Splicing Audio Wires

[Eye8Pussies]

hmmm...well, long story short, I have to relocate my crossovers for dkn so that it won't look ghetto, and I came to thinking....

can I splice audio wires like power wires, etc? or will that kill the sound quality?

because theoretically it should be the same, since it's only an electric signal, but will the soldering of two wires together increase the resistance too much?

thanks guys.

[touringcamry]

I assume you are using stranded cable. Tin and lead do have a higher resistance than copper as far as electronic conductivity goes, but it really should not affect anything. Your wires should have a physical connection to begin with anyhow. The solder is to help hold it there. Twisting the wires together works without solder, but you may have a lot of empty space and ares that do not touch that can reduce performance. The solder wil help here even though it has higher resistance, though that value is probably negligible any how.

I don't know if you need it or not, but here's my crash course on splicing wires:

I prefer 63/37 solder over 60/40, but it's up to you what you use.

The way I do it is I take about 5/8", or so, off insulation off each wire. Cut a length of heat shrink that will more than cover up the joint and slide it on one side for now.

Now holding the wire near the insulation with your fingers, tweezer or pliers, undo the strands so that the individual wires or several larger bundles or wires are flared out a bit, about 30 deg up from the insulation or there abouts. Do this on both wires. Then bring both wires together so that the wires overlap. Then twist them back together so that the portions you flared look like one big bundle. Some wires you can just push together and they will "mesh" so you will not need to unravel them yourself. However, you may still need to twist them to make a tight twist and firm connection.

Now get a paper towel, about two 4"x6" piece or so and fold it until you have a strip about 1/4-1/2 in wide. Wet them with water and squeeze out the excess. Take that and wrap it around the end of the insulation. Repeat on the other side of the connection. This will prevent heat damage to the insulation.

Apply flux to the copper, heat the wire until the flux starts to bubble and apply solder. Clean off the flux with alcohol or other solvent. Inspect that the solder covers all the wires and flowed between the strands. If it does not cover all the copper, apply flux and reflow the solder or add more solder. It is ok if you have a slight gap between the insulation and solder. In fact, it is ideal that the solder doesn't get up to or under the insulation. You can use a wet paper towel or anti-wicking tweezers to stop the solder from flowing up.

Pull the heatshrink over and shrink it.

[Eye8Pussies]

^ sounds good, that's all that I needed to know, and yes, it's stranded 16ga copper speaker wire.

thanks

[touringcamry]

16 ga wire should be easy. I just did an entire 18ga head unit wiring harness with the method described above for a friend and it took an hour only. I had to separate the strands a bit, but it was fairly easy compared to what I've been doing at work as of recent.

[touringcamry]

I just thought of something that I did not think of last night. The resistance caused by the soldering is negligible. More important would be the resistance from the wire if you are extending the wire. If it is too long, you may up the wire gauge to counteract it.

[cam2Xrunner]

This thread kind of confuses me. What exactly are you trying to do? Just relocate the crossovers?

Why would you need to splice wires? Or are you just talking about, adding speaker wire to have a longer length of wiring?

[Eye8Pussies]

I'm trying to make a wall of 6x9s like that in that video that somebody posted up a couple weeks ago...


but seriously, yeah, not really splicing, but just wanting to extend my wires to relocate my crossovers

[cam2Xrunner]

Yeah, adding to them is not a problem. I thought you were talking about splitting them up.