Replace speaker wires?

a heavier gauge will improve performance a little... I'm still running the factory loom, and have 40 watts per channel, and no noticeable problems...

Upgrading the speakers will make a big improvement. I did an A-B comparison for a week or so with upgrades on one side and stock on the other. Stock sounded really lousy.

Unless you're really into this, I think that upgrading the wiring won't really buy you much, and it will be a lot more work. This is the inside of a moving car we're talking about, not a concert hall.

I posted a blow-by-blow of what I had to do to replace the speakers in my 03 XS a while ago. E-mail me if you'd like a copy.

Andrew Hess wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Peterman al at scn.rain.com Tigard, OR As I grow older, the days seem longer and the years seem shorter.

You would spend a fortune and then some wiggling wires through your doors. I did DJ work for 13 years. Ran a few hundred watts through standard speaker wires. When teenagers came to me and said "gee your system is loud, what do you have" I tell them a Radio Shack 100W RMS stereo and lots of big speakers (2 -15" and 4- 12" plus midrange and tweeters). Speakers are the thing. Not big wires.

That is correct but insignificant at audio frequencies. At 20 KHz the skin depth for copper is about 10mm.

-rick-

Speaker wires are important to good sound. The bigger the better to a point. Bass requires a good amount of cross sectional area and high frequencies require many strands.

As the previous poster pointed out, when the teenagers say "gee your system is loud, what do you have?" it can mean that there is a lot of distortion and small speaker wires may have in impact on this. Distortion can make a system sound loud as the distortion component is being heard as well as the sound component. Some people don't even realise that the sound is distorted until they hear the same system next to a high powered low distortion system.

I've studied and tested many sound systems in my time. Have you ever noticed that a good system with lots of power and good speakers and cables sound effortless and only as loud as say a lesser powered system. The reason for this is that distortion creeps into the lesser powered system and makes it SOUND as loud but not as pure or clean. I have demonstrated this to many. It is hard to explain and space is too short in this forum but suffice to say, generally, the more well designed power, better components and bigger the leads the better. I would consider a minimum for your speaker leads to be about 2.5 square mm or about 13 awg.

LB,

I would like to know more about this topic as I'm kind of an audiophile myself. I own two Bose systems the Lifestyle 12 and the Wave Radio. But I am unaware of the technicalities that goes with it. Feel free to email me if this too OT.

-Jon