# splicing home theater speakers



## tigereyez3 (Feb 26, 2010)

My cats seem to like our new surround sound speaker wires. She has managed to chew on them to the point where they are not working. I have never spliced and fixed wires before. One set is blue and black and the other is Black and Grey. They are small speakers. Can anyone provide any pointers before I jump into this project?

Thanks.


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## ironglen (Mar 4, 2009)

Hey, welcome to the Shack.

Well, you've got polarity of + and - for each speaker, your - will likely be the black of each wire. An easy fix is using wire nuts, they come in different sizes so get small ones for the smaller cable yours will have. You can find these at home depot, lowes, etc. Or you could simply strip the ends, tightly twist the pairs that were severed (like a bread twisty), lay the twist in-line with the wire so it's smooth, and cover each twist with electrical tape, followed by covering the whole juncture. Finally, hide the wires!


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## spartanstew (May 7, 2009)

ironglen said:


> Or you could simply strip the ends, tightly twist the pairs that were severed (like a bread twisty), lay the twist in-line with the wire so it's smooth, and cover each twist with electrical tape, followed by covering the whole juncture. Finally, hide the wires!


That's usually what I do.


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

Thread moved to System Setup and Connection.

Wire nuts are good for a temporary fix, but are by no means pretty.

I would not do the twist line and electrical tape without solder, though. The twist will loosen with time and you may get some intermittent dropouts when it does. Soldering is not hard, it just takes some practice (and bare wires are easy to practice on).

If you really want a simple fix, Radio Shack and Home Depot also sell splice taps. These are plastic crimp ends that you put raw wire into and then squeeze with pliers. It drives some V wedges around the wires and holds them in place. They work pretty well, but aren't much prettier than wire nuts.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

Anthony said:


> If you really want a simple fix, Radio Shack and Home Depot also sell splice taps. These are plastic crimp ends that you put raw wire into and then squeeze with pliers. It drives some V wedges around the wires and holds them in place. They work pretty well, but aren't much prettier than wire nuts.


You can also get in line straight ones, so you dont need to plug the two ends of the wire together. Its more like a plastic coated metal tube. You slide it onto the cable, do the twisty thing, then slide it over the join and crimp it. Like this:


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## tigereyez3 (Feb 26, 2010)

I have stripped the plastic from the wire and proceeded to twist the exposed wires together, then put electrical tape around the exposed wire and the speakers are not working. Is is possible that I did not twist the wires enough? How tight do the wires have to be and how tight does the tape have to be? I think I will be going to get the splice taps... Maybe the speakers blew when this all happened originally???


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

It is also possible there is another break in the wire. If you can, move the speakers closer to your receiver and run a short length of wire directly to them. If the speakers work, then you know there is a problem with the wire.

Also, I would use the wire nuts as a very minimum. The twisting can come loose very easily and not connect.

The straight splice that Moonfly posted will also work.


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## 1Michael (Nov 2, 2006)

I would just cut the wire 1 foot outside of the speaker and solder a new wire on it. Wire is cheap.


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

I second just getting new wire, and maybe going a bit further and hooking it up with the wires more hidden away (i learned the same lesson with my dog haha.) Any blue/black wire with small speakers I've ever seen was like 18-22 gauge and came as part of a color-coded HTIB system. If that's the case, depending on your setup you might find some improvement by going to larger gauge wiring in the neighborhood of 16 gauge. No, you don't need some fancy name-brand, good copper is good copper no matter who put insulation around it


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Wayne's Comprehensive Guide to Splicing Speaker Wire

Regards,
Wayne


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## Darius2010 (Dec 29, 2008)

spartanstew said:


> That's usually what I do.


:T Yup, same here!


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