Would 8Ga 200 watt wire be good enough for a 600 watt amp. Asking cuz tweeter *oh gosh how i love them* has it sitting in my car waiting for my amp. Just wondering.
Will it work? Sure. Will you get all the power out of your amp? Doubt it. What size fuse is on the amp?
-Chris
I dont know its not here yet. Its a Alpine MRDM605 V12 Digital Mono amp though, its going to power two 12" alpine type s's.
In order to get the full power out of that amp, You will need to upgrade your power wire to a 4 gauge. It will still work if you keep the 8, but you'll be losing out on quite a bit of power.
-Chris
Thanks I figured that much. Tweeter should know this I think there trying to screw me over.
you wont lose anything. itll still draw the same current regardless of wire gauge, i have no idea where in the hell you came up with that. however, check the current consumption of your amp. i had a 600w on 8awg with zero problems, wire was just fine. but mine was only a 15A max consumption. if yours consumes more, then go with 4 awg. has nothing to do with wattage, has everything to do with AMPERAGE.
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^^ Yup. If it draws too much amperage, it gets hot. And that's not good. Unless you like electrical fires.
I may not know much about cars, but I know two things....
1) Breaking things is expensive, and
2) Horsepower isn't cheap.
If you check the Alpine site, it says that amp is 80% efficient. If we assume that the amp produces a true 600 watts (which most bigger name companies rate their amps honestly), that means the amp will require 750 watts to produce full power. Even if we assume the amp is getting a full 14.4 volts constantly, that works out to about 52 amps of current.
Generally we don't want to lose more than about a half a volt. If you use 8 gauge wire, the resistance is going to knock it down more than that, which is why I said he wouldn't get full power out of the amp. 4 gauge is a little overkill, 6 gauge would be perfect, but 4 is a lot easier to find than 6. Like I said, 8 will work, but why use something that will just barely work rather than leave yourself plenty of room to upgrade later?
-Chris
-Thats very true chris, ill take care of it and use 4 GA wire. Thanks guys.
In response to the comment that its not about wattage and all about amperage, they are directly related, so it is indeed about wattage. More watts means more amps being drawn.
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Besse wrote:If you check the Alpine site, it says that amp is 80% efficient. If we assume that the amp produces a true 600 watts (which most bigger name companies rate their amps honestly), that means the amp will require 750 watts to produce full power. Even if we assume the amp is getting a full 14.4 volts constantly, that works out to about 52 amps of current.
Generally we don't want to lose more than about a half a volt. If you use 8 gauge wire, the resistance is going to knock it down more than that, which is why I said he wouldn't get full power out of the amp. 4 gauge is a little overkill, 6 gauge would be perfect, but 4 is a lot easier to find than 6. Like I said, 8 will work, but why use something that will just barely work rather than leave yourself plenty of room to upgrade later?
You think there is more resistance in a smaller cross-section of a wire? Go and measure it using a GOOD Multimeter. 0awg has the same electrical resistance as 22awg. Resistance is NOT a factor, until you bring heat into the equation. For heat to be high enough in a power wire for a GOOD multimeter to even register a change in resistance, the wire will have long since melted.
Proper sizing of a power wire for amplifiers are NOT to get "full power" out of the amp. they're to prevent electrical fires due to the wire melting.
Club Vantage ::
importfighter.ca :: RIP Trux0r...
Oh really? I never knew that.
Can you tell me then why the IASCA wire gauge guide and every other wire gauge guide I've ever seen lists a different resistance for different gauge sizes? If that were true, most people would be using 8 or 10 gauge wire
-Chris
And i'm very well aware that different gauges have different resistance. That's not the argument. The argument is that it doesn't matter. The PRIMARY purpose of a properly sized power wire is to PREVENT FIRES.
And to prove it, here you go. Using the calculators on this site:
http://www.stealth316.com/2-wire-resistance.htm
the difference between your 8 gauge and 4 gauge for a 12 foot power wire.
8awg = 0.0077 ohms
4awg = 0.0030 ohms
We're talking a milliohm difference here. The voltage drop will be so minimal, it just won't be noticable. I'd be much more worried about my car catching fire then the amp putting out MAYBE 5 watts less.
Club Vantage ::
importfighter.ca :: RIP Trux0r...
You have a point. I guess for them SPL peoples, every little bit counts. I just like a nice clean sounding system myself.
Club Vantage ::
importfighter.ca :: RIP Trux0r...
If its worth doing, its worth overdoing.
what size inputs does your amp have. if 8 ga use 8 if 4 ga use 4. Pretty simple. mine has dual 4 ga inputs so guess what I use. WEll the biggest wire I can cram in there. lol. I'm a little different.
n8ball2013 wrote: WEll the biggest wire I can cram in there. lol. I'm a little different.
Lol I hear ya.
Sorry if I came off as argumentative. I see what you're saying in that it won't make a huge, or maybe audibly noticable difference. I was just trying to make the point that if he uses 4 awg, that leaves plenty of room if he ever goes with a bigger, or more, amps. Like Nate said, use whatever size the amp can take.
-Chris
Scotty B wrote:-Thats very true chris, ill take care of it and use 4 GA wire. Thanks guys.
make ssure the wire says 4 AWG , not 4 gauge.. i believe that the 4 gauge isnt truley 4 gauge unlike 4AWG... please correct me if im wrong someone
amps are usually tested somewhare between 12.4 and 13.2 volts.. So in that street wires thing, u wil see that voltage will not drop below that mark.
