What gauge?

[SirClay 10+ year member]

Hey, I am just making sure I have the right gauge wire... I have a jbl gto 600.1 and I have a 4 gauge power cable. Correct size?

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[SSS 18734 5,000+ posts]

It will be fine

 

[SirClay 10+ year member]

shal i get larger?

 

[bri487 5,000+ posts]

shal i get larger?

in most applications that is plenty large. if you had to go a long distance, then i would maybe consider it, but you should be fine.

 

[SirClay 10+ year member]

Crap, I don't have 4 gauge, I have 8 gauge. I had 4 guage on my last system. Is 8 gauge to small?

 

[netherland24 5,000+ posts]

no that will be fine i had 10 gauge on my 500rms amp. underfed it but it will work.

 

[SirClay 10+ year member]

I want it to sound good, not just work //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[SSS 18734 5,000+ posts]

Thats like trying to fit on an undersized condom... It will work but you never know if it is going to break. I would definitely go larger

 

[lotas 10+ year member]

if its pulling 600watts then you are pulling approx. 52amps at FULL rms, and isnt 8ga max. capacity 80amps? You have a little room to work with here depending on how many feet you are running it. Refer to this: http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp

you can see for 600watts they have it at 96amps. Not sure how they get something thath igh. Basically you divide by 12(volts) or 13.8 (more realistic) and then you multiply by .2(for class D efficiency) or .4(class AB) this is a sub amp so .2

they multiply by .5 just for a rounded estimate. I still dont get 96amps though.

Anyways, you are pretty borderline, if it wont kill you, I would move to 4ga.

 

[SirClay 10+ year member]

haha, thanks sss for the analogy.

thanks lotas.

I think I am just going to go buy 4 gauge tomorrow just to be safe.

anyone want to buy about 20 feet of 8 gauge? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[maddmechanic]

bigger is always better. d class amps are more efficient than a/b class but only thermaly they still draw the same current at max output. they turn the outputs on and off rapidly instead of having them on all the time so they don't run as hot. but an amp is a current hungry beast no matter what class of output technology it uses. if you don't feed it enough current it will fry.