Sub Power Wire

[chaz7979 10+ year member]

Is there any difference between getting 8 guage wire at my local hardware store or from street wires or some other car audio company? The wire is wire right? I know for speakers and rca cables it akes a difference but it shouldn't matter for my power, ground, and signal right? I just figure it will cost half as much money.

Click to read more...

 

[warmonster 10+ year member]

you CAN get wire from your local hardware store, but its not going to be even close to as high quaility, speaker wire, is usually oxygen free and made of alot better quality than most wire. I wouldnt reccomend using hardware store wire. you get what you pay for!

 

[Heresy 10+ year member]

Wire from a hardware store has less strands than regular power wire and is probably not OFC. Besides those factors, it basically the same thing. I like power wire only in the fact that it is so much more flexible than the stuff at Home Depot or Lowe's. A strand count of 500 is better than something with a strand count of 15 IMO because of the twisting and turning that the wire might have to do as it works it's way to the amps.

Anyway, 8 AWG power wire is relatively cheap. It's less than a buck a foot and unless you are running a lot of it, it shouldn't run over $20.

 

[chaz7979 10+ year member]

Originally posted by warmonster you CAN get wire from your local hardware store, but its not going to be even close to as high quaility, speaker wire, is usually oxygen free and made of alot better quality than most wire. I wouldnt reccomend using hardware store wire. you get what you pay for!

Did you even read my post? I'm talking about an 8 gauge line for the power to the amp. I even make a point to say I know it does matter with speaker and rca wires.

 

[warmonster 10+ year member]

omg, its the same thing! you can use power wire as speaker wire! as long as its car audio wire its the same thing unless its rca.

 

[chaz7979 10+ year member]

Of course you can, well you'd need 2 wires. But I never said I wanted to do that. There is a big difference between using cheap wire for sound or for simply a power line.

Is English your first language?

 

[gregj9 10+ year member]

Well, aside from what everyone else is saying, my 6 years of professional sales/installation have taught me that as far as the wire from a hardware shop goes the only difference is.........the shielding. As long as you get a wire that has a lot of thin strands (rather than a wire that has only a few thick strands and is hard to bend) the wire is the same except, car audio wire has an insulation on it that keeps gas and oil from eating away at it or soaking into it. For a short time my friends and I used something called welding cable in our four ga. installs the wire was great lots of strands, but we needed to be sure to use wire loom to protect it from the under the hood "elements". Best thing to do is go to a shop feel the flexibility of the high price cables, look at the number of strands in the wire, then go to a hardware store, Lowes etc and look for a similar looking, feeling cable

good luck

Greg

 

[chris229 10+ year member]

they difference for ANY wire-power-ground-remote-normal RCA-speaker is in the strand count. makes it easier to bend

 

[fantomas 10+ year member]

OR......you can check out delcity.net...raise your middle finger to paying $6/foot for 1/0 gauge cable (if you need 1/0) and get 25' for about $36. im not sure about the price for 8 gauge...or the strand cout for either. the 1/0 is fairly flexable and the shielding....i dont know what you drive, but my car doesnt splurt out oil all over the engine. but yea, check them out

 

[chaz7979 10+ year member]

Originally posted by Heresy Anyway, 8 AWG power wire is relatively cheap. It's less than a buck a foot and unless you are running a lot of it, it shouldn't run over $20.

At my local circuit city it is $1.49 a foot! #@$& that.

 

[fantomas 10+ year member]

well...6 ga welding cable....for 25 feet... about $13..at delcity.net. min order is only $25...so you could get...100 ft of 3/8" high temp wire loom for $14 and you'll be all set for $27....not sure if you'd use 100 feet...sell some to your friends if you got any, i suppose.

 

[MikeofTulsa Moderator]

as i said in theother post...wire is wire...the only diff. is the strand count....buying cheap $5 wire and $50 wire w/ a name brand on it is the only real diff. as long as they have a high strand count