Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

Tim Weaver

Tim Weaver

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Feb 2, 2011
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College Station, Texas, United States
www.weaverimaging.com
Hey all, the price of copper is going insane and, of course, I now need to purchase some speaker cable. I have found some spools of trailer cable at a surplus place and am wondering if anybody has used it for their speaker lines. It comes in a wide variety of gauges and combinations of conductors. There is even some with a 10 gauge pair and 2 pairs of 14 gauge. That would be real cool for a sub and biamped top setup.

Anybody using it? Any reason not to?

Thanks all....
 
Re: Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

If the heat and voltage ratings are the same I see no problem.
Except that you may have build some type of strain relief if all the wires aren't going into one connector.
 
Re: Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

Hey Tim,
I bought a roll of it on Ebay a year or two ago to run a triamped sidefill system. It is 10/2+14/4+12/1. The overall flexibility is good, but what I don't like about it is the stranding on the individual wires is not very fine, it is similar to THHN. It would probably be great for an install, but I just never liked the feel of it for road use. I've got about 70' of it on a spool in my basement if anyone wants to make an offer, lol.
 
Re: Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

Tim Weaver said:
Thanks Tom, one question though. Does it lay flat when you put it down? Or does it curly-cue like THHN does?
Click to expand...

That's kind of the weird part. As a whole the cable is as flexible as say, SO cord. Individually though the conductors are pretty stiff.

My intended project was to have the cable fan out about 3' at the end so I could run the 2 conductors of #10 go to the sidefill sub, and the 4 conductors of #14 go to the top cabinet. I ended up abandoning the project because I didn't like the way the fanout ends turned out because of the stiff wire.

You'll have to take a look at what your local place is selling because I'm sure it varies by manufacturer.
 
Re: Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

Tom Manchester said:
That's kind of the weird part. As a whole the cable is as flexible as say, SO cord. Individually though the conductors are pretty stiff.

My intended project was to have the cable fan out about 3' at the end so I could run the 2 conductors of #10 go to the sidefill sub, and the 4 conductors of #14 go to the top cabinet. I ended up abandoning the project because I didn't like the way the fanout ends turned out because of the stiff wire.

You'll have to take a look at what your local place is selling because I'm sure it varies by manufacturer.
Click to expand...

Trailer cable should have pretty good mechanical properties as it needs to stay flexible in freezing cold weather, gets fuel spilled on it, etc.

The different conductor-style you describe reminds me of some original JBL cables made for triamping.
 
Re: Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

you can get 13/4 wire for less than a dollar a foot from audio suppliers and the 13/8 isn't that much more. If you know how to assemble a connector (it sounds like you do) than you might as well do it right the first time. Cutting these corners only seems to get you in trouble and it looks rather un-pro. I get mine from Peach State Audio in Suwanee, GA. For internal rack wiring I go to Home Depot and buy 12/2 landscape wire. It's heavily jacketed and well stranded. It stays pretty well unseen and is only used in short three foot runs.
 
Re: Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

Kip Conner said:
For internal rack wiring I go to Home Depot and buy 12/2 landscape wire. It's heavily jacketed and well stranded. It stays pretty well unseen and is only used in short three foot runs.
Click to expand...

And I'll bet that the jacket on that landscape wire is only rated for 30V, so I hope your amplifiers are rated for less than 112W into 8 ohms.
 
Re: Anybody use trailer cable for speakers?

In this instance, I've found the trailer cable for significantly cheaper than a dollar a foot. Otherwise I wouldn't be considering it. I typically build all of my cables, although places like Audiopile.net are making it hard to justify the time expenditure because their cable assemblies are so cheap, and of high quality as well.

Why are you using 12/2 in the rack and a smaller gauge for the speaker lines? I use 16/2 install cable in my racks and inside the cabinets. For a super short run like that there is no problem using a smaller gauge wire. The 16/2 plenum cable is small and easy to manage with cable ties and such.

Kip Conner said:
you can get 13/4 wire for less than a dollar a foot from audio suppliers and the 13/8 isn't that much more. If you know how to assemble a connector (it sounds like you do) than you might as well do it right the first time. Cutting these corners only seems to get you in trouble and it looks rather un-pro. I get mine from Peach State Audio in Suwanee, GA. For internal rack wiring I go to Home Depot and buy 12/2 landscape wire. It's heavily jacketed and well stranded. It stays pretty well unseen and is only used in short three foot runs.
Click to expand...
 
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