NSW
1282 posts
Hi all
I'm okay with electrical wiring but audio on the boat is not my greatest thing.
I have a 30 foot cat with basically netting between the hulls, and at the moment I only have music in one hull. My intention was to mouse some wires through the cross-beams and fit a pair of speakers in that hull too. The stereo is 4 channel so that part's okay.
As far a wire though I thought about running 4mm tinned twin-core electrical wire to cut down on losses, but will this diminish the signal getting to the other hull? Is there such a thing as marine grade speaker cable?
Thanks in advance, I'm sure that once I've got toons in both hulls I'll be more inclined to go out and do more maintenance... ;)
Jethrow
Edit: I have also replaced the connections with marine spade & socket plugs rather than the tubular stereo plugs as I couldn't buy the tubular plugs
WA
68 posts
4mm2 is more than adequate and almost overkill. Losses are very low at audio frequencies. I would not worry about it. Dont fall for the scam called "oxygen free" audio cable promoted by the Audiophools.
Copper is copper and tin plated wire is a logical choice. Dont forget to add some silicone greases onto the terminals.. Vaseline will also work! The wire is tin plated however the wire from the speaker cone is ordinary non plated copper and gets corrosion and kills the speaker. I have never seen a "marine grades speaker " with tin plated connections. Most of the commercial and military communications gear use a conformal coating which is a tropical varnish to protect connections from the dreaded rot. If you dont have silicone grease like Dow Corning DC4 ask your wife if she has clear nail polish and paint the connections with it after you screw them down after testing.
Before you connect it to your audio source just use a multi-meter and check that you are getting a reading anywhere from 4 ohms to 32 ohms depending on the speaker configuration.
