Theoretical Limits

[Oldbasshead]

I admittedly **** at trying to remember Ohm's Law and am trying to figure some things out.

I'm replacing my 4G power/ground in my 2019 Mazda 3 sedan. I'm running a 1500.1 Memphis monoblock and an 800.1 monoblock to three speakers, wired to 1 ohm.

My 4G experiences massive voltage drops, even after doing the Big 3, sending my 8 farad hybrid cap into protect, so I'm assuming it's the 4G wire that's the bottleneck. I've got my 1/0 tinned OFC replacement wiring ready to install. I was just wondering roughly how much RMS I could expect to pull from a 1/0 tinned OFC power/ground with a 1/0 OFC Big 3 without having to upgrade to a supercap or second battery? Running stock 130A alt and a new, but not AGM battery. Not looking for earth-moving bass but want the best thump I can get for such a small space.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

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[2023 LTZ]

First, pony up the dough for regular copper not the tinned. Second, avoid the mistake I’ve made in sizing the supply. Based on what your two amps require as supply wires you may want to go bigger for the main run back. My misjudgment came from running 0ga back to be split by two 4ga supplying my two amps. Sure, theoretically they’ll never be pulling max to both at the same time but to use the plumbing reference I should have a bigger mainline.
I have not blown my undersized main fuse and you may have no trouble supplying your two amps but consider what’s coming off of the splitter and size the main run accordingly, with ofc.
Amazon has a decent price for wire by the ft in many sizes through “windynation”. An American company who makes the wire in Chicago. They have all kinds of connectors too under the same brand name.
To avoid your bottleneck, size accordingly.

 

[2023 LTZ]

The Memphis 1000w amp I looked up accepts 0ga.
If you have 4 running back and split w 4 that’s gonna be a problem.

 

[Oldbasshead]

First, pony up the dough for regular copper not the tinned.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't tinned OFC just as good as regular OFC, only with better corrosion resistance? The cabling I bought definitely wasn't cheap compared to CCA.

Either way, my current 4G wire runs to a distro block, then 4G to both amps. The new plan was to leave the wiring after the distro block the same and just run the 1/0 from the battery to the back. I could run some 1/0 to the Memphis if I needed to, but is it really necessary? The length of wire between the distribution block to the Memphis is only about two feet.

 

[2023 LTZ]

WHAT SIZE WIRE? | Streamline Audio | Vancouver, WA

Why is wire size so important? Because an amplifier needs the correct size power and ground wiring in order to operate reliably and at its full potential.

www.streamline-audio.com

Maybe viewing this will help.

 

[djdilliodon!]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't tinned OFC just as good as regular OFC, only with better corrosion resistance? The cabling I bought definitely wasn't cheap compared to CCA.

Either way, my current 4G wire runs to a distro block, then 4G to both amps. The new plan was to leave the wiring after the distro block the same and just run the 1/0 from the battery to the back. I could run some 1/0 to the Memphis if I needed to, but is it really necessary? The length of wire between the distribution block to the Memphis is only about two feet.

Tinned copper is just as good as regular ofc. Tinned copper provides some corrosion protection and is better to use for soldering.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Bigger wire isn't going to make more power and 8f capacitor isn't enough to power a 1000W amp for a quarter of a second, throw that away and buy a second battery. Any 1/0 cable will be adequate for that size amp.

 

[Oldbasshead]

Bigger wire isn't going to make more power and 8f capacitor isn't enough to power a 1000W amp for a quarter of a second, throw that away and buy a second battery. Any 1/0 cable will be adequate for that size amp.

I guess I probably worded my question like an idiot.

I'm not looking to make more power, I'm just upgrading my 4 AWG wire with 1/0 and was curious what the max wattage a 12'-15' run of quality tinned 1/0 OFC could handle.

As for the cap, I'm just using it for the voltage readout, lol. Not hurting anything being in the circuit for now. If I get up past 2k RMS, I'll swap it out for a supercap bank or battery.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I guess I probably worded my question like an idiot.

I'm not looking to make more power, I'm just upgrading my 4 AWG wire with 1/0 and was curious what the max wattage a 12'-15' run of quality tinned 1/0 OFC could handle.

As for the cap, I'm just using it for the voltage readout, lol. Not hurting anything being in the circuit for now. If I get up past 2k RMS, I'll swap it out for a supercap bank or battery.

Really 4 gauge cable is not going to be a bottleneck feeding a 1200W amplifier but it's not much more money to jump into 0 gauge and future proof the thing.

Seems you understand what those 90's style caps can and cannot do. After seeing what a tiny electrolytic capacitor will do when it fails catastrophically I would not want to be within 10 yards of one of those things though. If anything went wrong it would be like a grenade.

 

[Oldbasshead]

Really 4 gauge cable is not going to be a bottleneck feeding a 1200W amplifier but it's not much more money to jump into 0 gauge and future proof the thing.

Seems you understand what those 90's style caps can and cannot do. After seeing what a tiny electrolytic capacitor will do when it fails catastrophically I would not want to be within 10 yards of one of those things though. If anything went wrong it would be like a grenade.

I appreciate the replies!

I'm actually feeding a 1500W and an 800W with a 4G power wire. The voltage drops severely on heavy bass notes, enough to send that cap into protect when it drops under 11V, which I assumed the amps would probably do anyway without the cap. I'd rather the cap go into protect than the much more expensive amps. Running a 1/0 "trunk" line should alleviate that for me. In retrospect, I definitely should have started with the heavier gauge wire to begin with.

And I've accidentally released the "magic smoke" from a regular electrolytic cap before. Smelled awful! Again, definitely not opposed to removing it once I have the 1/0 run, but having the voltage readout is helpful.

 

[Firewalker]

You can pick up dash voltage readouts for 18 bucks on amazon. Plus many head units have it built in these days. Even the ones going back 10-14 years have them like the Pioneer DEH-80PRS or some Kenwoods/JVC's

 

[some dude]

My guess is you will still see the same large voltage drops after switching to 1/0 wire.

Are all of your connection points rock solid? Big 3 connections solid, with sanded metal at the connections?

If so, your alt / battery (more so battery) can't provide the power that your amps ask for.