Hi,

I'm in the process of building a system and will have pretty long wire runs (I'm guessing about 100 feet). So I have bought some 12 gauge in-wall spec speaker wire from Monoprice (great deal). But now I have checked the speaker selectors with volume controls that I was considering and I can't find any that will take 12 gauge. They all say max of 14 gauge. Is there some selectors I haven't found yet or have I screwed up?

Thanks for any help.

I don't know of a volume control that can take 12 but I will tell you if find some.

That would be great. Thanks. Man I hope I haven't messed up here!

this one can do it or try wire pins http://www.lightav.com/home/russound/select/select.htm

Thanks. Just looked and the 4 speaker selector with individual volume controls (SDB 4.1) again only takes 14 gauge. Why do they only take 14 while other products in the range will take 12. This is common it appears. Why the difference?

Why not just splice a short length of #14 (a pigtail) onto the ends of the #12 cable? It won't degrade the signal in anyway nor reduce power capacity; the short pigtails add only an extremely small amount of DC resistance.

You can use almost any connection method, twist-on, crimped, soldered, anything that is easy for you.

Thanks for the help guys.

I had emailed a few of the different manufacturers about why they are all 14 gauge. Anyway Niles Audio replied and there SSVC-4 and 6 both take 12 gauge. I felt like an idiot as I had looked at those BUT in my defense it appears that Crutchfield has incorrectly put max 14 gauge in the description of these products. The Niles website does say 12 gauge. Now I'm just reeling from the price of these on the face of it simple devices. $300 wow. Anyway it's got to be done.


Now my only issue is their manual says "Important: DO NOT use the SSVC series with amps or receivers
rated at more than 100 watts per channel RMS at 8 ohms." Is this a problem with the Onkyo 605?

The Phoenix Gold people emailed and say that although their manual says 14 gauge, they have managed to get 12 gauge in there and there's no technical reason why you can't use 12 gauge in their VSS4. So my question is why is their selector $150 and the Niles $300?

Sima emailed and they only take 14 gauge.

trek's suggestion is spot on. If you can't find a suitable selector for a reasonable price that takes 12, just "pigtail" a short piece of 14 on to it; use anything suitable (and any decent splicing method), and call it a day. You will not hear any difference because of the pigtail.

Larger gauge for the long run is not a bad idea, and the short 14 pigtail at the end is negligible. It's a reasonable approach if you're not dealing with thousands (plural) of Watts. But do go by the manufacturer's ratings. If they say "100 Watts or less", then don't use it for more than 100 Watts.

Well I finally got the Niles SSVC-4. I have just hooked it up and it works great. I was worried because of using 12 gauge wire, but frankly it works fine with 12 gauge. Tight maybe but it's obviously designed (as they said) to take 12 gauge. Actually it works easier with 12 gauge than my old Pioneer amp that's supplying it.

Thanks for the help guys.

Every time you splice there is loss. I feel that pigtales are a bad idea. I think the best thing to do would be to simply cut some of the strands off of the 12 guage wire until you reach 14guage thickness. If you do use pigtales my recommendation would be to solder them with silver solder (Don't use lead based solder).

How bout just soldering on some gold pins?