How can I tell whether speaker wire is 14 gauge?

[Robert Green]

Got some new speaker wire from an Amazon vendor today. It was claimed to be

14GA but looks to be a bit less. The wire is marked 14GA but the bag says BRX-14 and nothing about gauge or size of any kind other than 100' (I probably should measure that, too). When the bag appears to describe an industry standard but doesn't, I get suspicious. Well, even more suspicious than usual. (-:

Lately I've found that many things, from wires to batteries, that have standard ratings here in the US are fudged there in China. Batteries marked

2500 and marketed as 2500mAH are actually in the sub 1200 range. Wire marketed as Cat 6 came in a bag re-labeled with a small dot label that said "6" applied wherever "5" appeared on the bag. The wire itself was actually marked Cat 5.

In this case, the wire jacket is that of typical 14GA wire, but the copper strands are almost identical to the remnants of a spool of Gemini EIGHTEEN gauge wire. They appeared to have jumped two full wire sizes in this scam or mislabeling.

The Chinese AA NiMh fraudsters are so common whole sites are devoted to tracking them down.

Anyway - what's the test for 14GA stranded wire? I've got the typical multislot stripper crimpers to use as a gauge and electronic calipers. Any other tests?

-- Bobby G.

[dpb]

On 1/20/2012 1:01 PM, Robert Green wrote: ...

The dimension...

--

[Joe]

Measure one strand of wire with your micrometer. Count the strands of wire. Calculate the area of the total copper cross section. Look up the specs for 14 gauge wire in any standard text, whatever. If the cross sections are equal you have the right size wire.

Joe

[N8N]

Alternately, 14AWG should be 2.525 ohms per 1000' give or take a hair. If you trust that the spool is the length that it says it is, and you have a sensitive meter.

nate

[ChrisCoaster]

_______ You sure this stuff isn't frm Monster? They're notorious for not putting gauge on their speaker wire. That's why I dont buy anything from them!

-CC

[DerbyDad03]

:

re: "give or take a hair"

Do you mean an RCH?

[Stormin Mormon]

Cut a foot of 14 ga Romex. And a foot of this wire. weigh each on a postal scale, see how close the weights are.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

[Evan]

That is a totally bogus method...

The Romex wire thermoplastic insulation is MUCH heavier than the insulation used on speaker cable...

Your testing method would require stripping the wires to actually compare how much metal is in the wire...

~~ Evan

[clare]

Not because their stuff is terribly over-proced????

[John Gilmer]

Tee hee!

The "Monster" folks like to push wires with a thick layer of transparent plastic insulation. It makes the copper wire inside look larger. They figured out that clear plastic is less expensive than copper.

[micky]

Other companies sell battery jumper cables like that too. I'm sure you can see the actual wire in the alliagor clip, but I'll bet most don't look.

[HeyBub]

Heh! Want to have some fun? Read the letter from Tartan Cable's president to the lawyers representing Monster Cable. Here's a couple of bits:

"Dear Monster Lawyers,

"Let me begin by stating, without equivocation, that I have no interest whatsoever in infringing upon any intellectual property belonging to Monster Cable. Indeed, the less my customers think my products resemble Monster's, in form or in function, the better."

and

"I say this because my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion. Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is a quickie negotiation session that ends with payment and a licensing agreement. Your client then uses this collection of licensing agreements to convince others under similar threat to accede to its demands. Let me be clear about this: there are only two ways for you to get anything out of me. You will either need to (1) convince me that I have infringed, or (2) obtain a final judgment to that effect from a court of competent jurisdiction."

Read the whole (long) thing:

[Dave M.]

Robert,

I own a wire stripper which is a series of holes, each marked with the gauge. Such strippers are quite common. I'd strip the wire and then pass it through the various holes until I got a close fit. That should be the gauge, near about. The difference between 18 and 14 should be obvious. My tool is a stripper, cutter, crimper, et c. multi-tool.

Dave M.

[Steve Barker]

HA! that's a good read! I've known from their inception that monster cables were a scam and couldn't believe ANYone buys their products. But the public is stupid.... GOOD FOR THAT GUY!!

[gregz]

To get an accurate ohm measurement, assuming you know how to measure low ohms, I would tightly connect one end together, preferably soldering. Measure the two hundred foot wire, preferably soldering the tips of the wire. 2.525 / 5 would be two hundred feet.

I have also roughly measured using calibrated wire strippers. The wire should not easily slip through the 14 gauge hole. You can also compare it to some other 14 gauge wire.

Greg

[ChrisCoaster]

On Jan 21, 11:35=A0am, Steve Barker wrote: =A0But

___________________ The same public that pushed Gingrich over the top in SC a few hours ago...

[Nate Nagel]

indeed!

[Nate Nagel]

I've never bought anything from BJC, but should I decide to take a step up in quality from the Monoprice stuff I've been using for my audio hookup needs, BJC's tech specs and articles on their web site actually pass the sniff test, in a refreshing change from the usual audiophile marketing copy. I ran across them after reading some audio forums for a while and it seems like the consensus was monoprice for consumer grade, BJC for those who insist on high quality, and you'd better make a darn good case for spending more than BJC's prices for any cables. (but of course there are always those who claim to be able to tell the difference.)

nate

[jw]

A micrometer.....

But on the other hand, why are you worrying about it? It's just speaker wire, not some electrical wire that could start a fire if it was a little undersize. Seems like a lot of worry over nothing. Next time spend a few more bucks and buy some made in the USA wire. Not only will you get better materials, but help keep jobs in the USA.

And note, many things sold on Amazon and Ebay and similar sites are

*seconds*. In other words cheap junk that does not meet standards. I will not buy any electronics, tools, car parts, computer parts, or appliances from these sites. Actually the only thing I've bought off any of these sites in the past ten years or so, have been books and movies. You're usually pretty safe buying books and dvds online. I learned my lessons the hard way back in the late 90's early 2000's buying ebay junk. A sawsall that was literally broke in half, including the metal shaft inside of it, and the package was not damaged at all. The seller refused to return it. A computer that went up in smoke due to bulging capacitors. I could have returned it, but the shipping would have cost more than the computer. I jsut saved the drives, cards, and memory and trashed the rest of it. Then there was the hard drive that was DOA, as well as a camera card that was DOA. And some memory that was mis labelled and refused to work. These days I go to a store to buy these things.

[HeyBub]

Well, since God can't be president...