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How much Speaker Wire and What gauge?

G

GrandPrixGTP1

New member
I have all my speakers (5 1/4's , 6x9's, and my 4"s)
and im replacing my bose speakers. plus i got a new headunit. how much speaker wire should i buy (how many ft) so i can run wire through the whole car. (each speaker etc).
and what gauge of speaker wire wont put a whole in my wallet but is still "good" and will get the job done.

I wanted to ask this cause im sure this has been done many times with grand prix owners.
 


Really is "upgrading" the wire in our cars going to do anything unless your going to push a stupid amount of power into the speakers?
 
my buddy who does all the installs at bestbuy and stuff told me to just run new wire to not run into any problems with the factory amp because i will be running atleast 1 amp (for subs). he said otherwise he knows how to bypass everything but were doing our own install so.

so 16 gauge is fine? or whats a good gauge for speaker wire.. im not even sure lol.
 


I run 16 gauge for my mids and tweets.

But the mids are crossed over at 500 Hz.

Anything lower gets 14 gauge.
 
Yeah, 14 or 16 is fine. But seriously just get a huge spool, dont waste the money getting little spool after little spool.

Make sure its done right with connectors/solder, and heat shrink so you never have to **** with it again.

Make sure that you run your amp power on the opposite side as your signal wires, so theres no chance for interference.
 
w/e you can get your huge ass spools in.
I managed to get a 250ft spool of 16ga, that someone had cut 1ft off of, so they marked it down to 20bucks...I was happy.

umm. to totally rewire the speakers, and run a remote to the amp(assuming it'll be in the trunk) would take around...75-100 feet...

Im kinda guessing, but it will take a decent chunk.
 


i bought 100 feet.

ran out, bought a 250 foot roll.....

still have plenty left.

But i ran wire for six channels in the front
 
same with me, I also have enough wire in the front for 6 channels. I'd figure about 12-14' per run.
so 12x2=24+6' feet to do your rears so 30' at the minimum
 
yeah i bought a 100 feet. so we'll see how i do. but my bro wont be installin them with me till it gets a wee bit warmer. still freezing in the garage lol.
 
ROFL...yeah I yanked my motor out and it was around 20 degrees F...

not in a garage either...

Just get a garage heater, it'll make it way more comfortable
 


GrandPrixGTP1 said:
i got all speakers. fronts and backs.
14 gauge will be fine for all? im gonna use the same wiring lol so.
safe with 14?
Click to expand...

If you're trying to pinch pennies then all you really need AT MOST is 16awg for subs. All the mids and tweets can handle 18 or even 22awg. Anything bigger for subs and you must be into SPL or something? Anyways...check out links in the sig. You'll get a bunch of other links for education.

Here's the first one you need ;) If you browse through it'll help calculate power requirements and how much power is lost vs. length of the wire run. FYI, I have a 6x150 class D amp that's guesstimated at 38amps pulled total when running balls out. That is from the designer of the amp too. A couple of places have found an average of ~180 watts per channel. I don't have issues with lights dimming either. Musically I'm in the 110-120's decibel wise.

Basic Car Audio Electronics
 
Since you have not started check the local home improvement stores for wire. I have seen it at times that I can get a large amount of lamp wire for the same price as a single wire of same length. That way the wire will be in pairs and there is a ribbing or stripe on the side to make it easier to know what side is what.
 
im not runnin subs yet. need to buy some. still havent installed the speakers:P. i need my bros help as hes the expert for audio stuff. its still freezing here. like it was -10 to -15 in the last few days... brr..

i cant wait till the summer.......
 
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