difference between speaker wire and power wire?

[beerdrinker21]

hi i am running two apline mrv-1507 amps and two 12in mtx thunder 9500 subs. since im going to be running a large amout of power from my amps to my subs, what gauge do i need? I have about 40 ft of 8 gauge power wire laying in my garage. can i use power wire as speaker wire? or should i go out and buy 10 gauge speaker wire. I cant even find anywhere to buy 8 gauge speaker wire. what should i do?

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[kotec123 10+ year member]

dont do 8 ga......do atleast 4 ga at the least.....if i were u id do 2 ga

 

[beerdrinker21]

kotec123 r u talking about powering the amps? i already have 0 gauge run to a batery in my trunk to a capacito then into a distributor block to 4 gauge to each amp, thats taken care of. i need to know if i need to buy speaker wire or if i could use the extra 8 gauge i have sitting around.

 

[Vincent9515 10+ year member]

Use the 8 gauge. I use power wire all the time for subs. I was thinking about buying one of those 1000 foot spools of 10 gauge on Ebay since they come out so much cheaper than speaker wire.

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

BTW to answer the title

There is no difference in speaker wire and power wire. If you have 12awg power wire you can use it to wire your subs. If you have 16awg speaker wire you can use it to run power to a head unit or processor.

/thread

 

[kotec123 10+ year member]

ooo yea sorry i thought u meant power wire...8 ga is fine

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

8ga Is a little overkill IMO for wiring to subs. Ive always been told that 10Ga is plenty until you get into the big leagues. But if its spare, go for it... cant hurt can it?

 

[stealth17 10+ year member]

8ga Is a little overkill IMO for wiring to subs. Ive always been told that 10Ga is plenty until you get into the big leagues. But if its spare, go for it... cant hurt can it?

Actually it can. Too much resistance can (too big of wire) can cause problems such as loss.

 

[headless 10+ year member]

Actually it can. Too much resistance can (too big of wire) can cause problems such as loss.

What?

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Actually it can. Too much resistance can (too big of wire) can cause problems such as loss.

Umm....no.

Larger gauge wire has less resistance than smaller gauge wire for a given length.

There is nothing wrong with going larger than necessary. Only disadvantages are that larger wire is more expensive...so why waste the money if you don't have to.

 

[wilzyx 5,000+ posts]

Umm....no.
Larger gauge wire has less resistance than smaller gauge wire for a given length.

There is nothing wrong with going larger than necessary. Only disadvantages are that larger wire is more expensive...so why waste the money if you don't have to.

pwnt by squeak

 

[stealth17 10+ year member]

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Tables/wirega.html#c1

I was as wrong as you can get. Sorry. Hey, I learned something!