On 02/01/2020 20:12, Bill Wright wrote:
On 02/01/2020 08:44, Bert Coules wrote:
I'm helping a friend make changes to his audio-video system,
principally moving a main AV equipment rack to a different location.
This involves rerouting a good deal of speaker wiring, almost all of
it running in the loft under insulation and in some areas chipboard
flooring.

The "correct" way would be to uncover the existing cables and relocate
them. Given the necessary disruption and severely limited headroom, a
far more attractive idea is to connect new cables to the accessible
ends of the current ones and run them across the top of the loft
floors and areas of exposed insulation then down through to ceiling to
a new AV hub.

The maximum extension would be in the region of sixteen feet,
resulting in a cable run some thirty feet from amplifier to
loudspeaker; would that make any material difference to the sound or
the loading on the amp?Â* This is a decent mid-price hifi setup but
nothing really ultra-high-end.

We can of course experiment with extending the cables on just a pair
of speakers in order to assess the sound, but it would be useful to
know in advance if a run of such a length is pushing things a bit.

Many thanks.

I got involved with the audio system in a big old house that was being
renovated. I can't remember what sorts of amp and speakers it was but
the speakers were big buggers that weighed a ton and were on wheels and
the amp was a monster thing. Actually there was a pre-amp feeding two
black boxes that had fans. For some stupid reason the amps had to be in
a little room that was at one end of a gigantic long room and the
speakers were at the other end of this big room. The cable route had to
be circuitous. I used 81 strand auto cable. Bought two 100m drums, one
red and one black, and made up lengths of 'twin' feeder. The speakers
had great big binding posts for connectors, which was fine. The
connections to the amps were a bit faffy though. It all sounded
absolutely fine when it was done and it was incredibly loud. I played
some fairground organ music and it sounded awesome.

Bill

Apart from flexibility, does 81 strand auto cable have any advantage
over (say) 6mm^2 singles?