The Alpine that you have is a 60 watt X 4 deck, which is a high power headunit. Every other head unit on the market uses what is called an "amp-chip" to produce the power, where Alpine uses and actual "amp" inside the deck to be able to put out that much power. It will not hurt anything if the power is run to the wiring harness, but it will get full power if it is ran to the battery with a 10 gauge power wire!! Think of this analogy..........imagine trying to sip the BEST TASTING milk shake through a teeny little straw - you will be able to get SOME of it in your mouth, but you will have to work extra hard sucking it up. Now, imagine using a big-ass straw to suck up the milk shake - with minimal effort, you will get WAY MORE milkshake than before. Same with the current and the power wire. For peak performance, run 10 gauge power wire to the battery!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SmoothVTEC
[B]The Alpine that you have is a 60 watt X 4 deck, which is a high power headunit.

 

Thanks everyone for all the replys. I do have mine wired directly to the battery. Thanks SmoothVTEC for answering the question about the power. That is what I thought, but after KeithD said that the Circuit City installers hooked it up to the harness, I called my local CC and they said the same thing, so then I didn't know if it really made any difference. I wonder if the unit would run hotter due to the resistance of the smaller power wire from the harness?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SmoothVTEC
[B]The Alpine that you have is a 60 watt X 4 deck, which is a high power headunit.

 

in addition, the power wire coming from the alpine harness is definately not ten gauge.

so using the straw analogy, you've got a huge 10 gauge straw from the battery that connects to the smaller power wire on the alpine head.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mgiang7
[B]in addition, the power wire coming from the alpine harness is definitely not ten gauge.

 

Use 10 gauge because it is very common and has the least resistance since it has to be run a semi-long way. And, no, I have not fallen prey to advertising. I have been selling Alpine as well as TONS of other car audio products for many many years. Like I said, the Alpine internal "amp" is different than their competitors. Oh, and using a large gauge power wire does not have any negative effects other than being a pain to run. (I'm not saying use 4 gauge, just saying that big power wire WILL NOT HURT). Use the existing wire that it comes with and watch how the display dims when it is being played at higher volumes. Then run a 10 gauge power wire to the battery and try it again. The dimming effect is almost, if not totally non-existent.

 

Smooth: Yes, you have fallen prey to advertising...while you may sell the units, you're talking to someone who has spent several years of his life DESIGNING those units (for which units I cannot legally say due to the NDAs I have signed). You have two options...discreet components or ICs. ICs merely compact the discreet components into a conveniently small package, but their operation is no different. You can take an operational amplifier, slap some resistors and capacitors around it, throw in some MOSFETs for power handling capability, and you have a discreet component amp...or you can wrapp all of those components up into a nice IC (there are generally a few discreet components around these, as well, but I won't nitpick), slap a heatsink on it, and call it a day. In the end, the IC version is going to be cheaper and more compact. One company may decide to package the MOSFETs onto the same IC, some don't, but the operation is the same, and one is NOT necessarily better than the other...THAT is determined by the circuit design as a whole.

Also, a larger power wire is not necessarily the sole factor in the dimming seen in the display. Even if the wire is of sufficient diameter, the power supply circuit internal to the head unit may not be of sufficient quality to handle the power surges for bass notes...this is quite evident on the cheaper brands/models. I've watched more than one circuit drag itself so low that it kicked the main processor watchdog into brownout mode (i.e., it was forced to reset itself). Unfortunately, telling the boss that the power supply designer did a poor job does NOT get you very many pats on the back.




peter: The guy at Sound Advice was right (sorry to kill the ego ). What you're looking at when sizing wire is the resistance offered by the wire over the distance to run. The thicker the wire, the lower the resistance, which means less power is lost over similar distances. So while the radio itself may only have a 14 Guage power wire, it's only there for 12". Unless your battery is only 12" away, you need to lengthen that wire. By making the wire longer, you increase the resistance, thereby losing power. To mitigate those losses, you need to increase the wire diamater, so going to 10 Guage for a run to the battery isn't a bad idea.

 

maybe the wire that connects to the battery has something to do with not having to set the clock everytimg you get in the car.

 

There are generally a couple of power wires to the head. One has constant power for things like the clock and user settings stored in volatile memory. Another has switched power which supplies the internal amplifier, display light, etc.