the rear speakers now. I've got 16 gauge
>wire which the guy at the store told me was thick enough, and I've got
>both the speakers wire lengths evenly matched.

Fine. But unnecessary.


>But my question has to do
>with what wires can run along with the speakers wires. I've got my
>television coaxial running along with one of the cable for around 25'.
>Is that okay ? Or will it cause interference ? I hope it won't but I'm
>just checking beforehand.

If you run the speakers really loud, I suppose the TV might pick
something up. But I doubt it.

[Richard Crowley]

"jay b" wrote ...
> I just bought a new surround sound speaker system. I've had it for a week
> , but I'm hooking up the rear speakers now. I've got 16 gauge wire which
> the guy at the store told me was thick enough,

You have not provided enough information for anyone to judge
whether 16-ga is sufficient. Beware of "the guy at the store". He
may actually know less about it than you already do. It seems
unlikely that he was hired for his technical expertiese.

> and I've got both the speakers wire lengths evenly matched.

Dunno why that would affect anything. Seems like useless effort.

> But my question has to do with what wires can run along with the speakers
> wires. I've got my television coaxial running along with one of the cable
> for around 25'. Is that okay ? Or will it cause interference ? I hope it
> won't but I'm just checking beforehand.

You have a chance of something like 1 in 10,000 that there will
be any kind of problem at all. (Assuming that there is no metal-
to metal contact anywhere).

[Kevin McMurtrie]

In article >,
jay b > wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just bought a new surround sound speaker system. I've had it for
> a week , but I'm hooking up the rear speakers now. I've got 16 gauge
> wire which the guy at the store told me was thick enough, and I've got
> both the speakers wire lengths evenly matched. But my question has to do
> with what wires can run along with the speakers wires. I've got my
> television coaxial running along with one of the cable for around 25'.
> Is that okay ? Or will it cause interference ? I hope it won't but I'm
> just checking beforehand.
>
> tia,
>
> jason

I'd keep the cables away from heavy foot traffic, gardening tools, slip
'n' fall lawyers, warm uranium rocks, rodents, open fires, and corrosive
chemicals.

No, it isn't a problem to run them next to other cables and electronics.

[Tzortzakakis Dimitrios]

For your information, the coaxial is shielded, to avoid such interference.In
the same conduit, or in a nearby, you could have an electricity cable, and
TV signal, being AM can easily be interferred. (AM-amplitude modulation).The
chances are almost zero for the opposite to happen, as the speaker signal is
a low-voltage high-current ac signal.

--
Dimitris Tzortzakakis,Iraklion Crete,Greece
major in electrical engineering
freelance electrician
dimtzort AT otenet DOT gr
? "jay b" > ?????? ??? ??????
...
> Hi,
>
> I just bought a new surround sound speaker system. I've had it for
> a week , but I'm hooking up the rear speakers now. I've got 16 gauge
> wire which the guy at the store told me was thick enough, and I've got
> both the speakers wire lengths evenly matched. But my question has to do
> with what wires can run along with the speakers wires. I've got my
> television coaxial running along with one of the cable for around 25'.
> Is that okay ? Or will it cause interference ? I hope it won't but I'm
> just checking beforehand.
>
> tia,
>
> jason
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> ((¯`'·.¸(¯`'·.((¯`'·.¸ * jason bean* ¸.·'´¯))¸.·'´¯)¸.·'´¯))
>
> For me , said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine bottle,"
> and he reached his hand up for it.
>
> http://home.cogeco.ca/~jbean3
> http://musicpage.kicks-ass.org/
>