Ap-16 Wiring

[gadget-evilusions]

I am contemplating running my entire haunt's audio on 12 AP-16's centrally located in my office. The max length of wire I would need to run from the office to a speaker would be 200'. Does anyone have a good chart or calculator for figuring out wire gauge without loss of audio quality.

I will be using these speakers. http://www.onlyfactorydirect.com/p-337-outdoor-525-black-speakers-theater-solutions-ts5odb.aspx They are 175 watt RMS. They have worked great on the props that I have installed AP-16's so far.

[bsnut]

Brian,
I haven't seen a chart for speaker wiring, but I have seen one for DC, which is used for voltage drop. I would try an experiment with 18 AWG and 22 AWG to see whichever works best for you. But, I think you can get away with 18 AWG and go the distance you want. The worse case, you will need to go to a 70V system which distance is not a problem.

[JackMan]

 Brian,
      Here's a pretty straight forward guideline. Keep in mind copper wire is copper wire, no need to spend a lot of $$ on expensive "Speaker Wire".

Distance Between Amplifier/Receiver and Speaker Wire Gauge Needed (copper stranded or solid)
Up to 79 feet (24 meters or less) 16 AWG
80 - 200 feet (24 - 61 meters) 14 AWG
Over 200 feet (longer than 61 meters) 12 AWG

[gadget-evilusions]

I found this, http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/speaker-cable-gauge

and it seems to be alot more conservative to what Jackman just posted. I don't think I need to worry about only keeping a .2db loss. I do have a set of the speakers and an ap-16 right now, so I think I will do some testing with Jackman's sizes.

[bsnut]

I agree with Jackman's post. But I was thinking about how you were going to connect the larger wire gauge to the AP16. 

[gadget-evilusions]

Ok, so my number is now about 39 AP-16's centrally located in my control room, ran all over the haunt for the ambient audio in each room. I have a few haunter tech friends who think I am crazy and should just go with a computer based system, ran to digital to analog converters, and a rack of amps. Personally, I think it would look cooler to have close to 40 AP-16's mounted to the wall. I could place them in each room, but I want to be able to adjust volume levels, or even swap tracks from one location, as well as needing to trigger them all to shut off and start playing our emergency exit announcement in the case of an emergency. I wonder if I can find a 150amp 18v power supply somewhere.........

[JonnyMac]

Well, you probably won't need a heater in that room!

[bsnut]

That's a lot of AP16's on one wall. So, are you going to call it "The wall of sound" ;D. I would love to see an pic of this wall.

[gadget-evilusions]

Ok, I am bad with speaker impedance information.


The speakers I plan to use are 8 ohm.  Since the AP-16 can handle 4 or 8 ohm speakers, I could wire:

1 - 8 ohm speaker,
or 2 - 8 ohm speakers in parallel (that would be 4 ohms)?


Is this all correct?

[JackMan]

Yep, that would be correct. Keep in mind though that two 8 ohm speakers in parallel will double the amperage draw on that channel.

[gadget-evilusions]

I will make it easy then and only put 1 speaker per channel. That's how I was planning on doing it anyways.

[bsnut]

Brian,

I have one question for you. How far is the one of these speakers going to be way from the AP16's? I am thinking you should be able to get away with an 100 foot run of  18 AWG cable to speaker locations. I would test this out on one of speaker channels on the AP16.

[JackMan]

Bill,
   He mentioned at the start of this thread that the max distance would be 200'. 18 AWG really isn't the best choice for 100'. See the guide posted earlier in the thread.  ;D

[bsnut]

Jack,

Thanks for pointing that out. Its my mistake for not reading it. I was thinking about the speakers I have at my home, which I used to take to other parts of the house.

It's going to be an tight fit for 10AWG to fit in the terminal blocks on the AP16, which can up to 14AWG.

[JackMan]

10 AWG isn't needed, 12 AWG is plenty for way over 200', 14 AWG is good for up to 200'. The terminal blocks on the AP-16+ will accept 12 GA without a problem, you can always peel back a few strands if need be.  ;)