Speaker cable wire size measurement ???

[seadoogsx1996]

Hi,

 

Anyone know what is Diameter of 12 gauge speaker cable in mm unit ?

The diameter in mm measure ONLY COPPER Wire, NOT included the plastic insulation.

 

Thanks:idea:

[MrJoshua]

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

[seadoogsx1996]

Thanks for reply,

I did search and see that table, 12 gauge speaker = 2 mm diameter ( just copper wire ) , but some other site say 3 mm. I'm confuse.

[W. M. Hellinger]

 

Thanks for reply, I did search and see that table, 12 gauge speaker = 2 mm diameter ( just copper wire ) , but some other site say 3 mm. I'm confuse.

 

Ah... I'll bet I know why the descrepency:

 

2mm diameter is roughly the same as 3 sq. mm.

[TimmyP]

I believe that 12 gauge wire is just slightly larger than 4mm2 wire, making 4mm2 about 13 gauge.

[Robert Rowe]

I'm from a construction background.

 

In my experience (I'm not an electrician) working with wire, I know that various gauged wire can have different sheathing / insulating covering over the core-wire.

 

In-other-words, the advertised core-wire size must conform to code specs, but nothing restricts the material or size of the sheathing.

 

You may be familiar with what is known as "Romex", which is the white, flat wiring you can see running through the framing of a structure, before sheetrock is hung. That gauged-wire is common, and can appear in other sheathing forms, such as round cross-section.

 

Therefore, there is no one size of the outside dimension. Only the wire-size ("core wire") is a standardized dimension.

[seadoogsx1996]

Thanks for reply,

 

It's true. The core wire will be standard. I just measure my others speaker cable and compare with I just got. Also, information in here and other site. It's is 2mm diameter core wire for 12 AWG.

[Dogoth]

The 2mm sounds about right for a solid piece of copper wire however wire guage is realy spec'd on circular mils. The electrons flow along the outside or surface of the wire - not through it so a 2mm tightly packed bundle of very fine strands may well have a lot more current carrying capacity than a solid piece (because of the surface area) and would therefor be called a lower guage number (like say 11 or 10 guage). As stated, there are factors other than guage that rate the current and voltage capacity of wire (I.E. dialectric, outer wrap, heat resistance of the insulation etc...) however if you're talking about speaker wire and the loss incured at high wattage then guage is what matters.

 

Personaly I like the fine stranded stuff with a soft neoprene jacket because it's so flexable and memory resistant but you pay a premium for it.