Some wiring q's

[snobrder9186]

Currently I have 4ga wire ran to my 600w RMS JBL amp for my subs, but I am considering about running a second amp to power my 4 other speakers This amp would only have a rating of about 200w RMS.

My first question is would I be able to run the 4 ga to a distribution block and run a 8 ga. wire to my 600w RMS amp with out frying the wire, or should I leave the 4ga for my sub amp and run a seperate 8ga wire for the speaker amp?

My second question is how do I run the remote wire to both amps from the headunit? Should I just splice the current one with another one?

And Finally my third question is if I run my speakers to an amp will I still have controll over them fromt he head unit such as volume, fade, balance, HPF etc.

Thanx Alot!

 

[Robb]

The 4 gauge SHOULD be okay. It is right on the edge according to the charts. At 15', 4 is recommended...at 20', 2 is recommended. Most charts just show 60 amps or 70 amps, whereas you would be in the middle at 67 amps. Being that your setup is probably in the 15'-20' range, and will probably rarely run FLA, the 4 gauge should work sufficient.

If you are putting the distro block near the amps, within a few feet, 10 gauge would be okay for the 200w amp. You would need at least 6 gauge for the 600w tho.

Having balance and fade control depends on the amp and HU. If your HU has four midrange outputs and you are running a true 4-channel amp with four rca inputs, you can have control of both. If your HU only has two outputs, or your amp only has two inputs, you will loose fade control.

 

[superxplorer]

hey

sounds like what i just did last night. i ran new 4 gauge to a distibution box and then 8 guage going ino my amps. im running a 800 watt amp for my sub and 500 watt amp for my speakers. i really dont no how well it will do since im not hooking my sub amp till monday. but i asked this question before and everyone who helped me said it will be fine with the way i did it.

the remore wire part is easy all you got to do is just splice into the wire going to your sub amp and and hooking it up to your speaker amp.

you still can controle volume, fade, balance and everything else the same. just make sure your head unit has 2 more sets of inputs for your 4 channel amp other wise your gonna have to do some splicing with your sub amp inputs by using some lil special splicing wire harnesses with 1 male and 2 females spliters.

 

[snobrder9186]

superxplorer - was it a 800w RMS amp or peak?

And about the RCa out puts I have 2 pairs of outputs in my hu, 1 for the subs and 1 for anything else? I was thinking of getting a 2 channel amp and running 2 speakers per channel at 2 ohms. Will that still work? Thanks for all the quick replies!

 

[vteg]

snobrder986,
Keep the 8 gauge run to the amps as short as possible. Try to get the distro closer to the large amp if possible. At 20' 100 amps will give you a .5 volt drop. .5 volt drop is the standard normally used for determining if wiring is sufficient. You are probably close to 1400(100 amps) watts when you factor in amp efficiencies, but you should be fine.

superxplorer,

I think you have too much power for a single 4 gauge run. If you don't run it a full power too often, you will be fine though.

 

[snobrder9186]

Thanks Vteg


I still don't understand about how to wire up an amp for my regular speakers and still have control over them from the headunit. Someone please explain this to me.

Also I have an 80amp fuse in my existing install, should I step up the fuse when I add the other amp? if so about how much? Thanks Alot Everybody!

 

[superxplorer]

vteg

ya i wont run it al full blast but the amps are close together bnext to the distribution box so i think ill be fine.

 

[vteg]

Originally posted by snobrder9186
Thanks Vteg


I still don't understand about how to wire up an amp for my regular speakers and still have control over them from the headunit. Someone please explain this to me.

Also I have an 80amp fuse in my existing install, should I step up the fuse when I add the other amp? if so about how much? Thanks Alot Everybody!

The fade/balance controls will control the preamp outputs. Most headunits have front/rear/sub preamp outputs.

As far as the fuse I would not worry. You may not be able to blow it. It is difficult to get full power into midrange when crossed over above the sub range. 200 watts into 4 midranges will be very loud.