speaker wiring

[soldiermedic 10+ year member]

I had a sub installed at a local car shop, and I'm not happy with his results. So I started from scratch and need to know what kind of wire I need to wire the sub itself before I put it in the box. It's an infinity 10D VQ, wiring it for 2 ohms. Is there a special wire I need to to the internal wiring? The guy used regular 14 ga speaker wire. Also, since it's 400 RMS, should I stick to 14 ga wire to the amp, or should I go bigger?

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[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

14 awg for 400 RMS is more than enough.

And wire is wire.

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

the speaker wire is fine.... 4 ga to the amp

 

[soldiermedic 10+ year member]

Thanks a bunch guys. I just overheard something about some tinsel wire, but didn't wanna jump to conclusion.

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

Tinsel wire is the wire that leads from the voice coil, thru the back of the cone to the terminal connections on the sub. You shouldn't have to mess with those, that's a manufacturing thing.

14 ga is fine for what your doing.

What didn't you like about the shops install work?

 

[soldiermedic 10+ year member]

He gave me a prefab box and told me it was tuned at 35 hz, but It just didn't sound right. Then when I rode it for about a week I got some serious dips in my power. Turns out that he fused my amp with a 50 amp fuse when the amp is a Rockford T400-2 bridged at 2 ohms, which I believe warrants at least a 60 amp fuse. So I gutted the back install and decided to trust myself and do it myself after finding someone who made a good box for me.

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

Looks like you were right. What size power wire did you get? 50 amp is correct for 8 ga, but you should have a 4 gauge with 100 amp fuse for that amp.

4-gauge power and ground leads and a 100-amp fuse recommended — wiring and hardware not included with amplifier
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_575T4002P/Rockford-Fosgate-Power-T400-2.html?tp=115

 

[soldiermedic 10+ year member]

It was 4 ga, 1/0 running to a distro. 4 ga running to my amps (1 is a 4 ch). At least I provided the wire that he installed LOL.