Wire gauge chart? 600RMS need what GA? - Audio & Electronics Forum

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Wire gauge chart? 600RMS need what GA?
Friday, September 23, 2005 8:26 PM
How do you know the wires you are using are too small for the current draw of the amps? I'm using 8ga from bat. to distro block and 8ga from it to the amps with no problems ( I think ), one amp is a Pioneer GM-X952 for the components and the other is a GM-5000T for the sub. First is 300RMS, the other is 380RMS. I am receiving the amp on Monday or Tuesday. Will I still be fine on 8ga wiring? Or will 4AWG be NECESSARY ?

Also, both amps are grounded individually. Would wiring them to another distro block then grounding the distro block to one place be better?

Thanks a lot!

Guillaume

Re: Wire gauge chart? 600RMS need what GA?
Friday, September 23, 2005 9:38 PM
I would recommend upgrading to 4 gauge. I run 637 watts using it, Rockford Fosgate Punch 60 and a Kicker DX350.
Re: Wire gauge chart? 600RMS need what GA?
Friday, September 23, 2005 11:22 PM
It won't hurt to just go ahead and do 4 or 2 or 0 for that matter. In your position I would determine if you planned on upgrading down the road and if so how much of an upgrade. Wiring is one of those things that it doesn't hurt to have to much of and if you are going to upgrade amps later down the road then might save ya some cash to go for the bigger wire now. But if you don't plan on upgrading later I still say at least 4awg from the battery to the distro block, and 4awg from the block to the bass amp, at the very least.


Re: Wire gauge chart? 600RMS need what GA?
Sunday, September 25, 2005 10:07 AM
you dont need 2 or 0 guage. 4 guage would be fine unless you plan on adding later on. if you add more amps later then go 2 or 0 and jsut get a distrbution block.. i would not go over 800 watts on a 4 guage kit.


Re: Wire gauge chart? 600RMS need what GA?
Sunday, September 25, 2005 2:55 PM
Thanks for your help! But really, HOW do you KNOW that current wires aren't cutting it? Lights dimming? Amps going into protection mode? ( just throwing ideas here ). I mean, I understand that you need to upgrade the wiring theoritically when you get at a certain RMS wattage, but how true is this in real life?

Thanks!
Re: Wire gauge chart? 600RMS need what GA?
Sunday, September 25, 2005 3:12 PM
Well, you can figure out out mathamatically. We'll assume you're running 600 watts. If the amps are class a/b amps then they are around 50% power efficient, so they need to consume 1200 watts in order to put out 600. At 12 volts that's 100 amps that need to flow down the wire. 8 gauge wire is only able to carry 75 amps. Granted, your amps aren't trying to pull 600 watts all the time, but with 8 gauge wire you're only gonna get like 450 watts out of your system. That may be enough for you, but why not put in the wiring that will allow your equipment to play at their full potenial.


-Chris
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