Extend Speaker Wires

"Splice" up your life with some vinyl tape and wire nuts.

Steps

  1. Turn off the system and disconnect the electrical wall plug.
  2. Disconnect your speaker wire from the back of your stereo or home entertainment amplifier and examine the wire.
    • The wire for each speaker should actually be two wires consisting of a stranded metal core covered by a flexible insulation.
    • One strand is the positive. The other strand is the ground. These usually are identified in someway, for example, one may have a bump along the length of the insulation another a white line and yet another may have a copper colored wire while the other wire is silver. This way you can identify the positive and negative wires.
    • The end of each wire should already be separate or split, forming a “Y‿ shape of only a few inches.
    • The tips of each “Y‿ should already be stripped, exposing about a half-inch of the bare metal strands.
  3. Purchase a roll of wire in the same gauge as your speaker wire. Speaker wire is available in an assortment of thickness or gauges. This may be marked on the wire or you may find it in literature for your home amplifier. Make your best approximation if you cannot determine the exact gauge.
  4. Purchase several wire connectors or wire-nuts, matching the wire gauge, and a roll of vinyl electricians’ tape.
  5. Cut the new wire.
    • Measure the distance needed to extend your speakers’ existing wire.
    • Cut one length of new wire based on each of your measurements.
  6. Prepare the ends of each wire.
    • Split a few inches of each end of the new wire, forming a “Y‿ shape.
    • Strip the insulation from the tip of each strand exposing about a half-inch of the bare metal strands.
  7. Connect (splice) the new wire to the existing wire and insulate. There are a few methods to do this. The best connection is made by soldering the wires and putting heat shrink tubing around the solder point. Other methods are the use of wire nuts or crimped connectors. Soldering or crimping requires the use of a soldering iron or crimping tool. Without access to these specialized tools, wire nuts are the best choice.
    • Pick up the prepared end of the new wire and the end of the existing wire. You should be holding four exposed metal tips.
    • Match the existing positive wire to the new positive wire. There may be a marking on the insulation to indicate positive. The metal strands may be a different color to indicate positive.
    • Make the electrical connection. If using heat shrink tubing, slide a piece of tubing long enough to cover the solder connection onto one of the wires before making the connection.
      • For wire nuts: In one hand, hold together one exposed tip of your existing wire and one exposed tip of your new wire. Position these exposed tips side by side, held between your thumb and forefinger.
      • With the other hand, place a wire connector over the merged tips. Twist clockwise. Inside the connector, the bare metal tips will twist together and screw firmly into the connector. The connector will insulate this splice.
      • For soldering: Twist together the exposed tips and perform the soldering process.
      • For crimping: Feed the prepared ends of the wire into the wire connector and crimp the end. There are many products to do this; some look like wire nuts that are crimped, and some look and operate completely differently. Read the directions for the particular connectors you have purchased.
    • Repeat this step for the ground wire of the set.
    • Each wire should now have two splices. Wrap a length of vinyl electricians’ tape around each set of wires or slide the shrink tubing to cover the wire connectors. Slightly stretch the tape as you wrap so that it adheres neatly to the insulation before and after the splice. To shrink the tubing, you will need a heat gun to evenly heat the tubing.
  8. Repeat this step for each set of speaker wires.
  9. Connect bare ends of newly extended speaker wire to your amplifier. Usually, you insert the positive wire in a red connection. Insert the ground wire in a black connection.
  10. Plug your system back into the electrical power and turn the system on and enjoy the music or movie.

Tips

  • Some people are not aware that each speaker wire is actually a set of two strands of wires. In each set of wires, one is positive and the other is ground or negative. One of these wires should be marked, usually with a continuous white line along the insulation surface. Sometimes the metal in each strand is a different color, usually one copper-colored. This marked wire is the positive wire.
  • For the best possible connection, solder the two ends together. You can purchase heat-shrink sleeves online or at an electronics store to protect the bare wire.

Warnings

    • These instructions extend the wire in a normal-sized room. For very long extensions, you will probably have to increase the gauge of wire to prevent an overload on the wire or your amplifier. The reason is that electrical resistance is higher in smaller (IE, thinner) wires than in larger (IE, thicker) ones. In the audio industry, 16 gauge (AWG) is usually thought sufficient for wire runs up to twenty feet or so. When the actual path the current follows is twice that length (to and from the speaker from the back of the amplifier) the total length of wire through which it travels is double the length of the cable.

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