Amplifier wiring kit

[DarkMastyr]

Hi guys,

I need a new amp kit to power my 1600W D-block from Kenwood (KAC-X811D). I think it's supposed to run around 533W rms. Could any of you give me some suggestions on the type of kit I would need to buy?

I've searched on TN and could only find one link to knukoncept (http://www.knukonceptz.com/). It looks pretty decent but can anyone back up its quality? I've never heard of them before and I don't want to buy some cheapo wire that's gonna give me a lot of distortion. I've also considered Phoenix Gold.

My previous setup was simple enough. I had a 600W Kenwood 2-channel amp, so I bought a 600W kit (I believe it was Monster Cable) from Circuit City. Now Circuit City carries some other brand (can't pull it off the top of my head) and I'm pretty sure that the prices are a ripoff (I saw them going for $70)

EDIT: my bad, i just checked the box for my previous amp kit. It was Monster Car Audio 200W 8 gauge kit.

I think mainly what I need to know is the type of kit I need to get (gauge of wire, power rating of kit etc) and some brand suggestions.

[Luc]

Just get the 4-gauge power kit (500W) and you should be fine. Monster sells that too, the 8-gauge is too small. If you ever add a 4-ch amp, you can use a splitter off that 4-gauge.

[DarkMastyr]

Alright cool. I was going to buy the 4 gauge for my 1600W and the 8 gauge to replace my current 600W wiring (there's some funky routing going on with it right now that needs to be redone).

The stuff on KnuKonceptz looks really attractive in terms of price. Anyone bought their stuff before? Anyone? Any shielding/distortion problems at all?

[eddiem67]

Knukonceptz is great stuff for half the price and same quality. I dont like buying the kits though, I like to piece together what I need. Is that the only amp your ever going to run. If so the 4awg is plenty shoot 8awg will even do, but if you decide to go over 1000 watts ever then I would just buy 0awg now and save the time and money spent replacing it down the road.

[DarkMastyr]

I was going to run 4gauge wire from my battery to a distributor in my trunk where I would split the line. I would have 4gauge running from my distributor to the 1600W amp and 8gauge running to the 600W amp. I don't play my volume too loud. Just good enough so that my car doesn't rattle like a little girl, so I shouldn't need to draw so much power that the two amps would overload the 4gauge line coming from the battery.

Anyone think this is a bad idea or should I just run two power cables from my battery directly to each amp separately instead? I want to keep this installation clean without clogging up space with unnecessary wiring.

[eddiem67]

4awg for 2200 watts is tooooooo small if you dont want to light your car on fire, get the 0awg!!!! Run that to you dist, then 4awg out to each amp. Don't forget to fuse near the battery, make sure your distribution block is a fused one.

[Stealth]

eddie, he's talking about PEAK power not RMS. His idea is probably the best and cheapest for this set up. His RMS power is probably below 800 watts.

[eddiem67]

Oh yeah, I forgot what amps he was using, but it is always better to go bigger anyway, In case he decides to run some US amps or PG's

[DarkMastyr]

Cool thanks a lot guys. My RMS is nowhere near 2200W. My Mono block is supposed to put out 533W rms bridged. My 2-channel should put out around 150W rms non-bridged. So that's about 683W rms. Good guess Stealth!

I started reading the manual for my mono amp today and it said that I should pick speakers with a higher power rating than the amp (I could've sworn that it's been repeated here on TN over and over again that I should make sure to get an amp that's got a higher power rating than the speakers so that the amp doesn't clip). Can anyone confirm this? Hmm... I just gotta make sure to dial that switch down I guess so that it doesn't "smoke" like the manual says it will.

EDIT: Oh by the way I'm gonna use the mono block (1600W max, 533rms) to power 2 12" 700W subs. I believe the "recommended" input is 175W rms into each. Gotta be reaaaal careful about the current I put in eh?

[Stealth]

Sounds like you're talking about them crappy Kenwood tornado subs. I used to have em but eventually got Infinity Reference subs instead. Then I had to sell em for insurance money last summer. Honestly, though, Darkmastyr, I would stay away from Kenwood products. There are better products out there for the money.

[DarkMastyr]

Haha right on the money about the subs. Kenwood's worked out ok for me so far. I'm not looking into competition or anything. Just a slight upgrade to my car so that I can drive with some muzak.

I really did consider Infinity's but the price was quite a bit more and I figured that if I never heard them and didn't appreciate them that I wouldn't feel like I was missing out on anything. I have no friends with stuff in their car (well not anymore, they all have new cars that they don't mess with). One used to have MTX, which was decent, but not really. The other had Sony, but had his system jacked before I could hear it and I know well enough to stay away from those craptacular Xplod products.

Besides, the Kenwood subs I snagged for a pretty decent deal of $100 for both, and that was two years ago when they sold for higher even on eBay.

You say there's better for the money. Can you give me some examples so that in the future I have more options? I've taken a look into JBL, Infinity, Kicker... but they're a bit pricey IMO.

[Stealth]

Well I work at Circuit City and considering what we have there, you can get some decent deals. Right now, Infinity Reference 12s are on sale for $75. And I we have a deal right now for all Infinity speakers and subs, which is: buy one get one half off. So, if you do the math, you can get 2 Infinity Reference 12s for $112.50 + tax (well a few cents less but yeah). Only thing is, the Infinity subs do take a bit of power to get them moving, but with 533w between the 2, you should be fine.

[eddiem67]

Or you can just run a single 12, that takes that RMS rating.