and the distance you are feeding it. In general for very high end audio, 12 gauge is good for 30 feet at 4 ohms and 60ish feet for 8 ohms. You lose signal strength the longer the cable but 12 gauge will easily feed almost any decent audio signal to 80-100 feet before a minimal sound degradation occurs. Even then, I doubt you would notice it. 14 gauge is good enough for most home systems unless you've spent $5,000 plus on speakers alone and have impeccable hearing.