For shorter runs under 50 feet, 16-gauge wire works fine for bookshelf or smaller tower speakers. If your setup requires cable runs between 50 and 100 feet, 14-gauge wire is a good choice.

Speaker cable gauge is short for American Wire Gauge, or AWG. This is a expressed in numbers ... conservative guidelines to follow instead: Less than 30 feet: 16 gauge 30 - 50 feet: 14 gauge 50 - 100 ...

Lately we’ve been getting hit with the common question “what speaker wire ... 16-18AWG. This is much higher resistance than cheap 12AWG zip cord cables you can buy at a local hardware store. To see ...