Dose the amount of watts my amp wiring kit is rated for matter?
Question by Zachary Hazelton: Dose the amount of watts my amp wiring kit is rated for matter?
I’m hooking up my subs and ill be pushing around 1000 watts. Do I need the 1000 watt wiring kit or will the cheaper wiring kit that’s only rated at 640 watts work? It’s fine with me as long as its safe and the quality won’t be drastically changed?
Best answer:
Answer by jomcgre3
What happens when you push too much current through a wire? It gets hot, melts insulation, shorts out and blows a fuse if you are lucky, or burns out the amp if you are not. Do it right the first time. It will cost less in the long run.
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It’s about the current requirement of your amp.
Specifying amp kits by power doesn’t do buyers much good since power ratings are so loosely regulated anyway — as is saying you’re going to be running “1000 watts”.
Whose 1000w? Pyle’s? Boss’? Kickers’?
1000w “rated” from a cheap brand (Pyle/Boss etc) is probably going to be more like 200-300w “actual”, while “1000 watts” from kicker might be 1100-1200w.
You can’t even trust wire size all the time b/c a lot of suck brands will use the term “gauge” instead of AWG. AWG is a standard that must be legally adhered to. Gauge is just a word.
10 awg is good for around 30A – typically around 300w rms.
8 awg works for 50-60A – around 600w rms.
4 awg works for up to ~125A or 1200-1500w rms.
To the point — You don’t want to undersize your wiring.
If your kit is too small and you approach the current limit of the wire – the in-line fuse SHOULD blow if it’s installed correctly. So safety-wise you should be covered.
Performance-wise — if you’re drawing more current than the wire can safely handle your amp is going to suffer from voltage drop, it won’t produce as much power, it will clip more, and won’t sound as good.
Check sonicelectronix — they have 4 awg kits as low as $ 28 that are serviceable.
March 2nd, 2013 at 5:07 amTheir $ 30 raptor kits are actually undersized — only using a 60A fuse. Real 4 awg should have a 100-150A fuse.