Wire size

[susamafone]

I am picking up two infinity reference 1250w subwoofers tomorrow and i have an infinity reference 1600a monoblock amp heading my way. im going to use a 4 gauge wiring kit for the amp, but my question is, what size speaker wire should i use for the subs? each sub is 300 watt rms and the amp is 600 watt rms @ 2 ohms. i plan on running the subs in parallel to lower the impedence to 2 ohms.

subs - http://www.infinitysystems.com/car/...UB&ser=REF&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA

amp - http://www.infinitysystems.com/car/...MP&ser=REF&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA

thanks!!

 

[Joe Vance]

When you buy stuff like that brand new it will tell you - or you can ask the person selling you it what size, you dont wanna go wrong with the right size wiring, because you dont wanna lose or gain too much power to the subs....lol trust me, on my first system i used a really small ground wire...good thing i changed it befor it did anything.

 

[sam1]

12ga will do fine for speaker leads. But imo 4ga is kinda small for power/ground to an amp that size...

 

[susamafone]

i was basing the power and ground wire size on this from the audio faq thread

Q: What size power wire do I need?
A: That depends on the amps being used and the length of the wire. You should total up the possible draw of all the amps in the system. IASCA established a chart for determing proper wire size. Unfortunitly it uses amperege and legth so not many people can understand it. You can find it here though: http://www.mobileaudio.com/rac-faq/ section 2.3
To make it simple, for anything under 350 watts rms, 8 gauge power wire is fine. For between 350 and 1000 watts rms 4 gauge will do fine. 2 gauge will support up to 1500 watts rms. Anthing over 1500 watts rms should be run through 1/0 gauge cable.

 

[ecniemann]

That sounds about right for power/ground wire gauge. I have to read these more closely, as I had typed a response, and then re-reading, noticed 1250W was a model, not wattage, so that is reason for editing!

Speaker gauge honestly does not matter. Snob audiophiles will try to make you feel like you need a huge gauge, twisted, oxygen free, etc. wire that costs $10/foot, but get some 16-12 gauge from Home Depot or Best-Buy that is generic and you will be fine. Stay away from Monster and other brands, they have like a 1000% markup, without exaggeration!

Definately use same gauge for ground as the power and make sure if you have multiple amps to have the distribution block fused if split to higher gauge wire and also to fuse as close to the battery as possible to protect all the wires from fire in case of short, etc.

 

[chuyler1]

For subs, I always use 12ga speaker wire but you can probably get away with 14ga. I would not recommend anything smaller than 14ga for the amount of power you will be running.