Speaker wire question

[Um...Me123]

I have some extra speaker wire from a long time ago and I don't know the AWG.  I need to extend two 70W 4ohm speakers about 16ft. and 10ft.  One is about twice the size of the other but same wattage.  The provided speaker wire is a larger AWG than the extra I have but I also don't know it's AWG.  Is there a way to know if the wire is ok or not?  What happens if the wire I add is too small?  Can I do a resistance test throughout the wire and somehow tell if it's ok?
Thanks

P.S. The longer extension is for the smaller speaker if that helps.

 

[audioguru2]

The speakers are both 4 ohms so will draw exactly the same amount of power no matter their size.
I use 16AWG stranded wire for my speakers up to about 50 feet away. 18AWG is good for about 25 feet. I've seen and heard an 8 ohm speaker connected to hundreds of feet of 24AWG telephone cable, and the cable dissipated more power than the speaker!

If the wire is too small then its resistance is too high. Some speakers will have boomy bass sound if there is too much resistance in the wire. For 4 ohm speakers then a wire resistance of about 0.1 ohms or less is fine. Can your DMM measure such a low resistance?

Simply take some pieces of your cables to the hardware store and compare them with theirs. ;D

 

[Um...Me123]

So if I have a resistance of .7ohm thats too much?  How much distortion will that cause?

 

[audioguru2]

So if I have a resistance of .7ohm thats too much?

 

[MP1]

Perhaps this will hep you determine what you have.
Hope it is helpful.

MP

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