The backbone of your home-audio network is the speaker cable you install in your walls. You can't just pick up any old speaker cable for this job - you need to use cabling designed for in-wall use. Look for the following when choosing cable:
- Gauge: The thickness of the conductors in your speaker wire is measured in units known as AWG (American Wire Gauge). AWG works on an inverse scale: lower numbers denote thicker cables. Most audio experts recommend that you choose a minimum of 16-gauge in-wall wiring. Many people go with 14 or even 12 AWG wires, which is probably overkill; these heavy gauge cables are really thick, making them hard to pull through the walls.
- UL listing: Underwriter's Laboratories (UL) rate in-wall cables for safety and quality. Look for wires that are rated at least class two (UL CL2) or class three (UL CL3). The class rating is usually silk-screened on the wire jacket.
Always check with your electrician or local building inspector to confirm the cable rating that your town
requires. Although there is a national electric code, which lays out minimum standards for in-wall
wiring, many municipalities have more stringent requirements. In fact, there's a bewildering array of such
requirements, and not meeting them could result in your local building or electrical inspector making you
rip out your wiring and start over.
- Extra features: Some wire manufacturers design their speaker cables with features such as super-slippery cable jackets that slide through your wall more easily, length markers silk-screened on the jacket, and easy-to-remove insulation for terminating the wires - the kind of stuff that makes installers happy.
