speaker wire question

[j_alexander 10+ year member]

i was thinking of running 8 guage wire to my subs, is there a special kind or is it just basic power wire? also i would need new terminals for my box, anyone know were to get some?

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[Mike465 10+ year member]

If you are going to wire your box with 8 guage just run the wire straight form the amp through the box. Just make sure that you seal the hole you drill through the box.

 

[Mike465 10+ year member]

Oh sorry yeah its just regular speaker wire. To make things easyer use banana clips on the sub terminals.

 

[j_alexander 10+ year member]

okay thanks. will i see any gains from running 8 guage?

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

okay thanks. will i see any gains from running 8 guage?

only if you're pushing like 2-3k watts through 16 gauge right now, and even then not too much gain will be noticed

 

[j_alexander 10+ year member]

only if you're pushing like 2-3k watts through 16 gauge right now, and even then not too much gain will be noticed

okay thanks so its basically pointless for me then since im only putting out about 1500 haha

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

okay thanks so its basically pointless for me then since im only putting out about 1500 haha

if you already have 12 gauge or bigger, I doubt it'll even be an audible difference by going any bigger, hell even if you had 16 gauge i doubt it'd be audibly louder

however if ur one of those people that likes to add every little bit of strength possible even if u can't tell individually in your additions, yes stepping up to 8 gauge WILL transfer more power to your amp, as would stepping up to 0 gauge even lol

 

[99grandprixGT 5,000+ posts]

8 gauage speaker wire just looks bad ***, when your running the same guage speaker wire as best buy sells you for your amps. lol.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

0 gauge speaker wire looks even more badass...

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

Using 8 gauge will not give you any improvement what-so-ever. If you like the looks, then fine, but it makes no difference in performance. 12 gauge is plenty for the short runs in cars.

 

[Earthman 10+ year member]

Bigger wire helps keep the amp cooler too due to reduced resistance. But in your case its not needed.

 

[Mike465 10+ year member]

Yeah, if you are only running 1.5k then 12 ghuage will be fine. If you are running more power over 3k then yes, it also helps lower box rise when you do a large box

 

[j_alexander 10+ year member]

0 gauge speaker wire looks even more badass...

i want every little bit i can get haha 0 gauge would be badass mad props to anyone that uses that as speaker wire haha

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Bigger wire helps keep the amp cooler too due to reduced resistance. But in your case its not needed.

He's talking about speaker wire. Also, even with power wire, once the wire is big enough, going bigger has no effect.

 

[99grandprixGT 5,000+ posts]

its funny to think that i was using 8 gauge as my power wire at one time. any now people use that for there speakers.