awg and wire length questions

[yob_yeknom]

I am getting ready to order a Pioneer GM-X544 amp to push the Pioneer TS-A6865 speakers in my doors. The amp's power ratings are 50x4 RMS and 100x4 max. The current consumption is 32.2 amps at continuous power and the average current drawn is 10.9 amps.

My questions:
(1) What size AWG wire should I use for the power wire? I will be running the wire from the battery, through the driver's side firewall (any good places?), and under the carpet to the rear passenger's side seat. I don't know what length that is. (if anybody could tell me that would be great)
(2) I will be running new 12 AWG speaker wire (got a good deal so why not) from the amp to all of the speakers in the doors. Does it matter if the wires are the same length or not? Will 2 long wires, 1 med wire, and 1 short wire be okay or should I make them all the same length?
(3) I read that you aren't supposed to get the speaker wires, RCA's, and power wires near each other. How do I do that? The power wire has to cross the speaker wires somewhere and the RCA's have to cross them also. What do I do?
(4) Last but not least, what side of the X should I run the RCA's? (2 more amps in my future) I want to keep them away from factory wiring to the fuel pump and brake lights. I have the entire insides out so rerouting wires wouldn't be a problem either.

Any other helpful information would also be appreciated.

 

[mdrut]

I picked up an amp kit that had everything I needed in it for about $35.. As far as length, I don't think it's gonna matter much..The size of the wire does affect the resistance.. It's always best to take a look at the box or instructions and go by the manufacturers specs..

 

[Jefe]

(1)I'm not sure about this one, but I think 8 gauge would be plenty for now. . but if you're adding amps in the future you might want to think about that and install a power cable only once.
(2)12 gauge is a bit of an over-kill. . .but as you said, good deal. In a studio the speaker wires would be exactly the same length (my father says he can hear a difference when the cables vary by even 2") but thats with lots of high end stuff and a perfect sound stage. I've always cut my speaker wire to length in a car, especially for the subs because you get power less loss that way.
(3)the most important one is keeping the line level (RCA's) 8" or more away from other wires, and if they must cross, then a 90 degree angle would be best. the speaker wire would be next important, but I wouldn't worry too much about them.
(4)I wouldn't know where the factory wireing to stay away from is. . haven't done my system yet.

 

[Exploder99]

as far as speaker wire goes, yes 12 is a bit of an overkill and might difficult to work with, youll be fine with 14 or 16awg. length of the wires really wouldnt have that muche effect only with power delivery. yes you should run your power and speaker/patch cables seperatly. with the battery on the lef side of the car, i went with 4 awg, to a 135amp circuit breaker, through the fire wall and along the left side of the car then to a 1 farad cap, then to a fused disatribution block. from there 8awg to the amps. your door sill will pop right out. take it off and youll find channels with other wires in there, use that to run your cables.(both sides same) Power up the left, speaker and rca up the right. try not to cross power and patch cables and DONT run power cable across the engine bay. all of this will creat noise. all that i cant think of for now, hope this helped.

 

[JTang]

1) 8 is more than enough for your current amp. However, if you're thinking about getting another amp for bass, you might want to go up to 4. Then you won't have to rerun wire and rebuy wire. Use 4 only if you think you're going to get a really monster amp for the sub though. The other way would just be to run two 8 guage wires from the battery to each amp when you're ready.

If you drill under the foot area of the passenger side, you'll pop out right behind the front passenger side fender area. I passed the wire under the kick panel. By the door sill, you can unscrew that plastic step panel, then take a flathead screw driver, and lift a long plastic panel that covers a trough especially made for wires to run through.

2)No. It's not the wire making the difference, it's the distance from the speakers. Air slows down sound waves, and therefore, you will (maybe if you're good enough) hear the differing arrival times. Voltage moves fast, like almost speed of light fast. When you hear a signal, it's not because the electron moved all the way to the other end of the wire. When one electron moves "in", one the other end is "pushed" out sending signal, so it's almost instantaneous, I believe. Even so, that's splitting hairs when there are so many other major problems to attend to in car audio, like road noise, and the car just being one of the hardest places to work on stereo.

3)The Power and RCAs keep away from each other. The speaker wires, I think you can do whatever you need to. It has something to do with AC and DC current, which I have no idea about. But your speaker wire shouldn't pick up noise from the power wire, and the speaker wire won't affect the RCAs, at least I've never heard of that ever being a problem.

4)Most of the factory wiring is clustered in the driver's side kick panel. I ran mine down the left side and have had no problems.

 

[yob_yeknom]

about capacitors

Should I use a capacitor for this amp? I really don't want my HU lights dimming when the bass hits.

As for future plans... I will be adding 2 more 'big' amps in the future. I'm gonna run a 2awg wire from the battery and split it into two 4awg wires going to the amps by means of a power distribution box. Can I just hook a capacitor in line right before the distribution box and use it for both amps?

Also, what is the deal with charging the capacitor? I read somewhere you have to charge them. (???) When? How often?

Last question... Should I upgrade my alternator to a high output when I get all these amps hooked up? I've seen people's brake and headlights dim when the bass hits. That is not acceptable. How many amps does the factory alternator put out anyways?

 

[mrsteve]

You won't need a cap for this amp, but it couldn't hurt. Usually you use 1 Farad for every 1000 watts, so if you got a 500 watt amp use a .5 Farad cap.

If you do use a cap it's best to put it as close as possibe to the amp, it will be most effective there.

As far as charging the cap I'm not sure about this, caps are kinda new to me (I've only been into car audio since August, but I know quite a bit now). Check car audio specific boards like sounddomain.com if no one here can help.

As for the alternator it depends how much power the amps are gonna put out. I've got very minor dimming with my current set up (just a Rockford Fosgate 150a2 roughly 160 watts bridged). We'll see what happens once I get an amp for my components (hopefully really soon). And then I'll be getting a 350 watt amp for a new sub. That'll be the real test of the stock electrical system.

Enjoy the system.

Steve

 

[RFR2212]

Caps get charged and discharged. You should only have to charge it once...and then recharge it if you discharge it yer self..BTW, I'm running 1/0 gauge optima battery, 175amp alternator and one cap.....
Pete

 

[JTang]

Lightning Audio makes one of THE coolest distribution boxes I've ever seen. You can get it at partsexpress.com, part #268-395. It's a distro box with integrated Cap connector. Two 1/0 guage inputs, two 2-4 guage outputs, and two 4-8 guage outputs. It's the end all solution. I wish I saw that before I bought my dist. block. If it had fuse holders, there would be no hesitation for me to get it.