Mega Noob Question

[Logan4434 10+ year member]

which type of wire is better for wiring a box with a 10" 1000W RMS Alpine type X

sub to a BPX2200 JBL amp(amp has 1100 RMS at 4 ohms bridged)16 guage speaker wire or regular 4 guage power wire.

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[phrozen5100 10+ year member]

Speaker wire...unless you're running a ton of power, going past 10 ga. is overkill IMO.

 

[Logan4434 10+ year member]

thats what i thought, i would have installed the whole thing myself if the warranty wouldnt go void,but im gonna change those wires first thing.(on my way home today right after having it installed it started smoking, everything still works, it kinda scared me tho)

 

[waNtsumBuMP 10+ year member]

on my way home today right after having it installed it started smoking, everything still works, it kinda scared me tho)

If it was smoking, i dont think your only problem is the wires.....

 

[themainjam 10+ year member]

well was it the wires or the sub..... please be the wires..... oh and dont forget you need to break it in!!!.

 

[Logan4434 10+ year member]

well it was a little of column A and little of column B, the wires were actually 8 guage power wires, and i may have pushed it a little to far for the first time, but it works fine now.

 

[themainjam 10+ year member]

good as long as it works!!! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Wait they installed 8 gauge wiring and then warranteed that whoel setup????

 

[Logan4434 10+ year member]

the power to the battery was 4 guage,they wired the box to the amp with 8 guage(i was like wtf), and the amp has a warranty on it if it is professionally installed(otherwise i would have done it myself)but Im gonna need a capacitor anyway, cause at night i cant run the lights and the sub at the same time.

BTW does anyone know how to adjust short protecters cause mine wont let me play my volume past 40(on a panasonic,30s like medium, 50-60s loud and 40 is kinda weird)if i go any farther up the amp thinks its shorting and turns off(but i know for a fact its not shorting).

 

[HeadBussa86 10+ year member]

You could turn up the gain on your amp and your subs would be louder under 40 but I'd definitely upgrade that 8ga to 4.

 

[jester73440 10+ year member]

ok the amp to the sub don't need to be 8ga 10ga is fine or 12ga. Your amp prolly isn't going off because of short protection it is going off because it is clipping which means your distorting your sub. adjust the gain and the headunit to get a happy medium of around 30

 

[themainjam 10+ year member]

according to

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

you need 2 gauge for anything over 12 feet long.

i would just run 1/0 gauge from weldingsupply.com and use a distro block. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif the 4 guage is only reccomended for 800WRMS at 12 feet.

 

[`pr0digy 10+ year member]

He's talking about speaker wire I think ? 8 ga. speaker wire is more than enough... 4 ga. power wire shouldn't be a problem either, that's what I'm using, it's giving a full 1200 watts just fine.

 

[Logan4434 10+ year member]

lol im confusing you guys mega.let me map out my setup for you. ummmmmmmkay

to begin with there is a JBL BPX1100.1 amp in the trunk, witch can run at 1100watts RMS bridged,that is powered by a 4 gauge wire leading to the ANL fuse holder right beside the positive(+)battery terminal,then there is 0 guage grounding wire hooked to a sanded place in the trunk.Blue RCA cables leading to my Panasonic head unit.after I just changed them last night, Now there are 2 16 guage speaker wires(one for positive, one for negative)running to the Rcokford Fosgate Q-logic box,from there i used the included wire with the box to hook up my sub(a 10" Alpine type X with 1000watts RMS).so it should work great, im not sure if its still breaking in(if thats normal, this is my first system),but i have called the installer i had do it for me, they say it may be the short protector.Im trying to figure out wtf i can do to fix this.it should run fine at 50.

PS. this is all running in my 97 Honda Civic EX(with swapped engine i might add //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/thumbsupwink.gif.129404938effda6ad9cca39e7f4b58a3.gif )

 

[swimfreak26 10+ year member]

Your problem was never the speaker wire, doesn't matter how big you go as long as it's bigger than 16guage.

Now, you said you're running 4guage power wire and 0guage ground....always have the same size power and ground wires. I'm not sure what the effect is, but I've heard many people swear that you must have these equal. Hopefully someone can elaborate on this?

 

[Logan4434 10+ year member]

lol whoops, i bought 0 gauge red power wire and 0 guage black ground wire, and forgot i decided to pitch them because there was to big a risk of fire where it was gonna be.its 4 guage blue grounding wire and 4 gauge red power wire.