What does everyone think is the optimum gauge of speaker wire for subs?

I am running 8 gauge but only because I did the series/parallel wiring myself. At first I was going to have a shop custom buid my box for me and each one I talked to said they would only use 12-gauge wire, even though I said I wanted 8 guage!!

Anyways, call me crazy but I think 8 is the way to go for subs. When I have the chance, I am going to upgrade my front speaker wire to 12-gauge (right now I have 14g to the crossover and 16g the rest of the way).

 

Ya I would say 8g is overkill. The short lenghts you would run in a car 14 or 16 is fine..

 

We ran 8 ga. in my Avenger to the RF Power 12 which was placed magnet-out to show off the pretty backside of the woofer. Used 8 ga. mostly for visual 'pop' because it looked extreme, like the structure of the sub. Nothing wrong with using heavier gauge wire than needed, besides cost and installation.

 

How functional is it thoguh? Your system is only as good as its weakest link, eg. the very thin tinsel leads. Those are what....14awg?

I am very content with my 12awg to my subs....but i am only running 300 to each sub.

edit: I forgot this was the SQ section....yea 8awg sound fine.

[ August 11, 2005, 03:05 PM: Message edited by: Tzu ]

 

^^Except how long are the tinsel leads? Maybe a couple inches. The size of the wire has to take into account the length travelled, as well as the current drawn.

 

Exactly. The weakest link doesn't really apply since the current that a given gauge of wire can handle is directly related to how long that wire is.

 

Tzu - overkill is fine (as long as you know you are overpaying) in SQ and SPL. Visual appeal is VERY important to the general public

 

I am pretty sure you won't hear a difference between 12 awg and 8 awg in any reasonable application( under 1kw). I know I can't even with runs as long as 12 feet( yes I've tried it, even tried 4 awg),but as I always say, try it yourself, if you can hear a diffeence then do it.

 

True say, but I'm very content with 12awg.

like stated before, if you know its overkill then go for it.

 

overkill the wrong term. more like more than sufficient. nothing wrong with that! u would more than likly not even be able to read the difference between most of the types of cable spoken of above with instrimentation. however the less path resistance there is in your install the better and cooler things will run.