A THX-certified Mann theater in Laguna Hills or Laguna Niguel (Calif) or someplace close to that advertised that it used Monster Cable speaker wiring. They had a big one-sheet in the lobby promoting it. This was in the late 80s.

(You mean you don't believe that oxygen-free 99.99%-pure copper wire with the the crystals aligned in the direction of current flow and a genuine Teflon jacket would improve a theater's sound??)

Some amplifier operator's manuals have a chart which explains the damping factor characteristics. It is nothing more than an arbitrary number, but the higher the better. The chart usually gives an idea as what might be expected by the size and length of the wire used. The higher the number, the better.

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

Also, circuit resistance does become half of the original resistance if you parallel a conductor with another of the same AWG. The new equivilant AWG is 3 wire sizes smaller, NOT cut in half. 14AWG + 14AWG = 11 AWG.
In high-power special venue and large format theaters where it's common that the audio power exceeds 30kW to use 14 AWG, 12 AWG, and 10 AWG for each of the HF, MF, and LF drivers of a speaker system. What is sometimes overlooked is the voltage rating of the insulation. High-power amplifiers can put out more than 120 volts of signal and require class I speaker wiring usually something like THHN in conduits.

 |  IP: Logged

Monster cable does look good, and does have nice terminations on the ends. Sometimes for hi-end jobs, you might need that. But, there is no difference in sound quality, unless basic physics has changed since I was at school.

 |  IP: Logged

Check your math before giving someone bad advice. 14awg is often inadequate wire in theatre applications.

Lets say your subwoofer line needs or will demand 2000 watts of power and you use say 4 8-Ohm subwoofers to handle the power and present a 2Ohm load to the amplifier...you will need nearly 32 amps of carrying capacity from your wire. 14awg won't cut it and you wont be blowing your speakers, necessarily. Heck, only 750 watts into an 4-ohm LF cabinet of a typical stage speaker (that can hanle 1200 watts) will bring you nearly up to 14amps. The JBL 4648-4, when driven to full power will draw over 17 amps without damaging the drivers. Instantaneous power consumption can double that!

Both of the above examples are valid for typical theatres today.

This isn't a case where we want the wire to current limit our signal either thus larger wire should be used. While damping factor is almost never a concern for speaker wire, power limiting is.

As for THX, they do have their hand in choosing the speaker wire gauge. I believe it was HPS-4000 though that got on the Monster cable bandwagon.

However, there are plenty of cases where 14awg is just fine. It really depends on the length of run and the power needed.

BTW Carol and Belden also make fine jacketed red/black speaker cables down to 12awg. If you don't mind wht/blk then one can often go larger, West penn just introduced a 10awg. International Wire and Cable will make larger gauges in red/black...I've seen them use 10awg.

Steve