Speaker Cable

vectra

OK
In the Civic I have already put this lot in the boot
JBL Sub/Boss Audio Amp and a 1farad Power cap to keep it pumped up.

Rear 6x9's are Pioneer's @ 180 watt
Doors are Pioneers @ 150 watt

I have bought this amp >Fusion


Now
I want to upgrade the speaker cable when fitting this amp
What would be the recommended/suggested cable to use?

would this be overkill?? >>Speaker Cable

Also
Would the 1 Farad Cap run both amps?
They do Not get pumped up too much so I assume they are drawing full needed current.

5500

You may notice a slight difference with the ofc speaker cable but I've only ever noticed it when it came to using high end stuff and more so for sound quality as opposed to spl.

Tbh you dont need the powercap with your setup, I'd probably ditch it as it may be doing more harm than good to your system, that 10 gauge power cable may aswell be speaker cable itself, your better off going overkill and using 4 gauge or lower if you intend to build your system over time.

Have you upgraded your big 3? If not do it, It's one of the cheapest mods in audio that I've found when building a loud system that actually helped (aside from dynamat extreme!)

vectra

eireal wrote: »

You may notice a slight difference with the ofc speaker cable but I've only ever noticed it when it came to using high end stuff and more so for sound quality as opposed to spl.

Tbh you dont need the powercap with your setup, I'd probably ditch it as it may be doing more harm than good to your system, that 10 gauge power cable may aswell be speaker cable itself, your better off going overkill and using 4 gauge or lower if you intend to build your system over time.

Have you upgraded your big 3? If not do it, It's one of the cheapest mods in audio that I've found when building a loud system that actually helped (aside from dynamat extreme!)

1)
I did think the standard wire in the car might be a bit piddly for the amp/speakers and would benefit form the heavier stuff, On top of that i will have to re-wire them anyway as the amp will be going in the boot.
So do you think lighter cable would be fine?

2)
Why do you think the power cap would be doing more bad than good? I thought they were made specifically for this job?

3)
I did not think about the big 3 actually.

Do I need 1 gauge wire for that?
Motor factors I guess?


Cheers for the info

5500

vectra wrote: »

1)
I did think the standard wire in the car might be a bit piddly for the amp/speakers and would benefit form the heavier stuff, On top of that i will have to re-wire them anyway as the amp will be going in the boot.
So do you think lighter cable would be fine?

The standard wire is most likely crap but I just wouldn't be in a hurry to spend all your cash on ofc cable when normal speaker cable is going to do the same job with the difference to your ear being negligible unless you were building a system for sound quality purposes.

In saying that if your rewiring the whole thing and the cable is cheap enough there's no harm in going overkill with it, sure its fun dismantling panels to fit things!

vectra wrote: »

2)
Why do you think the power cap would be doing more bad than good? I thought they were made specifically for this job??

The point of the power cap is to store a reserve of power for large bass drops that it can supply to the amp instantly when the battery's voltage may be dropping. Looking at the sub and amp your using your not going to have this problem.

I've used them before with 2x 1000wrms subs and 2x Class D mono amp's and even then they probably did more harm than good, when a large bass note came along and the power drained from the cap, the battery then had to recharged that thus zapping more power from going to the amps.

vectra wrote: »

3)
I did not think about the big 3 actually.

Do I need 1 gauge wire for that?
Motor factors I guess?


Cheers for the info

Bigger is said to be better on the big 3, I used 0 gauge before but its not cheap, 4 gauge is a nice size, bigger than stock and you can pick it up cheap online. Make sure you change all the grounds in the engine bay.

Even on a small system upgrading the 3 can improve the sound, I used to get headlight dimming ect with a small system when it was pounding and the big 3 fixed it for me.

Im not sure what car you have but the battery's also something to look at. If you can find a higher amp output battery then this will also help. A cheaper way around it is if there is a diesel model of your car buy a battery from one of those, alternativly the likes of a stinger or optima blue top dry cell battery are excellent but the price reflects this.

vectra

eireal wrote: »

The standard wire is most likely crap but I just wouldn't be in a hurry to spend all your cash on ofc cable when normal speaker cable is going to do the same job with the difference to your ear being negligible unless you were building a system for sound quality purposes.

In saying that if your rewiring the whole thing and the cable is cheap enough there's no harm in going overkill with it, sure its fun dismantling panels to fit things!

Yeah that cable is cheap enough so I will probably go with that
tearing out panels etc is no problem

eireal wrote: »

The point of the power cap is to store a reserve of power for large bass drops that it can supply to the amp instantly when the battery's voltage may be dropping. Looking at the sub and amp your using your not going to have this problem.

I've used them before with 2x 1000wrms subs and 2x Class D mono amp's and even then they probably did more harm than good, when a large bass note came along and the power drained from the cap, the battery then had to recharged that thus zapping more power from going to the amps.

Hamm.
I was going to hook both amps on to the power cap but Not sure if i should now.
My son likes the look of it in the boot

eireal wrote: »

Bigger is said to be better on the big 3, I used 0 gauge before but its not cheap, 4 gauge is a nice size, bigger than stock and you can pick it up cheap online. Make sure you change all the grounds in the engine bay.

Even on a small system upgrading the 3 can improve the sound, I used to get headlight dimming ect with a small system when it was pounding and the big 3 fixed it for me.

Im not sure what car you have but the battery's also something to look at. If you can find a higher amp output battery then this will also help. A cheaper way around it is if there is a diesel model of your car buy a battery from one of those, alternativly the likes of a stinger or optima blue top dry cell battery are excellent but the price reflects this.

I will prob go with 4 gauge but my local motor factors rolls of cable are not marked as gauge.. they are something like mm ..!
Any idea as to what I should look for?

I think they had something on the lines of 25mm ?

Oh as for the car
It is a 97 Civic EK2 hatch

He is not huge into loud music but obviously hung around with me too long and likes it to sound good :rolleyes:

5500

vectra wrote: »

Yeah that cable is cheap enough so I will probably go with that
tearing out panels etc is no problem




Hamm.
I was going to hook both amps on to the power cap but Not sure if i should now.
My son likes the look of it in the boot

I will prob go with 4 gauge but my local motor factors rolls of cable are not marked as gauge.. they are something like mm ..!
Any idea as to what I should look for?

I think they had something on the lines of 25mm ?

Oh as for the car
It is a 97 Civic EK2 hatch

He is not huge into loud music but obviously hung around with me too long and likes it to sound good :rolleyes:

If your not going to ditch the cap, then personally I would run the power cable to the cap, and from the cap into a fused distribution block, then from the block to each amp. I cant see it making any difference to the system other than aesthetic especially on the speaker amp as it's not going to be drawing as much current as the sub amp, either way's to be safe you should use a fused distribution block.

4gauge is circa 20mm,2 gauge may be 25mm - It can be pricey stuff though.

vectra

eireal wrote: »

If your not going to ditch the cap, then personally I would run the power cable to the cap, and from the cap into a fused distribution block, then from the block to each amp. I cant see it making any difference to the system other than aesthetic especially on the speaker amp as it's not going to be drawing as much current as the sub amp, either way's to be safe you should use a fused distribution block.

4gauge is circa 20mm,2 gauge may be 25mm - It can be pricey stuff though.

Distribution block is on the "Must Get" list actually.
I was gonna run the power wire to the cap.. From the cap to the Distribution block and to both amps.. But you reckon only run it to the sub amp then?

5500

Well if the powercap is before the distribution block its going to be going to both amps, there's only going to be 1 wire coming from the cap to the distribution block, not 1 to the block and then another from the cap to the specific amp

vectra

eireal wrote: »

Well if the powercap is before the distribution block its going to be going to both amps, there's only going to be 1 wire coming from the cap to the distribution block, not 1 to the block and then another from the cap to the specific amp

Thats what I was trying to say