What guage speaker wire is adequate for systems with amplification in the 50-100 watt rms range? What about the guage of the power and ground wires to the amp?

 

I was surprised to see the prices in my local area of speaker wire, more than the Knukonceptz wire and they are of inferior quality. Mike I am running 125 watts to my components and I am using 12 gauge speaker wire. I ran 4 gauge power and ground based on the power draw of my amp. Seems most guys on here run 4 gauge for power and ground, and 16 gauge being the mininum for speaker wires.

 

14+ Guage for the speakers is adequate. 8+ Guage for the power/ground runs is adequate.

 

Actually they both carry signal Dan,... so they basically do same thing, one just does it in a different sense from the other. Anyway my point is, your telling people things they don't need to understand, someone would have to be some kind of moron to use romex to wire a car for sound for all kinds of reasons, because if it was such a great workable solution you, me and everyone else in the audio world would be using it because as you stated its much cheaper than the "better" speaker wire on the market. I'm not knocking your schooling Dan because you've told me plenty of times what you've studied...so I'm not trying to argue with you because I know your always right, (you talk a bunch of big talk, and yes Dan I understand everything you said about network crap, so stop talking to me like I have no clue, just because I don't use a bunch of fancy talk doesn't mean I don't get it. I'm so sick of hearing you say "you could use Romex" No one here is trying to wire a house Dan, their trying to learn what size wire would be good to use... that's it)... so would it work, yes, as you stated and you are correct in stating it, that it would work. And no using a 22 or 24 gauge 4 pair UTP would also be just as dumb, but you'd have better signal with less noise over the line.

But whatever, as for "99.99% oxygen free" wire... don't waste you money, unless you plan on trying to win SPL contests', you're better off using properly grounded shielded cable, but that's a whole other thing.

I would use nothing smaller than 16 gauge for un-amped speaker wire directly from a head unit, and nothing less than 14 gauge for amped speaker wire. Twisted wire is better, and twisted wire with a ground(make sure it gets properly grounded is even better than that and will ward off noise in the line. Run the wire away from as much power as possible. If you must cross power wires do so as perpendicular as possible, never run power and speaker wire parallel to each other....

I think I'll start a thread on wiring an S in the real world later on today or tomorrow.

On a side note to those that don't know, Dan and I actually get along quite well we just always end up going back and forth on this subject. I still enjoy talking with Dan,... and yes Dan does know quite abit about electronics. Cheers Dan

 

John, It was never my intention to talk down to you, so if you read it that way I apologize. I was merely trying to point out the reasons why Cat-5 and Romex can be interchanged if certain rules are followed.

You flat out said Romex shouldn't be used because "you will get noise from it". I'm telling you, whether or not you believe me, you would get no more noise on twisted Romex than you would on the Cat-5 cable. So, you could spend $1-$2/foot on Cat-5, or you could spend $0.20/foot on Romex and twist it yourself. Either way, the noise level is going to be the same... so don't spend money where it's not needed.

Are people going to often wire a car using Romex? Probably not. Romex is solid conductor and a fairly large Guage... combine those two factors and it makes running it through panels painful. Could it be used without any deleterious effects compared with Cat-5, Wal-Mart brand speaker wire, Knu Concepts speaker wire, lamp cord, Monster speaker wire, etc.? Absolutely. As I said before, Helium in the tires would make it faster/lighter, but I doubt you'll see many people using it because of the increased cost... just because another solution is available (cheaper Romex wire) doesn't mean people are going to use it if it costs more some other way (increased install time of Romex).

The OP asked "do different brand speakers wires with the same gauge differ" in regards to noise, etc. As I've stated, the answer is a resounding 'no'. But don't take my word for it, see how many quality double-blind studies you can find that show a difference... you won't find any.

 

Thanks for the replies on speaker and power wires, pikkashoe and MacGyver. Does the length of the wire run make any difference on the guage that should be used? What guage speaker wire is in the stock setup?

 

I think stock is something ultra-small, like 28 Guage (at least it was in MY2000, don't know about other years).

Length of run does make a difference. Every foot of wire has a certain resistance, so anytime you increase the distance you increase the resistance. To decrease it to something more managable, use a larger Guage wire.

The Guages I listed in my previous reply to you assume no more than a 5% loss in signal level over a length of wire designed for power transmission (read, mile-long lengths of wire), so they're more than adequate for the short runs you'll find in a vehicle. Going bigger certainly won't hurt, but it's not really necessary.

 

You know, it's funny, but in my experience the most important feature of wire for hooking up car speakers is the jacket. I have had more problems over the years with the jacket getting worn through and the bare wire touching metal on the car. As was said before, get 14-16 gauge wire and you'll be fine. Just be very careful when you run it to check for sharp edges around the wire. There is nothing more painful than having to rip out the interior a year from now to figure out where the short is.

Good luck!

 

I like to keep a handful of rubber grommets (various sizes) nearby when doing an install. They don't necessarily have to be put in holes, but they're nice to tape in place on the wire when it will go around sharp corners and such.

 

Yes please use grommets! Thats a great point Celeritas and MacGyver(Dan). If you can't get the right size grommet you can get at any hardware type store(Loews, Home Depot, even True Value) rubber electrical tape which will also work just fine. It also work while running wire if you can't get you hand into a stop you can wrap the wire first then pull it into place and it will fill in the hole around the wire protecting it. While running though the fire wall you should either make sure you run though an existing grommet (recommended) or you can drill your on hole (not really recommended because the S has plenty of good spots that are already drilled out for you) to protect the power line coming from the battery. Sharp edges are so much of a pain in the neck. Its even worse trying to find a short later on as
Celeritas mentioned. You'll be hating life unless you happen to find it right away... which is not likely.


And as a side note: I'll just mention this since we're handing out infomation... it might as well be accurate.

You should not be paying $1-2.00 for Cat-5...?..because if you know anything about the computer networking and you some of you might, you'd know that is the most retarded thing ever. Cat-5 itsn't even a telecommunication industry standard any longer. Its outdated. Someone could by 1000' of regular cat-5 for like .05 cents a foot, and that's at Home Depot. I buy 1000' Cat-5e+ running at 350mhz for only .21 cents a foot... Hell you can get cat-6+ for like .35-.40 cents a foot depending on the company brand.