i have a kenwood h/u running to a 1200 watt sony xplode amp, going to two sony xplode 12 inch subs,

my question is if 8 gauge wire is too small for 1200 watts, i don't think i'll be running full power but i want to know if it can handle it

thanks

 

well your amp no offence is prob only 600w RMS maybe. Now I recomend 8 guage for up to 350w RMS. So i would say 8 guage is to small if it is running the entire lengh of the car. Just go with 4 guage you will be alot happier going bigger the first time then ripping it all out and redoing it in 4 guage. The price difference is very minimal.

Jeremy

 

i would agree with the reply above. your 1200watt amp isnt even coming close to pushing that.

wire your car with 4awg wiring that way you'll never have to worry about it. one time thing. then if you upgrade later or add another amp all you have to do is buy a distribution block and run the 8awg from it. your 4awg power is already ran. minimal work to do.

 

People don't realize this, but wiring IS important!! Don't go cheap (ie: buy a smaller gauge wire to save some money) here. Get the 4 gauge wire and save yourself the headache. Afterall, it's a pita just to run the wire, wouldn't it suck to have to do it twice because you installed too small of a wire to begin with??!
Your amp is gonna pull too much power for the 8 gauge wire to handle. So either... your fuse is gonna do it's job, and not let enough power down the line, or if you have too big of a fuse in there for 8 gauge wire, then you're gonna be pulling too much current along the wire, melt it and possible catch the car on fire. Bad stuff... so definitely go with the 4 gauge...

Also, I'd recommend some decent rca's too. People try to go cheap with these as well... trying to find them for a cheaper price. Be forewarned, getting real cheapies (I'm not saying you have to buy the top-of-the-line) will introduce noise into your system. They're also a pita to run, so save yourself the time in the long run.

 

power ratings for amps are worthless when trying to determine wire size. What you need to find out is what is the maximum CURRENT DRAW of the amp. Typically, you can go by the fuse size on the amp. The new class D amp technology is more effecient than A/B technology, so the basic assumptions that most people go by when equating wattage to wire size doesn't mean much.

My rule of thumb is that 8 AWG is sufficient for amps with up to a 40 amp fuse. If it's greater than 40 amps, or you ever intend to power additional items in the future, run 4 AWG.


I will agree that it's worthwhile to err on the side of bigger wire, but I will disagree with the RCA comment. I've used a lot of RCAs in a lot of installs, and my overall finding is that typically, the more the RCA costs, the worse it is. I use the $.49 rcas in the majority of my installs unless they show, then I'll use whatever fits the asthetics of the installation. In some very rare cases, you may run into noise problems that can't be solved by proper routing, and in those cases a UTP or a shielded RCA may provide marginal benefit. In all other cases, it's a complete waste of money.

 

i would disagree with the rca comment as well. the only way your going to introduce noise or engine static to your speakers is if its not ran correctly. of if your head unit has only 2 preouts and you've split the end of the rca's to run 3.

 

Splitting the RCAs with a Y-connector shouldn't cause any problems either. The worst it's going to do is raise the noise floor by 3dB, but in virtually all cases, that won't be audible.

 

my clarion head unit only has 2 preouts to it.. one for subs and the other for sides. i run 3 preouts because i had it split. what i meant was that before i did that, i never had any engine static at all, as for when i split the rca's up like that, i do have a little now. its nothing bad. its not very loud but nevertheless it is still there.

 

If you're getting engine noise, that may be due to a poor connection somewhere around that y-splitter. If you have dirty contacts, or a poor connection somewhere, you can introduce noise. I'd try cleaning the contacts of all the rca's and the y-connector, and if that doesn't fix it, try swapping in a different y-connector.

 

Well I used to work at a car audio shop... there was one brand of RCA's (can't think of the name now) that came in a packaged deal (fuse, fuse holder, ground and power wires) and they sucked. Seriously...
They would introduce a minimal amt of sound into the system but they were horrible to route threw the car because the plastic covering would actually chip/peal.

I'm not saying buy expensive ones... then you're just paying for the name... but I'm saying, don't buy the cheapest ones you can find either... I've used the one's Wal-Mart sells in the past, they're cheap, and I haven't had any problems with the quality of them so far.

 

Yeah, it's definitely not the Y-splitter. I also have a Y splitter in the back of mine because I only have 2 preouts. Does the noise increase with rpms? Usually engine noise is related to a bad/improper ground somewhere in the system.

 

Wire is wire. You can spend $70 on Monster or $24.99 on EFX from Wal*mart.

I've run both, and never had any noise. I also had 8 AWG wire powering my Kenwood KAC-929s for the longest time, with no trouble. I know that max on that is 1000w, but I'm not sure what the RMS is at 4 ohms, which is what I have it wired for.