RCA cables and speaker wire question

[Matt 9 10+ year member]

Hello everyone, i'm new here so feel free to call me a noob or whatever the term is these days. haha.

Anyways, i recently re wired my speaker wire from my amp to my sub. I'm curious if the wires inside the enclosure should be the same size as the wires running to the amp. Also, is there a noticeable difference with high quality rca cables ? i only have one set running from my deck to my amp for the sub. My door and rear speakers are not amp'd. Any suggestions would be great. I look forward to posting here more often. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Click to read more...

 

[REDz28 10+ year member]

You should use the same wire just to keep the current flow the same. It might not truly matter but why risk it?

Higher quality RCAs will help shield your RCAs from interfere through out your car and if there strong it'll help them keep from getting pinched or damaged. I don't have the best set but I got a $15 pair and they work perfectly

 

[Matt 9 10+ year member]

thanks for the feedback ! i will look into some better cables for sure.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

The main benefit to high quality RCA cables in a car is simply connection strength and low resistance, the cheap cables use much thinner cables and very weak connections that often fail. You get noise when the ground connection inside the RCA fails.

While it makes sense to keep wire size the same inside the box, the tinsel leads on the subwoofer are much smaller than the wire. The connections inside the box at the terminals is more important than wire.

In all electrical installations, the connections are the most important, they are the source for resistance and failures.

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

You should use the same wire just to keep the current flow the same. It might not truly matter but why risk it?
Higher quality RCAs will help shield your RCAs from interfere through out your car and if there strong it'll help them keep from getting pinched or damaged. I don't have the best set but I got a $15 pair and they work perfectly

Depending on what gauge wiring he is using it shouldn't really matter. Speaker wire runs for subs are so short anyways you can use a very high gauge (smaller) wire and still be fine. IMO, you should worry more about making sure your ground and power wire for your amp are the same size before worrying about speaker wire. (i.e. if your amp uses a 1/0 power and your ground is only 4g you should fix it)

 

[Matt 9 10+ year member]

Depending on what gauge wiring he is using it shouldn't really matter. Speaker wire runs for subs are so short anyways you can use a very high gauge (smaller) wire and still be fine. IMO, you should worry more about making sure your ground and power wire for your amp are the same size before worrying about speaker wire. (i.e. if your amp uses a 1/0 power and your ground is only 4g you should fix it)

true that. for my system wich is compact to say the least, i am running 8 gauge positive and negative for the amp (400 watt / 200 rms) . my speaker wire is 12 gauge. i was worried because i noticed the wire inside the enclosure was 18 gauge. i swapped it out last night, but now i'm thinking i could use better terminal or new enclosure all together. i'm powering a single 10 inch JL Audio. i would go bigger, but i need my trunk space.