Gauge of Speaker Wire

[KG's Supra24]

Got discouraged building amp rack earlier so i took a break to check out the new in boat set up ..

Here is new vs old. not screwed in or in there perfect but it gives you an idea ....

Can you tell me which is which

[sandm]

don't know which one is on the left, but if you are doing db651's as your in-cabin, you will love them. great speaker that sounds awesome with lots of power..

I believe that the dynamat is a good idea, don't know and maybe earmark will chime in, but get a bag of polyfil from walmart and loosely stuff the cans.

[KG's Supra24]

The one on the left is bullet hollow point coaxial. They are replacing the polk db series which are going to dusty.

Only thing I worry about is having enough power to to push the bullets to their potential or if it is just wasted speaker without a big amp ....

[mmandley]

Wires

Ok lets think about wires for a minute here.

Battery cable = wire 2 to 8guage depending on usage. Why because it caries lots of current < amps > and low Voltage.

Electical cable for the dash = wire 14 to 22 guage depending on application. Used to carry digital signals and 5 to 12v 5 to 15 amp to different components.

Stereo 0 to 22 guage. Used for all parts carries 1 to 50+ volts and less then 1 to several hundred amps.

Speaker = your biggest thing here is SOUND QUALITY because in the end thats all you care about how well does it sound right? Well speaker wires Carry Voltage to the Speaker and very low amperage.

The LOUDER you want that speaker the Larger your speaker line should be.

Wire any wire, the longer it gets the more it has Line Loss = voltage drop
If you are running speakers with only 50 Watts of power you might only see 5 to 9volts of power to it and you can get away with a 18 or a 16 wire and not notice anything different.

Now lets get to Moombas most common swap Polk DB651 runs about 100 watts of power and thats still good on 18 and 16 guage wire.

I swaped all my speaker wires out when i went to the new Exile SST interior speakers.

Subwoofer at the very least needs 16 and should be 14 but ideal is a high quality 12 guage cable.

My sub has easily 50vts going to it when im bumping my system pushing 2K to 3K watts on a steady bassis.

Towers are the same way you can get away with a 16 because thats easy to work with, 14 is ideal for most 1K watt tower systems.

I am running 14 in mine for the HLCDs because im pumping 1K watts and i want the cleanest sound out of them so i can enjoy it while boarding.

So many times i see, and i know Brian, Phil, and others see awesome systems but the worst wires. They cheaped out on the wires and so the entire system is failing.

Spend the money on quality wires, if you want quality sound. You can take a mediocure speaker and make it sound great with a solid amp and wires. Or you can take a great speaker and make it sound like crap with a weak amp and bad wires.

Closing and in short.

Battery to Power block 0 to 2 guage
Amps 4 guage
Cabin speakers 16 guage
Towers speakers 14 guage
Subwoofers 12 guage.

The more Power you need = the Bigger the wire you need.

[KG's Supra24]

Alot of info there mmandley. Appreciate it. I ended up ordering wire just this weekend. I'll admit, I took the easy way out and just ordered a 100ft roll of 12 gauge. This way i dont have to measure out and buy a little of everything. I plan to just run 12 gauge to all the speakers and my plans are spot on with your other recommendations (batt to distr and distr to amp).

[sandm]

can't go wrong with too big wire. as you mentioned, easier to run not having to measure off lengths. just run the wire and have at it..

remember, along with wire and component selection are how the wire is connected. solder-solder-solder...

[KG's Supra24]

I dont think i will have to solder anywhere, right? If i run like we were just talking about from one speaker to the next speaker, where would a solder point be?

We may need one of Dustys drawings here ....

[Razzman]

You don't neccessarily have to solder, I use sealed connectors. Some are resin filled and others heat shrink and when heated completely seal the connection so that no moisture can get to the connection.

Heat shrinkable terminals

[dusty2221]

I love pictures and links.

[KG's Supra24]

I should have some of the heat shrinking terminals, just finished rewiring the trailer lights about a month ago. Used them for that.

I'm still thinking this can be done by wiring the speakers together, though.