Does it matter if i have a 4 gauge or 8 guage wire for my subs?

Question

i have 2 12" 300 rms subs with a 450 watt amp. The guy who installed my subs said that my 8 guage wire will be fine for now, but when i get the money i should come switch it out for a 4 guage. will that make a differnce? will my subs be louder? If so ill do it....otherwise ill just keep it as is

Answer 1

4 guage is much different than 8 guage. It's much bigger and will put more power at once to your amp that runs to your subwoofers. It takes the power from the battery and all of the wires inside the plastice of the 4 guage runs to the amp, and then runs to the subwoofers. More power, better bass, higher wattage. Not really noticeable but a lot better for your system. You can live with 8 guage though, it's not too big of a deal.

Answer 2

the smaller the wire the more power u lose with lenght an with you low powered subs i dont think it would make a real differance if u went to 4 guage

Answer 3

yea man ur subs will git more power with the 4 guage but 8 guage is pretty good to

Answer 4

u can run 18 feet of 8 guage wire u can even go up on ur amp a little if u do want it louder like a 760 but if u want to push them then go to the 4 gauge wire but like they said its kinda of a waste because u will have more bass then u will highs

Answer 5

8 gauge is plenty.

That 450 watts is going into two subs so it will be divided by two to make 225RMS per sub.

8 gauge speaker wire is plentiful and no it will not make them louder or anything.

The only thing wire gauge does is prevent the wire from melting.

Like having 18 gauge when the amp is giving off 1000RMS, well the wire is going to melt.

You can always run a big wire for little power, no harm but simply waste.

I run 8 gauge on 200rms because its what was on sale when I have EASILY ran 400RMS on 12 gauge. I could be comfy with 18 gauge for 200RMS.

Answer 6

It's not a sound thing as much as it's a safety thing.

The 8 AWG wire will struggle to handle the cuurent and may get hot enough to melt the jacket. If that happens and the wire comes in contact with a ground, you could easily have a fire.

Additionally, the amp will also struggle to damand the current it needs to do the job which can cause the amp to over heat.