Speaker Wire

I am in need of subwoofer speaker wire.
What do you use?

i just use 8 guage kicker wire, sometimes its a pain to get it in the terminal though

I just picked up 150ft kevin, give me a call sometime today an dI will bring what you need

Twisted Image wrote:

I just picked up 150ft kevin, give me a call sometime today an dI will bring what you need

I will do that!

8ga FTW!!!!!

Any gain from 12ga to 8ga?

jeff said something like 3 db's...

I may have to upgrade my wire in the box if I will gain from going to 8 or 10 gauge from 12 lol

I have not gain any

You should see at least a couple of tenths depending on your power, or more importantly the current you are flowing through the wire. I remember when 12 was more than sufficient, but then we weren't flowing 50+ amps of current through the speaker wire. Think about your amplifier, you wouldn't run 12ga power wire with a 50a or 60a fuse under the hood would you? I know the runs are shorter, but it is still a lot of current for 12ga.

yah I think bills right I'm gonna listen to him and change my 12g to kicker 8 ga and see if it puts me to the 153.0 mark I only need 2 tenths. and 2600W rms is alot for that little wire. I am also learning. I'll let you know what happens.

BillGass wrote:

You should see at least a couple of tenths depending on your power, or more importantly the current you are flowing through the wire. I remember when 12 was more than sufficient, but then we weren't flowing 50+ amps of current through the speaker wire. Think about your amplifier, you wouldn't run 12ga power wire with a 50a or 60a fuse under the hood would you? I know the runs are shorter, but it is still a lot of current for 12ga.

I use 8ga stinger

im using both 8g rf superflex and some 12g (12g to connect 2 of my quad coils)

fitting the 12/8g in a single terminal was hell how do you guys do 2 runs of 8?

I had the same problem of fitting 2 8G on the same terminals.

very carefully

lol well im wondering if it would even make that big of a difference since the main speaker wire was 8g and the 12g wire was just the jumper

WOW...if it makes that big of a diff. looks like I will have to run bigger wire tom. before the l&c comp.

It wont make that much of a difference. Maybe a tenth

CactusSounds-Geoff wrote:

It wont make that much of a difference. Maybe a tenth

A very true statement. Remember the voltage from amp to speakers is AC not DC like batteries to amps. the difference is a little hard to explain. But look at your good old home AC window unit or heavy duty extension cord. What guage wire is carrying all of that current? Usually no more than 12 or 10 at the most. Even a 220 plug is not as large as 8 AWG typically.

Not saying that it won't help some but I would be very surprised if it made a big enough difference to matter that much. Of course a tenth of a DB can make or break you SPL guys at finals.

This much I know. I started last season with 10 AWG for my subs and after reading an article in CA&E I ran a little test of my own. I dropped to 12 and then to 16 and then to 18 and made no more than a tenth difference from 10 to 18 AWG.

I think it was Rockford that used to run a 60hz wave through some of their amps to show that it would run a power drill back in the day. They didn't need 8 AWG wire to do it either. Drilling hole after hole in some mdf.

I'm not an expert on AC voltage at all. I just know about what I've seen in person and read about over the years. I'm sure I will still run heavier guage wire especially to my subs but it will be because it looks cool not because I think it will actually make a difference in the sound or SPL.

I like hearing the kids say " wow this thing has to have some serious power, just look at the speaker wire" kind of like the customers that come in and want the 6x9s with the most power rating printed on the box. Not realizing that the speakers dont make 250 watts it's the amp behind them.

Like I said, I'm far from an expert on this subject but it seems a little far fetched to me. But what do I know I'm not looking for or counting on a minor difference in SPL. Just my opinion.

jkrob21 wrote:

CactusSounds-Geoff wrote:

It wont make that much of a difference. Maybe a tenth

A very true statement. Remember the voltage from amp to speakers is AC not DC like batteries to amps. the difference is a little hard to explain. But look at your good old home AC window unit or heavy duty extension cord. What guage wire is carrying all of that current? Usually no more than 12 or 10 at the most. Even a 220 plug is not as large as 8 AWG typically.

Not saying that it won't help some but I would be very surprised if it made a big enough difference to matter that much. Of course a tenth of a DB can make or break you SPL guys at finals.

This much I know. I started last season with 10 AWG for my subs and after reading an article in CA&E I ran a little test of my own. I dropped to 12 and then to 16 and then to 18 and made no more than a tenth difference from 10 to 18 AWG.

I think it was Rockford that used to run a 60hz wave through some of their amps to show that it would run a power drill back in the day. They didn't need 8 AWG wire to do it either. Drilling hole after hole in some mdf.

I'm not an expert on AC voltage at all. I just know about what I've seen in person and read about over the years. I'm sure I will still run heavier guage wire especially to my subs but it will be because it looks cool not because I think it will actually make a difference in the sound or SPL.

I like hearing the kids say " wow this thing has to have some serious power, just look at the speaker wire" kind of like the customers that come in and want the 6x9s with the most power rating printed on the box. Not realizing that the speakers dont make 250 watts it's the amp behind them.

Like I said, I'm far from an expert on this subject but it seems a little far fetched to me. But what do I know I'm not looking for or counting on a minor difference in SPL. Just my opinion.

Like i said before, went from 12 to 8G no kind of difference inmy spl

kicker 8 gage

I smell a post whore.

not really just nothing to do right now lol

I hear ya.

8ga Xscorpion Expert Link

kicker 0 gage

try some rapter wire.. its prolly good for at least 3db....

i heard something bout the tinsel leads making a difference in size of wire too like if you have thicker tinsels you may gain alil more by running bigger gauge wire than you would running same gauge wire and smaller tinsels where as you could step down in gauge size of the wire......thats just what ive heard before not sure on that tho cant remember where i heard it either

heard that too timmy
but i am using 12g kicker speaker wire and i was thinking about doing that to see what i can get out of it