Wire Gauge Question

[anger 10+ year member]

Feel like this is a noobish question and has probably been answered, but I had to rebuild my box and need some answers.

I've got a 1000w Mono Fosgate Amp pushing 4 12" Punch HE's. When I opened it up they subs were "daisy chained" together w/12 gauge wire. I need to know if 16 gauge is sufficient or if there would be a more efficient way to wire them together.

Any Help Is Appreciated or Direction to Someone Who Can help

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[goingdef 10+ year member]

16g is pretty thin and kind of pushing it I would go with the 12g min.

 

[anger 10+ year member]

I understand it's not the best choice, but..i guess what i'm wondering is what's the downside to the smaller gauge?

and is that the proper way to wire the 4 subs together?

 

---------- Post added at 11:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 PM ----------

 

i've got a bunch a 16g (and not much $) is why im curious

 

[frogcase2002 10+ year member]

what ohm are the subs and how are thay wired

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

considering you said 1000 watts and 4 subs is roughly 250 watts per sub with likely a less than 4 ft run to your subs. i'd say you're okay right now but at some point you should really look into running good 12 gauge or 10 gauge.

 

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

I have used 16 gauge to run 6k before. Will it "work" yes....is it the best option nope not even close.

However the drop I had was amazingly minimal considering.

 

[anger 10+ year member]

Guess I'll be picking up some decent 12 gauge. Don't wanna be unsatisfied and have to open it up again.

Subs are 8 ohms and were wired like... + & - running from box terminals to sub 1, then same from sub 1 to sub 2 and so on.. is this all good? or should it be diferent?

 

[shpatb 10+ year member]

Wire them in parallel and it should end up at a 1 ohm load. All the plus's summed together and all the negatives summed together to the box terminal.

 

---------- Post added at 11:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 AM ----------

 

If you really do have a lot of 16 gauge wire than just run, two runs of it to each speaker...

 

[Sonic. 10+ year member]

model of amp and sub?

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

They are already connected with 12 gauge wire, so why not keep it that way?

 

---------- Post added at 09:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 AM ----------

 

model of amp and sub?

Rockford ish... it's all in the original post.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

Wire them in parallel and it should end up at a 1 ohm load. All the plus's summed together and all the negatives summed together to the box terminal. 

---------- Post added at 11:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 AM ----------

 

If you really do have a lot of 16 gauge wire than just run, two runs of it to each speaker...

last i checked four 8 ohm subs in parallel resulted in a 2ish final, lol. Op, first look up the minimum rated impedence load your amp is capable of handling. Then,wire them in parallel. Then, use a dmm to find the final ohm load to be safe. Make sure its at or above the lowest load your amp is stable at.

 

[Sonic. 10+ year member]

last i checked four 8 ohm subs in parallel resulted in a 2ish final, lol. Op, first look up the minimum rated impedence load your amp is capable of handling. Then,wire them in parallel. Then, use a dmm to find the final ohm load to be safe. Make sure its at or above the lowest load your amp is stable at.

Exactly what I was trying to get at !

 

[anger 10+ year member]

soldering wires and need more length than was already used

 

---------- Post added at 11:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 AM ----------

 

Thanks for the input. Amp is stable at 2 ohms. 'Bout ta start