Common sense and my somewhat limited understanding of electronics tells me I already know the answer to this, but I've been wrong before.

I'm installing new components in my AP1 this weekend and I'm curious if it matters performance-wise if the longest run of speaker wire comes before or after the crossover. The amp's going in the trunk and I intend to either locate the crossovers in the doors, or in the trunk with the amp.

Does it make a difference if the longest wire run is from the amp to the crossovers in the door, or from the crossovers in the trunk to the speakers?

Hmmm... I just did some math and figured out if the crossovers are in the trunk I'll have to run twice as much wire to the doors. It might not make a difference electronically, but my linear footage is a lot lower with the crossovers in the doors.

See? It just helps to have somebody to talk to.

 

Right now I have the x-overs in the door... but I'm running off the headunit for now.

When I put my amp in I'm going to be running the 4 conductor wire that's twisted and such from the x-over in the trunk to each speaker... then you only have to run one wire still... but it allows you to get to your x-overs easier (and some ppl worry about them possibly being affected by water/condensation in the doors).

 

From an electrical perspective, you want the longest run to be before the crossover and you want the total wire length to be as short as possible.
From a realistic perspective, put them wherever you want because the difference is iota.

 

Thanks, guys. That's what I needed. I've got two plans to choose from.

Amp in the spare tire area with the crossovers in the plastic cubby inside the door panel, or

Amp and crossovers in the spare tire area.

I'm in the process of wiring up Modifry's DCI. Once that's done, we'll get to work on the amp and components.

 

I put the amp and crossovers in the trunk and just ran the longer wire after the crossovers to the speakers. I can't really say if it would be better to run shorter wires from the crossovers to the speakers, but it sounds good. I figure what would a few extra feet change in the sound. I could only imagine it would sound the same.