Wire Gauge Madness

[Garbz]

With this groupbuy of the silver wire going on in the other thread, i realised i have no idea what 24Ga wire is.

From what i've managed to gather form the conversion tables on google is not much. It's a low current wire capable of about 0.5A transmission correct?

So then the question that i need answered is how do i use it.
Is 24GA wire sufficient to use as internal hookup wire in a headphone amp, Gilmore to be specific? Looking at between the rca jacks, and pot, and amp, and headhpone socket etc.

Do i need to combine multiple strands? I assume that 2 each with 0.5A can combine to be rated at 1A correct? Basically what i'm asking is if i buy this wire what's the best way to use it as an internal hookup wire. Single strands or multiple?

 

[taylor]

It would be fine for using in an interconnect, or between RCA jacks and potentiometer. But I'm not sure if it would be thick enough to connect to the headphone jack, considering the Gilmore is a pretty powerful amp, picking up a bit of 18ga OFC copper would probably be better for wiring to the headphones.

 

[Daroid]

I've been wondering for sometime what this Ga/gauge measurement was. How is it measured in a cable for example - it is the diameter - pi*radius^2 , where radius is measured in what ?

 

[guzzler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by taylor It would be fine for using in an interconnect, or between RCA jacks and potentiometer. But I'm not sure if it would be thick enough to connect to the headphone jack, considering the Gilmore is a pretty powerful amp, picking up a bit of 18ga OFC copper would probably be better for wiring to the headphones.

that's not right; you push one half amp of current into a 300R load, such as the DynaHi is designed for, that would mean 75W; can you say catastrophic ear failure followed very shortly by even more catastrophic distruction of the coils. 24awg cable is fine for anything in headphone amplifiers...

g

 

[jnewman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daroid I've been wondering for sometime what this Ga/gauge measurement was. How is it measured in a cable for example - it is the diameter - pi*radius^2 , where radius is measured in what ?

Heh... it's nowhere near that simple. From http://www.howstuffworks.com/question260.htm:

Quote:

The measurement system for wire is also interesting. AWG stands for "American Wire Gauge" and is a standard in the United States for wire diameters. In a house, you typically find 10, 12 and 14 gauge wire, and electronics projects typically use 20 gauge wire. Wire gauges run from 000000 gauge, which is about half an inch in diameter, down to 40 gauge, which is 0.001 inches. The higher the AWG number, the thinner the wire. Where did this odd system come from? The modern method of drawing wire is believed to have originated in Europe late in the 13th cent. In this process the metal is pulled, or drawn, through a number of holes, each smaller than the one preceding, until finally it is passed through the hole having the desired diameter. The gauge number stems from how many holes the wire is drawn through, and the more holes it's drawn through the smaller the diameter.

Coincidentally, shotgun gauges have nothing to do with this and are maybe even more confusing - to find the diameter of an X gauge shotgun's barrel, first divide a pound of lead into X equal parts, then make one of those parts into a perfect sphere. Its diameter is the inside diameter of the barrel.

Jimmy.

 

[KYTGuy]

Except for 410 shotguns, where the inside diameter of the barrel is .410 inches.....

 

[jnewman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KYTGuy Except for 410 shotguns, where the inside diameter of the barrel is .410 inches.....

Yep... slipped my mind. Good catch!

 

[Garbz]

No physics please. Just is a 24GA single strand of wire sufficient for:

RCA -> POT
POT -> Amp
Amp -> Headphone socket.

Also it's a GIlmore V2 not a Dynahi.

Finally what's the best configuration?
A single strand of wire for each signal. (inc GND)
Mutiple strands for each signal hand braided?
Mutiple Strands for each signal kept separate.

On the one side Sennheiser has really thin wires in the driver.
On the other side most amps have a HUGE mass of cable on the internals.

SO which is it?

 

[jnewman]

24AWG single conductor copper wire is generally rated for at least six amps. If you have six amps going through ANY wire in a headphone amp, you have a lot more to worry about than how thick the wire is.

And this IS physics, so don't ask to keep it uninvolved.

For the lengths of wire you'll be using inside a headphone amp, it is HIGHLY unlikely you'll be able to tell any difference between single conductor, braided, twisted, or anything else (for each signal wire - I've heard arguments saying that +/-/0 should be twisted together). It's only really an issue in longer cables, and even there the value is hotly debated. There are plenty of arguments for using good quality terminated coax (yes, like cable TV) because its impedence is likely to be closer to constant than any kind of braid, particularly hand-braid, which can be fairly uneven.

 

[Garbz]

thanks i just meant keepit uninvolved as in no formulas please.

Also 24 GA not AWG. It works in reverse i think 24 holds very low currents.

 

[Dreamslacker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garbz thanks i just meant keepit uninvolved as in no formulas please. Also 24 GA not AWG. It works in reverse i think 24 holds very low currents.

24 GA is 24 AWG. Approximately 0.5mm in diameter.

 

[jnewman]

AWG stands for American Wire Gauge. Just saying "gauge" isn't very specific because there are several different measures of gauge that're all slightly different. You can find a number of charts on the internet giving diameters and current capacities of the different sizes of wire.

24AWG wire is generally rated for ~5-6 amps (depending on insulation and temperature) for "chassis wiring" i.e. loose wires in air with load only part of the time and ~.5-1 amp for "power transmission," i.e. constant load over any length of wire bundled, not bundled, etc. A headphone amp is somewhere between the two. The higher quality insulation you use, the better the numbers are... in this gauge, teflon insulation adds almost 60% to the rated capacity over plain PVC.

Oh... and if anyone DOES want the formula to find diameter of a certain AWG of wire:

Diameter=.005*92^((36-AWG)/39) inches.

 

[cellophane]

Hello,
forgive my newb question but I am looking for a headphone extension cable for some a900 and other phones. Would it be possible to make the cable from the wire from the group buy? Would someone make the cable for me (paying him for parts and labor) if I (or he) bought some of these wires?

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Yes Cello, 24 gauge wire would be just fine for a headphone cable, just remember that it's solid (more fragile and less flexible than a stranded core). 22-24 gauge wire is ideal for interconnects, headphone cables, headphone extension cables, patch cables, internal wiring for most lower scale DIY audio projects, etc. It can even be used for speaker cables if you combine a number of them in a braid (Litz would be good for this).

As far as paying for someone to replace your headphone cable, Headphile http://www.headphile.com would most likely be able to perform this for you.

 

[Garbz]

ok while the purpose of this thread has worked, i have a followup question about the difference between Chassis Wiring and Power Transmission. It seems there are 2 different ratings being about 3.4A and 0.577A respectively.

What is each of them.

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm