18 Guage wire killing my sound?

[hclpfan 10+ year member]

So I've got a pretty beginner question here but here goes. I had my subs installed a good four years ago at a local place and everything has been playing just fine, I have no complaints. However, the other day I was messin around with my box and noticed something. Basically from my amp to my sub box spring connectors, or whatever they are called, I have the standard blue/silver spiral streetwires cables which according to their site are either 12 or 14 guage. But, on the inside of my box the wire going from the spring clips to the actual subs are that standard copper see through casing 18 guage wire. Am I loosing any power/sound quality by having only 18 guage wire in there? Or does it not really matter?

Like I said, I have no complaints about bad sound, just curious if it could be even better,

Click to read more...

 

[Millertime1028 10+ year member]

How much wattage ?

 

[hclpfan 10+ year member]

500w. I have a JL 500/1 powering 2x 12" JL 12w3v3's

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

I would throw some bigger wire in there. I wouldnt even use 18 gauge to run my mids and highs

 

[hclpfan 10+ year member]

I would throw some bigger wire in there. I wouldnt even use 18 gauge to run my mids and highs

Yeah that's what I was thinking. I mean, I use 18 gauge to run tiny speakers in my house, so I figured that its probly not good enough to run big subwoofers heh.

 

[oldschool4me 10+ year member]

its fine for that short of a run. sure it isnt 16g? thats the most common. your not going to see a difference if thats what your asking.

 

[shaneb 10+ year member]

You will see absolutely NO difference with bigger wire.

It's probably hardly a foot or two of wire in the first place.

Don't touch it.

 

[hclpfan 10+ year member]

Yeah its only like.. maybe 2-3 feet max. If its not going to be noticeable then i don't really care. Thanks for the tips.

 

[iMSeRiOuS 10+ year member]

run some 0 gauge

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

run some 0 gauge

x2 ...no signal lost then at that distance

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

The wire isn't making a big enough difference for it to be audible.

 

[hclpfan 10+ year member]

x2 ...no signal lost then at that distance

lol. Pretty sure that would be a waste of money concidering i only have 12 gauge leading up to it

 

[brucebruce1546 10+ year member]

18guage wire has current capacity of 18amps, so YES if your amperage is higher than this out of the amp, you could be severly limiting the amount of power going to your subs. Change it out with 12guage, either way, it wont hurt, might help, and is not exspensive.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

Impedance may rise a little...

I've seen guys put over 2000w to a sub using 16 awg. Switch to a larger guage and you may only see .1 dB gain or nothing at all.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

But, it wouldn't hurt to switch to 14 awg or so.