Upgrading stock speaker wire? What Gauge / AWG ?

[Blood1]

Yes I'm still working on my system. Its like it never ends.

Anyway, I read somewhere that depending on the gauge of speaker wire you use, only a max # of those watts from your amplifier can actually make it to your speakers.I saw this:----------------------Wiring Gauging: 18AWG handles up to 200W16AWG handles up to 290W14AWG handles up to 450W12AWG handles up to 975W10AWG handles up to 2000W

Power Loss:Over ten feet, with a 4ohm speaker load, your power loss (wire heating) will be roughly:18AWG: 3.2%16AWG: 2.0%14AWG: 1.3%12AWG: 0.8%10AWG: 0.5%---------------------- So right now at the moment for my internal speakers my install guy didn't run new speaker wire to each speaker.I have 6x9 and 6.5 Coaxials in front and rear. He used the default car's speaker wiring. I have a Kicker AMP pushing 90W x 4 at 2ohms to each.

But for my subwoofer I have a HiFonics 1210D which @ 2ohms is pushing 900W to my 12" Kicker L7. I was using 1 stand of 16awg speaker wire hooked up from that amp to the sub box. So what I did was cut another 5' of the 16awg wire and wired both strands from 1 wire into the +/- terminals on the amp to the box.

I think I hear a difference. I just got in 150' of 14awg from monoprice. Thinking I'll do the same with that gauge to the sub box as well.

Anyway did everyone here run new speaker wire to their internal speakers and using what gauge. Does anyone know what is the factory speaker wire gauge?

I tried searching but are there any threads on running new speaker wire to the front speakers? Could I, or should I run both sets of wires for the front speakers down the opposite side of car to avoid if there is any noise from power line from battery to amp? Or is it okay to run the left down the left side, right down the right side?

If you run both lines down the 1 side how do you get the wire through the dash over to the other side and through into the door?

And is this lots of fun to do?..

[chrispizzitola]

i am in the same situation as you are im really debating weather or not i want to re run the speaker wire or not. how long will it take is the question tho

[rjdmmfl1]

OK, as far as speaker wire goes, I run 14 Gauge wire to all of my speakers in the car... I run 8 gauge from my amplifier to the subwoofer. A good rule of thumb is to just go overkill. But to be honest, 16Gauge is just fine, especially for what you are running...

factory wiring is usually reallu crappy 22gauge wire... I would NEVER run aftermarket speakers through factory wiring... why limit yourself?

Also, from my experience, if you have decent gauge wiring, then the insulation is usually good enough so that you can run it next to your power wire going to you amplifier... what can make a big difference (from my experience) is the RCA cables. Some RCA's are VERY sensitive to power/ground wires next to them. I run these http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKFORD-F...0.m14 , they are directional, twisted , MATRIX Rockford Fosgate signal cables going to th amp, and 14 gauge wires going back to the speakers. So its a good idea to run the RCA's on the opposite side of your power wire... but for the speaker wire, I run them up the side that they are going on (left speaker up the driver's side, right speaker wires up the passenger side, etc.

Going to the doors, you simply remove the door shell, then you can use a thick long zip tie to get the wires up through the hole in the car trhough the black rubber thingie into the door... these directions should help on removing the door...forums.altimas.org/zerothread?id=330757

and to get wires into the door, follow these directions on my kickplate installation thread http://forums.altimas.org/zerothread?id=348881

[chrispizzitola]

Well i listened to u i went out and bought some 16 gauge wiring and ran it to my comp set. i ditched the crossover and am now running active 3 way off the head unit. for now i dont have any rear fill hooked up but im planing to hook up an amp and run some 6x9s back there