Trick to wiring a 2-channel amp

[JohnCWms27]

I found a trick. if you are hooking up a 2-channel or 4-channel amp to all 4 speakers in ur car...there is a way to do it without running wire to all ur speakers and without running speaker wire to the front of the car at all. simply run wire from the amp to the rear speakers (if ur putting the amp in the trunk then thats right beside the speakers anyways). then take the wire that used to be hooked up to the speakers, and hook that up to the amp as well. then in the radio harness, splice the front right and the rear right speaker wires together, and do the same for the front left and the rear left. that way u dont have to run new wire. a friend of mine just pointed this out to me and i thought i'd mention it to save yall some installation time.

[Stealth]

Wow, never thought of that. There are a few times when this may not be a good idea, however. One if is you are running a powerful amp since the wires can only handle so much power. If you're running below 100w RMS per speaker it will most likely be fine.

[Luc]

Yup, learned that trick 4 years ago. But if you are going to have high-quality speakers, it's best to use at least 16-gauge wire, not the cheapy factory 22-/24-gauge.

[profuse007]

i dont think youll know by diff unless youre hookin it up to the o-scope or so.
am not a sound engineer but ppl over this one audio forum that works and design amps say that ppl over kill on speaker wires.

Originally Posted by Luc

Yup, learned that trick 4 years ago. But if you are going to have high-quality speakers, it's best to use at least 16-gauge wire, not the cheapy factory 22-/24-gauge.

[mauibuilt59]

I did that before, and the quailty of the sound wasnt that great because 1. youre using really thin wires, 2. the quality of the wire isnt as good as aftermarket ones (OFC), and 3. everytime you crimp wires together, you will lose quality.

I spent the extra 4 hours ripping apart the whole interior of my car so that I could rerun all my wiring and it sounds 5x better. I am never going to take shortcuts again, or at least go cheap on wiring.

and also, I think it would be a real waste of money and time that you buy the best components, amps etc. and then go cheap on the wire. The cheapest part of your system (wiring) is going to hold your system back from reaching its full potential.

but thats just me.

[JohnCWms27]

if u have nice speakers and are planning to put a lot of power to them, then theres no better way than to run some 16 gauge...i thought i would mention this though for those who arent pushing much power...i dont think the difference is that noticeable, but theres still a difference none the less

[Luc]

Originally Posted by profuse007

i dont think youll know by diff unless youre hookin it up to the o-scope or so. am not a sound engineer but ppl over this one audio forum that works and design amps say that ppl over kill on speaker wires.

You don't need an oscilloscope to hear the difference between acceptable and better. What is acceptable and what is overkill is up to the end user. You use an oscilloscope to mainly make sure the transistors don't oversaturate, thus clipping the speakers with a square, instead of, sine wave, not to "see" the difference, though you may see the parasitic peaks on the waves. If you really want to check, use an ammeter to see the current flow and ohmmeter to check the impedance. Then you tell me whether it's worth upgrading or not.

[profuse007]

i really didnt know what o-scopes are for, but you know what i mean... rather sayin under a scope.

well some of the amp designers says that ~16-18 guage for subs are good enough and thats at a higher power than the regular drivers. dont signals or powers works like a trickle effect? if too large, it has slower response and if too small the wire get hot?

i think 22-24 are very suitable for those aftermarket drivers (i wouldnt call it higher end driver cause you cant define the higher end). even the new 05 TL bose speakers uses those small guage wires.

yeah, wires are cheap but am sayin whats suitable and whats not. in this case it is suitable. it may be worth it but theres no point.