I know this may sound like a stupid question but are there any potential setbacks for using the wrong wire gauge? i currently have a 10 gauge setup with the amp i have now and my new amp requires 8. would this two gauges in difference REALLY matter? My friends tellin me it shouldn't pose a problem. But i wanna make sure. thanks

 

Yes it does matter. Heres a good example why. Would you rather be using a sissy garden hose to douse a forest fire or a big fire hose? the bigger gauge wire offers less impendence to signal. In other words, go with the 8 gauge your friends just dont know what they are talking about

 

umm..ok
I'm running 10ga wire on my amp and it works fine. There might be impedance but believe me, I dont notice it at all and I have had my system running 2 12s since last june.

 

Yeah but did your amp instructions say to use 8 or 10 gauge? If it says use 8 you should. Theres a reason they call them instructions. You may not notice the difference by that much by it does matter to some people.

 

uh ok. not like it's going to set your car on fire when you turn it up. And what problem would actually occur as a result of using a smaller guage wire? Enlighten me please.

 

This MIGHT help:

http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp

 

As i said before bigger guage wire means less impendence. If the amp instructions say 8 gauge you should use 8 gauge. 10 will work but 8 is better. If you are going to do the work you might as well do it the best way possible.

 

I would go with a 4 gauge wire. It offers more power flow to the amp keeping your subs thumping. More juice means more constant power. Also, in the future if you decide to go with a larger amp you don't have to spend the extra money. You can always get a power distributer to run an 8 gauge pwer wire to you amp. You should also run an additional 4 gauge ground from your battery to your frame to comprimise with the positive juice that is flowing.

 

if you have too big of an amp to run with your little wire, it can possibly melt your power wire. I seen it happen, not somthing u'd want melted to your carpet. I've gone from 8 gauge to 4 gauge and i can definitely hear a diff. in my music so, if u want your music to sound better, and not have a wire melt on u, u should upgrade.

 

So, is there any disadvantage for using too big a wire then? Should you just go with the biggest wire you can afford? Is bigger always better?

 

bigger is not better. If you use wire that's too big there will be some ditortion in your music, b/c the wire is too big and the flow of electricity isn't right... use the gauge wire that is recomended by the amp, a little bigger isn't too bad. but don't go using 0/2 gauge wire on a 300 watt amp, it won't sound good. i use 4 gauge and i'm happy, i have an 8 gauge to my high's amp, and 4 gauge to my bass amp...

 

Uhhh, actually YES IT COULD!!!
as an extreme case, take a tiny piece of 18 gauge wire and hook it up as your power wire to your amp.. try to run the amp to full power using it.. don't cry at me when the insulation burns off the wire and the wire turns red hot and catches fire and burns your car to the ground.

the size of the wire determines how much current it can carry. when the wire is too small, it WILL heat up and can possibly cause a fire. the other drawback is that the impedance is too high and causes voltage drop from the battery. so when you're drawing 30-40 amps of current from the battery, the batter voltage is 14V (when the car is running), but you may only be getting 9-10-11 volts at the amp. that's BAD. because your wire is dissipating the rest of that voltage in HEAT..
so say you're running 40 amps and the voltage drop is 4 volts.. that means you're dissipating 160 watts of power into the wire as heat. how long do you think it will take you to heat a small coil of wire to nasty hot temperatures with 160 watts? (hint: you can solder 4 awg wire with a 150 watt soldering iron)

is that clear enough for you? Please don't post answers like that if you don't know what you're talking about.



For power and speakers wires, bigger is simply better. for the power you're looking at, you can't go too big, period. you can run 1/0 battery and speaker cables if you want. it won't make a difference in the sound. at MINIMUM, you need 8 awg wire for an amp over 300 watts, and you'll want to use at least 12 awg speaker wire. (if the amp is drawing 40A of current, it's got to be spitting most of it out somewhere, so where will it go, other than down the output wires to the speaker?)

the only time a wire is too big is when you're running tiny currents on your signal cable, and the source just doesn't have enough current to drive the signal down the wire due to high inductance (one of the factors when you calculate impedance.)

 

extreme case. I doubt anyone will be as dumb as trying to run an amp on anything less (or more) than 12 guuage.
i do agree though that exceeding the integrity of a power line can result in fire. saw that happen to a guy's car in louisiana.

 

then dont' tell a guy to hook up an amp with 10 awg when it states in the manual to run 8 awg.. for one, the Max is a big car and it's going to have at least 20 ft of power cable on it. if anything, you should go up a size just because of the length of the wire.

you can't just say "yeah, that'll work, it's not that big".

well, what if it's a 300W Class A amp? that puppy will draw about 60-70 amps!! you NEED 4 awg (or bigger) for that! a class B amp can probably run 10 awg with a bit of voltage drop, but 8 awg would be better. Class D amps can usually get away with 10 awg because of their high efficiency.

as you can see, it all depends on the power output, and efficiency of the amp.

how much current will the system be needing?
on a 20ft run, I wouldn't go over 20-25A with 10 awg.
35-40 A with 8 awg.
80 amps with 4 awg.
140 amps with 2 awg.
if you're going with more current than that, then you already know this stuff- or you should... if not, then you shouldn't be building the system yourself anyway.

 

I just replaced my 10gauge with a 4gauge for my jl 250/1 and the bass is sooooo much better. So to get the best out of your amps go for at least what they recommend.

 

use whats recommended My son added a fosgate 700 amp on an 8 guage when it should have had a 4 and the fuse holder is melting internally. I just disconnected it and am going to replace the wire with a 4.

 

definitely use the larger wire. And make sure you have a large enough inline fuse on that sucka!

 

Why would anyone consider skimping on the wire size to begin with? I've seen people spend $700+ on an amp and then buy a cheap $25 amp kit to wire it. Wiring can play an extremely integral role in how stable, clean, and poweful your system is.

Bottom line, as Matt said, you will be running a 20 ft. long run of wire to get to the trunk. You should use wire that is larger than the recommended specs to be on the safe side. Running wire that is lower than the recommended specifications is just stupid.



C.D.

 

some people just don't understand that fact... it's like trying to run a 500hp engine with a fuel pump out of an Escort.. just can't flow enough juice, period. use the cables that are recommended in the install manuals (or bigger!). those numbers aren't just pulled out of thin air by the person writing the manual. they were spec'd by the engineer who designed the amp and should be followed.

 

Finally some more people here that know what they are talking about!

 

If you go with the 8 or 4 guage wire , you ground wire should match the guage or the power wire.

 

Matt doesn't moderate the audio forum for nothin!

i think I smelled some ownage back up the thread a little ways. Anyone else smell that?

 

I embarrassed to say this but over ten years ago, before I had access to the internet and the knowledge that I do now. I tried installing an amp with 12 guage wire. When I fired it up, that's exactely what happen, I almost tosted my Toyota Celica GTS. The plastic burned right off the wire. Needless to say I sent it to a professional after that.

 

I have 4 guage runing from the Battery to a distribution box and 8 guage from the box to the Amps the set up works for me.

 

The other reason to go with 8 is that. . . have you ever seen the lights in someones car dim when the bass hits?? and they say "dude its because my system is so big" its not. Its cuz there amp is trying to squeeze every last drop of power from the battery. If you go with a bigger gauge the power will flow freely and there wont be any diming lights.

 

hey thanks everyone for the help. i will go and get the bigger wire. last thing i want is the smell of burning plastic or worse yet see smoke good thing i asked this org

 

It's kind of like being a firefighter, and going to a fire. The fire chief says to get the big hose, but all you did was bring the little hose. If only you'd listened, everything would have worked perfectly.

 

It's kind of like taking a girl out to dinner and you only have enough cash for a chicken dinner and she orders Lobster.

 

That's why you always carry plastic.

First date with one of my old GFs was pretty much like that. I took $150 cash for the whole night with me, and we went to a pretty nice place for dinner. Drinks were $8 each, then of course the server upped them to premium liquors without asking- so we paid about $13 each for the drinks... $80 in booze alone, then when the the total bill came, it was $145!!

After that, we went to a Count Basie concert (Awesome Jazz, for you "uncultured" people out there).. that added another $60 to the night.

don't remember where we went after that, but the whole night ended up costing almost $350. good thing I was packing a mastercard next to the Trojan.

 

Ahhhh . . . our good friends, the Trojans. Don't know what I would do without them.

I know the feeling about going broke real quick when the ladies are concerned. The night I proposed to my fiance, we went to a real nice restaurant on St. Simon's Island. I only live about an hour or so away, so it wasn't a bad drive. I figured $150 - $200 tops for the food, $100 for entertainment later on, and then $50 for safekeeping. Well, similar to your story, they knew we were getting proposed, so they were extra "special" to us. We had a nice quiet table away from everyone. Candlelight, nice music, and the manager was our waitress. Perfect service. They brought out the food, cooked perfectly. Sent out a bottle of Dom P. for us. Being as naive as I was, I thought it was complimentary. I was a fool. Check came and the total was $425. Well, after crapping my pants, I went and paid and walked her out to the car, while conveniently leaving my cell phone inside. I went it, chewed the manager a new one, and walked out.

All in all, I ended up spending close to $1000 that night. After we ate, we went on a casino cruise around the island and ended up staying at a B&B.

$1000 . . . and this was after I had just bought a $4800 engagement ring.

Well worth it, but it took me quite a bit to become financially solvent again after that weekend. Thanks to Mr. Visa and his buddy the Mr. Mastercard, it was all worthwhile.

Ahhh . . . memories.

 

Did you use it?

 

The s#!t we do for women. $1000, d@mn that's some good modding money

 

She knows how hellbent I am when it comes to my vehicles. She knows I will spend money on them, and she doesn't fuss about it. I am always telling her that, "you know, that present I bought you could have bought me new rims" or "as long as you are around, I guess my turbo project is shot to hell."