speaker wire

[playyamxz550 10+ year member]

I need speaker wire for my dc level 4 xl 18 on a brz2400 I deffently want to get knukonceptz speaker wire but im not sure is 10 gauge good?

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[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

10 or 12 is good...

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

i always run the fattest wire the terminals will accept

 

[playyamxz550 10+ year member]

fattest is 10 but knu has like 6 diffrent wire's which one?

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

Stinger wire, ftw!

 

[blackdrag450r 10+ year member]

i forget what its called, but its their twisted stuff.

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

Thats karma wire I think... Either one is gunna be fine...

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

i use 8gauge for my speaker wire //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif. had some trouble getting 2 pieces to fit into the terminals but they managed

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

Gauge of the speaker wire doesn't really matter to a point.

The voltage coming out of an amp is A/C is isn't really affected much by the size of the wire. Look at a telephone pole with power wires running across it...they're not very thick for the amount of power going through them. D/C current, on the other hand, is severely affected by the gauge and run of the wire. That's why big power wires are good and why your home isn't powered by DC.

Garden variety 16ga wire will be fine...even if it's a 15' run. Longer than that and you do start getting some resistance that can affect performance on paper but I'd imagine few people, if any, will notice. Stock wire you have in your car going to speakers is really poor despite its gauge. It has a lot of resistance since it has fewer strands and running through several pins/plugs doesn't help either. Upgrading that to 16ga will make a noticeable difference. But going from 16ga to 14/12/8ga wire for your subs will not help you at all. It's called diminishing returns.

The wire to stay away from CCA (copper-clad aluminum) wire. It has a very high resistance for its diameter and the copper will eventually start to react with the aluminum and corrode. Stay away from anything made in China. The copper might be OK, it's the shielding that'll go bad and start reacting with the copper strands. This will happen rather quickly too. And don't worry too much about '100% oxygen free' wire. That's really a marketing gimmick as non oxygen free wire actually has a little less resistance and they'll both oxidize on the ends in about the same amount of time. Look at some home speaker inputs that's been plugged in for a few years; it'll look dull. That will eventually happen regardless of what copper wire you buy. Using fancy connectors will not help slow or prevent this. Nature of the beast really.

Twisted speaker wire is snake oil. The voltages are so high that a couple electrons getting trapped will not create noise or hiss. Signal wires are a different story as they're low voltage. It's a reason why high voltage outputs on your radio are nice, you can get away with less expensive RCAs and be noise free.