yeah....if you want your lights to dim! The power wire on the factory amp is what, 20ga? Not exactly the preferred diameter for running a high powered amplifier.

 

???, I wonder where the hell I heard that from then. The guy's amp must have had larger fuses in it than it should have I guess.
Wow, for the last 10 years, Ive been installing amps off of that logic. Oh well, thanks for clearing it up for me.

 

I got a question here that might be helpful since there is wire diameter in question. I used to have a 1200 W rms amp ( or somthing close) and I was ALWAYS unhooking it and putting different subs and wires to it and such. There was a time I was using 8G wire and it sounded better than it did with 4G. This was the power wire mind you(going to the battery) What is the deal with power wires having an effect on sound quality??
Also, I had a friend that swore by all that using 4G wire for speaker wire was good to do, is this by any means true??

 

I plan on running a different power wire not using the one for the factory amp.

Thanks again...

 

Normally for a 1200w amp you will want to run a 6g wire. I have a 1200.1KX Kicker amp powering 2 JL Audio W3's I have used 4g wire before with it and didnt take the wiring out when I got a new car but I couldn't tell any difference in the sound quality from the different sizes. 4g wire is good to use but you need to remember that you do need some resistance so you need to always figure the power to wire size ratio because you deffinately don't want to go to big. I hope this helps some.

 

It's a common misconception, but one that won't necessarily result in a failure like you described if done with some thought. Usually if anything bad happens its that you have to keep replacing the fuse cause you amp is pulling more current than the fuse will allow. So it'll work so long as your amp isn't pulling more current than what the fuse will allow, I was more trying to clear up why that line is fused.

 

I have one more question. I just wanted a little more out of my receiver so I went with a 400 watt 4 channel amp, it does have high level inputs would it still be best to get the line out converter so I could use RCA's? Would there be a noticeable difference in the sound quality? Oh, that's two questions, sorry.
thanks...

 

Not all wire is created equal, although a dramatic difference such as 8ga to 4ga isn't exactly the norm either. I can't imagine an 8ga wire making your setup sound any different that it would were it run with 4ga, I've not had that experience and can't comment on yours.

4ga for all speaker wires is akin to using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. So not necessary, it'll get the job done but kind of a bit much.

The power of the amp isn't the only factor to deciding the proper guage wire to run, the length of said run is equally as important. You need some resistance in your power wire? Interesting, that's a new one by me. IMO, it's always best to go with the biggest wire you can afford or will fit your amps.

That won't get you any more out of your receiver in any way. I've never done an a/b comparison of high level vs. low level so I can't call it. But I look at it like this, if your amp can accept either, do the one that will cost the least because either way, the receiver is still going to put out the same signal strength no matter how it gets to the amp.

 

Thanks 04...