AMP Ground to Battery?
Yeah that should kinda be obvious to people that at least have a understanding of electricity or some high school physics. Because if electron flow from negative to postive then the ground is most important. It's even written in most manuals that ground should be at least as big as the power if not bigger.
Yankee
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 3,599
^ No! Positive and negative are of equal importance... do we really want another physics lesson...
It isn’t a terrible idea, and if it makes you feel good run the extra cable, but it isn’t a necessity... electrically (but there are valid reasons to do it, some are mentioned but IMO they are the exception rather than the rule).
It isn’t a terrible idea, and if it makes you feel good run the extra cable, but it isn’t a necessity... electrically (but there are valid reasons to do it, some are mentioned but IMO they are the exception rather than the rule).
Yankee
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 3,599
Just run the wire the way the USACi rule book says
" Proper Gauge Power Source Ground (1 or 3) - Each power source component, including the alternator(s) and battery(ies), should have a proper gauge ground wire connecting it to the vehicle’s chassis or another power source component. Proper wire size shall be determined using the chart in the appendix of this rulebook. (See Appendix A.) An alternator-mounting bracket may only be considered adequate if the engine block is properly grounded." [img]tongue.gif[/img]
A little while ago D-Mac had an article on running wires in PAS.
He showed a way of taking your 4G ground wire, splitting it into 3 smaller ends, and then grouding those.
It was a good read, but I can't find the damn thing right now. I'll have to check my other stack when I get home.
Does anyone else remember this article though? [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]
Btw.. to the people that have a run of 1/0 going to/from the battery. How the hell do you get all that through your firewall?? Just drill a bigass hole?
He showed a way of taking your 4G ground wire, splitting it into 3 smaller ends, and then grouding those.
It was a good read, but I can't find the damn thing right now. I'll have to check my other stack when I get home.
Does anyone else remember this article though? [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]
Btw.. to the people that have a run of 1/0 going to/from the battery. How the hell do you get all that through your firewall?? Just drill a bigass hole?
Guest
Posts: n/a
^ lol - yeah Dave wrote the article after the last time this argument came up on this board 
IMO unless you run more than a couple of kW of power there is "ususally" no good reason to run a negative cable direct to the battery.
If you happen to have the cable available then do what you like - personally I would run the cable from the battery to a spot near the amp rack where I would ground it to the chassis and then ground the amps there also.
IMO unless you run more than a couple of kW of power there is "ususally" no good reason to run a negative cable direct to the battery.
If you happen to have the cable available then do what you like - personally I would run the cable from the battery to a spot near the amp rack where I would ground it to the chassis and then ground the amps there also.
I have a question... if a proper ground wire going direct from the amp to the battery isn't important because the chassis provides more than adequate conductivity, isn't the quality of the conductor also an issue? Just like how all of us are constantly trying to find the perfect interconnects and speaker wire, well... essentially, isn't that just current flowing through wire anyway and any interconnect or speaker wire should be suffice? Thing is, through many tests, there actually IS a difference in interconnect and speaker wire and we notice it in the quality of the sound that we get. Shouldn't this apply to power and ground wires too? From my experience with home audio, many higher end units don't even come with power cords - just the IEC socket and you're off to find a proper power cord to satisfy your needs - as apparently, different power cords offer different changes in the sound. So, I'm not sure if this entirely applies, since I'm comparing AC and DC, but as someone had mentioned here earlier, the chassis of the car isn't exactly the highest quality conductor. For the price of another ground cable, would it not be worthwhile to supply your amps with a good conductor?
Guest
Posts: n/a
Originally posted by ChinaMan:
I have a question... if a proper ground wire going direct from the amp to the battery isn't important because the chassis provides more than adequate conductivity, isn't the quality of the conductor also an issue? Just like how all of us are constantly trying to find the perfect interconnects and speaker wire, well... essentially, isn't that just current flowing through wire anyway and any interconnect or speaker wire should be suffice? Thing is, through many tests, there actually IS a difference in interconnect and speaker wire and we notice it in the quality of the sound that we get. Shouldn't this apply to power and ground wires too? From my experience with home audio, many higher end units don't even come with power cords - just the IEC socket and you're off to find a proper power cord to satisfy your needs - as apparently, different power cords offer different changes in the sound. So, I'm not sure if this entirely applies, since I'm comparing AC and DC, but as someone had mentioned here earlier, the chassis of the car isn't exactly the highest quality conductor. For the price of another ground cable, would it not be worthwhile to supply your amps with a good conductor?
I have a question... if a proper ground wire going direct from the amp to the battery isn't important because the chassis provides more than adequate conductivity, isn't the quality of the conductor also an issue? Just like how all of us are constantly trying to find the perfect interconnects and speaker wire, well... essentially, isn't that just current flowing through wire anyway and any interconnect or speaker wire should be suffice? Thing is, through many tests, there actually IS a difference in interconnect and speaker wire and we notice it in the quality of the sound that we get. Shouldn't this apply to power and ground wires too? From my experience with home audio, many higher end units don't even come with power cords - just the IEC socket and you're off to find a proper power cord to satisfy your needs - as apparently, different power cords offer different changes in the sound. So, I'm not sure if this entirely applies, since I'm comparing AC and DC, but as someone had mentioned here earlier, the chassis of the car isn't exactly the highest quality conductor. For the price of another ground cable, would it not be worthwhile to supply your amps with a good conductor?
In structured double blind testing there has yet to be a case of someone being able to positively identify one cable from another. That's not an opinion - it's fact. Well, in the capacity that if someone HAS been successful it has not been publicly promoted which you can bet it would be.
Certainly, in the case of power cable, the quality of the conductor could be SO terrible that the amplifier experienced a compromised power supply and began to behave erratically and thus affected sound but that is a WAAAAAAAYYYY longshot. In most cases the amplifier would shut off first.
