Has anyone here done this with an amp? I'm not sure if I want to go through the hassle of fishing the wire through the doors. Planning to "tap into" the stock wiring at the deck output and once again in the doors.
2 x 100W RMS.

What kind of power and sound quality degradation can I expect, if any?

Thank you.

 

Personally, I wouldnt do it. IMHO, the wire is too thin. Others here say its not terrible. I strongly advise against it.

 

Well I know there are laws when it comes to resistance vs wire gauge vs length of wire.
I also know that there are many people against this.. What I would like is to get a technical reason why this shouldn't be done, not just the usual "I heard it's bad for the car, wire too thin, the world will end , etc.

 

Technically, a significant amount of wattage through a small wire will heat it up. I have played with this myself (sent 600wrms through 22 gauge wire) and you can wipe the jacket right off. Although this might not happen at 18AWG, it is still not recommended. What most people do agree on, is that sound quality is degraded. I still believe its a risk, and wouldnt do it in my own car. Others will chime in here, and give you more detailed explanations. However, the most popular answer will be dont do it.

 

So when I get my comps installed I should tell the car audio place to rewire the the whole speaker wires?

 

The factory wire is really too fine for any real power, and its not shielded or anything. So new proper speaker wire is a -really- good idea if you are going to the trouble of putting in speakers, finding a place for your crossovers, etc.

Fishing the wire through the doors isn't really all that bad. I even did it with a home-made fish consisting of several old solid phone wires twisted together with a loop in the end and although it took a while to get my too-bendy fish to actually go through I eventually did it. I put the end of my new wire into the loop, taped it up with electrical tape, put on a little KY, and it pulled through surprisingly easily.

 

What I failed to mention maybe that I will run 12-14 ga wire from the amp to the deck area, and only then tap into the stock wiring. So that means only about 3 ft of stock wiring will be used. At 100W rms I don't think it will be dangerous or degrade the sound.

 

Hi: I used the stock wiring (22 Gage ) and find no problem with it. I ran the numbers and calculated you can run 100 Watts through 22 gage in a bundle and its not a problem. I might add Iused to run wire in aircraft for United and NASA before going into TV broadcasting.
Andy

 

I have had 2 s2000s and in the first one I had "professionals"(Circuit City- lol) run focals and an MTX 200 watt amp through the stock wiring with no real problem. However on the second install which I am doing myself (and I recommend you to follow that route in fact) I used new speaker 16 guage wiring in the doors.

The reason is that when you are doing your own install you want to make it as good as possible and not cut corners. Many professional installers just don't care. If you keep the original wires you will not,imho, have a fire or even really notice the degradation in sound qualitygiven the noise of the car. However you will always know that at the end of your expensive new sound system are these cruddy, puny 22ga wires.

On the other hand putting new speaker wire in the doors is an unpleasant experience. Use lubrication when pulling the wires and start with the easier passenger side so you get the hang of it.

 

That's probably the only valid justification for running new speaker wire. I doubt the average person could ever hear the difference. It's just knowing it was done "right".
-golfpro