Well, a number of weeks ago, I took my car to get it's oil changed and eventually, my mechanic wanted to see the amplifier and infinity speaker install I did. He told me that overall it was a clean install, but then one thing, that's made me curious, was that he told me that when he seen the battery connection to the amp, with the inline fuse and the big red 4 gauge wire directly hooked up to the battery to amp, he said "amateurs...".

I didn't really want to bother with him nor his comment, but instead, it's gotten me actually interested in another method of powering an amp successfully, by using the 4 gauge wiring, inline fuse, direct connection between the battery and amp. I just want to know how I was amateuristic with the way I powered my amp... Thanks all.

 

Umm...wiring from the battery is the only way to power an amp, with the fuse as close to the battery as possible. Doing this isnt amateuristic, so more details of what he was thinking are needed to answer your question.

-kevin

 

Well, that was all, he simply went over to the battery, looked at the battery with the inline fuse holder and the 4 gauge wire to the amplifier, and said "amateurs...". I've been wondering over and over again how I could of done this more professionally, lol. Well I guess he wanted to make some kind of wry comment on an install I did myself, i guess he's a lesser man then I, hah !

 

shoulda asked him how would professionals connected the wire to the battery

 

Hehe, you're tellin me, I wish I had. But I think is, this guy always makes me feel inferior, its ridiculous, so I didn't want to show any more of my lack of knowledge at that moment, and decided to try and move on from there and avoid any more of his rubbish. What can I say, I'm a weak weak man . I know I'm gonna ask him again anyways, see what his method of doing so is. All he did was get me curious.

 

I don't care how good he is, I'd let my money do the talking. I'd drop the guy in a second and get a new mechanic.

I really hate to stereotype but I've been in small businesses in large cities and don't see how anyone would put up with this behavior. You won't find a rude business owner around here. They will not be in business for long.

-Robert

 

I'm not sure what he means by that. I assume you used the correct termination block to the battery. Could be jelous also.

If your amps are in the trunk you may want to consider a larger cable to the rear. It will tighten up your bass and give you more punch. I'm an electrician by trade and what the larger cable does is reduces the voltage drop. I'm sure you've seen pheonix amps speced at 14.4volts. This is unrealistic as 14.4 is only available at the alternator/battery terminals. By the time it gets to the trunk your down on voltage a bit, not much but makes a differnce.
Another way to help with surges is with the stiff caps, Helps with high amp spikes, but they only last so long. I never used them as my amps (harmon kardon) had large caps built in.

I recall from my boomcar stage that pheonix gold specs the 8ga wire for amps to a max of 5-6 feet (maby 4-5') off the terminal block.

Give it a try , For a cheap source of wire goto the welding shop. The strand count isn't as high as a pheonix style cable but the copper is there.

Hope this helps , martin

Now i need to find out how to fix the dispaly on my 96 max bose head.

 

maybe hes jealousy and a ***** thats why

 

I dont quite get how increasing voltage will make his bass tighter...louder? maybe a little, tighter? not really. Yes there wont be voltage drop, so the amps will put out more power, but the tightness really depends more on the sub and box, or maybe changing out the amp itself, not giving the same amp more voltage. Furthermore, how exactly was this on topic, and how could you tell that he needs wire thicker than 4 gauge. All he said he had was an Infinity speaker.

If Im wrong please enlighten me.

-kevin

 

He probably saw the big RED wire chilling if your engine bay, and was wondering why you didn't wrap it with BLACK electrical tape and/or wire loom


amateurs......

 

Sorry for not being quite as quick as most others, but is that sarcasm, or advice on protecting my wiring .

 

...or at least I would hope so...

 

Good call, Good call... your mechanic was probably referring to not properly "sheilding" your wiring underneath the hood. The only other thing that I would be able to think of would be that you placed your fuse holder far from the battery, which from what I read seems like you put pretty close. Also I gotta go with kpr10is on this one, voltage won't produce a "tighter" bass by any means, and I am sure that 4 guage is sufficient for the job, not enough info supplied though to be absolutely sure.

 

Sheilding the wire with electrical tape and loom would really help me with just protecting the wire from the environment right? Just to make sure the wire is protected and all.

The thing is, I kept getting the wierd "vibe" that he was referring to the fact that I hooked up a big red wire straight to the battery, and he made it seem like for his installs he tapped into less noticeable sources, I'm not to sure. He's probably just a ******* of a man I suppose.

 

maybe he didn't approve of the 'girth'

 

good points everyone !! very good...in my opinion he was refering to a security issue...

many of us take many precaustions to ensure that our car is safe, specially in bad neighborhoods and in New York. i, put the music down many blocks before i get home so no one around my house..where my car is going to be sitting by itself with noone watching over it...knows i have loud music and then they break into my car to get two subwoofers or if they cant take them just make damage because lots of people cant stand the idea of you having something they dont have or cant have.

well, if you do take this precaution, good. but it is not good at all if after taking this and some others precautions during the week, saturday you decide to clean the car, so you wash it, wax it and then pop the hood just to give it a quick wipe down...but hey...the guys from the building across the street just happen to se the (no sarcasm here) BIG-SPARKY-RED 0gauge conected to a 24k-like gold terminal into your battery and have a 1000 amp in-line fuse with bling bling on it !! it will be like a big target ...just my opinion. and i think thats is what he was refering to... in my opinion it would sound some like this... psss amateurs...looka at their istallations...just trying to caught attention and then when they get jacked they blame it o the few friend who knew about their system..

hey, just like i said, it might have sounded sarcastic somewhere but is not how i meant it... but think about it !! lots of people hate to see someone has something they cant or just dont have ...

luigi

 

Well you can go the extra mile and throw some loom on it, but I've been running my wire bare for about 1 year in the max and before that, 3 years in 626 and had no issues. Wire loom is just extra insurance just as the inline fuse.

there are 3 reason I would suspect your mechanic said "amateurs" after seeing your install (he shoud've kept his eyes on the oil stuff which is on the other side of the car)

1. not using wire loom
2. using glue & scotch tape to connect your wire to your battery instead of a battery connector
3. going to him for an oil change

 

glue and scotch tape? is this a joke or has someone actually done that ?

 

How did you get the power cable into the vehicle? Did you use a grommet?

 

He was probably expecting to see a breaker in there instead of an inline fuse?

Is the fuse housing just chilling or hanging or is it screwed into anything?

May be commenting on your fuse choice? ATC/ATO vs AGC/AGU vs AFS/ANL/ANE? (Good, Better, Best?)

Did you use the walmart kit? That thing has a big goofy fuse in it...

Probably best to put split loom on it... gives some extra protection against melting and looks more OEM and only costs a few dollars...


I did the ugly lame n00b installation and am not running it through the OEM path via the entire wheelwell (Using that factory grommet, but it still looks goofy running over the wheel well in the engine compartment then down)... Then again with the split loom it looks almost OEM!

 

True, but it may be completely irrelevant in his case. .5 volts is the voltage drop normally considered to be the threshold for our ears. We'd need to know more about his system to make such a suggestion as a larger power wire. It will also not make his bass "tighter" by using a larger power wire. Louder, yes...but not tighter.

Tony

 

Funny, cause there's a bunch of shops like that here in the Bay Area.

 

why dont you just ask him how would have he done it or show me yours doesn't hurt.

 

You should have just told him to shut up and do his job. lol