What Gauge Of Speaker Wire Should I Use In My Home Theater?

The gauge of speaker wire that should be used in a theater depends on the power loss you are willing to accept. Braded wire is recommended in general to avoid affecting high frequency performance. I would target a maximum of 0.5 db loss or 11 percent using the attached table. If you want to target an imperceptible level of power loss 0.1 db or 2.3 percent would be a level that would be nearly impossible to detect. Wires that are thinner than 18 gauge can be significantly more fragile.

Speaker Wire Power Loss