On February 11, 2006 at 18:29, Ernie Bornn-Gilman said...
Wire nuts are not appropriate for speaker wire.
When you do electrical wiring, and you can twist
12 gauge solid three or four times, then twist
it into a wire nut, you have a really tight connection.
"Tight" here means metal to metal that won't
slip because if it is loose enough to slip, it
is loose enough to corrode just from oxygen.
Oxygen. That's the point. If you put stranded
wire into wire nuts and twist the wire with just
the nuts (because you can't twist it worth a darn
with pliers like you can with 12 gauge solid),
you will have a connection maybe half as tight,
or less, than the 12 gauge solid in wire nuts.
And think about it -- if you could make this
kind of wire as tight as a 12 gauge connection,
you would be able to twist it with pliers.
Thanks for this info, Ernie ... hadn't thought about the Oxygen issue! Question, though - if using wire caps to connect 14g or 12g cable and then backfilling into the cap with clear silicone, how well would this resolve the O2 issue? (or does the new issue become that the silicone may impede the contact between the wires in the cap?)
