What guage wire?
Thread Starter
Donating Maxima.org Member
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 169
What guage wire?
I'm currently running a 600+ watt amp for my two 10 inch subs, and then running a punch 200 amp for my speakers inside and also a crossover and a 1 farad cap. And currently I'm running 8 guage wire. and i was wondering if that will be good enough or should i get a higher gauge wire?
i don't think he needs 4ga, at all. upgrading a wire to a higher guage can't hurt but i don't see the reasoning behind him spending money on something he doesn't need unless he plans on running even more power...also there is different quality on cable you can buy...one with more strands & pure copper will help also. so if your going to upgrade to 4ga I say **** it and get 1/0ga. even more fun to run and you'll never have to upgrade it.
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 19
8 gauge stranded wire can carry 55 amps. Assuming 600 watts continuous, not peak, power with a 2 ohm impedance you draw 18 amps. 10 gauge stranded wire can carry 34 amps while 12 gauge stranded wire can carry 21 amps.
The historical justification for huge wires is their ability to handle high frequencies. According to citations and research reported at
http://home.earthlink.net/~rogerr7/wire.htm
the ability to handle high frequencies is totally dependant on how much of the total DC resistance of the entire amplifier-speaker circuit is produced by the wire. This resistance in turn is determined by the length of the wire and the bottom line is that for 2 ohm speakers you can run a pair of 12 guage wires a maximum of 31 feet with no audible deterioration. With 4 ohm speakers, the maximum distance for 14 gauge wire is 40 feet.
Other writers have come to the same overall conclusion, even though the don't agree on what the main cause of high frequency loss is. To quote the author of
http://www.audioheritage.org/html/pe...9-addenda.html
"If there were any actual advantages, [to oversized wire] such wire would have found its way into the engineering mainstream for large military projects, and satellites where billions in research would surely have revealed the benefits and resulted in at least some documentation." He recommends combining strands of parallel ribbon computer cable to obtain 16, 12 or 10 gauge equivalents, or twisting a pair of 10 guage wires with a drill in order to reduce AC impedance. I
A too small wire will produce high frequency loss, but it is not noticed often because of nearing perception. There is no audible problem if you use too big of a wire, but, there are non practical disadvantages. For example, not only does it fill up wire chases, but it is hard to make low resistance terminal connections with big wire and you really should solder crimp connections after using a compound crimper to make it withstand vibration and shock.
The historical justification for huge wires is their ability to handle high frequencies. According to citations and research reported at
http://home.earthlink.net/~rogerr7/wire.htm
the ability to handle high frequencies is totally dependant on how much of the total DC resistance of the entire amplifier-speaker circuit is produced by the wire. This resistance in turn is determined by the length of the wire and the bottom line is that for 2 ohm speakers you can run a pair of 12 guage wires a maximum of 31 feet with no audible deterioration. With 4 ohm speakers, the maximum distance for 14 gauge wire is 40 feet.
Other writers have come to the same overall conclusion, even though the don't agree on what the main cause of high frequency loss is. To quote the author of
http://www.audioheritage.org/html/pe...9-addenda.html
"If there were any actual advantages, [to oversized wire] such wire would have found its way into the engineering mainstream for large military projects, and satellites where billions in research would surely have revealed the benefits and resulted in at least some documentation." He recommends combining strands of parallel ribbon computer cable to obtain 16, 12 or 10 gauge equivalents, or twisting a pair of 10 guage wires with a drill in order to reduce AC impedance. I
A too small wire will produce high frequency loss, but it is not noticed often because of nearing perception. There is no audible problem if you use too big of a wire, but, there are non practical disadvantages. For example, not only does it fill up wire chases, but it is hard to make low resistance terminal connections with big wire and you really should solder crimp connections after using a compound crimper to make it withstand vibration and shock.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
trsandrew
7th Generation Maxima (2009-2015)
17
Apr 8, 2016 06:45 PM
trsandrew
Group Deals / Sponsors Forum
2
Oct 25, 2015 02:47 PM
