What gague wire should be used to wire my subs?

Question

I got these subs from a buddy he had what appeared to be 18 gauge wire running from the subs to the end of the base tubes i was running 16 gauge from the amp to the subs figured i was loosing some sound so i rewired all of it to a 14 gauge and now the subs dont appear to be hitting as hard as they used too. im running them on a 4 ohm setting.

Answer 1

I use 10ga/8ga on all my boxes.no matter what.

Answer 2

Wow man...

18 16 and 14 gauge wiring is VERY small... im suprised you get any power at all out of wiring that small.

What subs are you using? Amp?

It all matters on the subs and amp(s) to determine what kind of wiring you need. 14 gauge wont get you any boom at all...

Answer 3

depends on the amount of rms watts been used and distance from amp to the subs. since the final ohm load is of 4 ohms, then 14-16 gauge should be fine cus most likely.... the amp isnt giving alot of watts.

for speaker wires in the builds i make:

<500watts rms - 12-16 gauge

<1000watts rms - 10-12 gauge

>1600watts rms - 8 gauge

Answer 4

For strictly the wire running from your subs to your amp 18 gauge is fine for most applications.  Unless you are running a lot of power you will not need that thick of wire.  

Unlike power wire, speaker wire does not need to be that thick.  Your power wire needs to be thick because it is running a lot of amps through it.  For speaker wire you are not running a lot of amps so thick wire is not needed.  

This is the same reason that wire in houses are not that thick.  In a house you have AC power, which means lower amps and higher voltage.  This is what your amp provides to your sub.  Wire in cars, however, is thicker because it is DC power which means more amps but a voltage around 12.

There is no reason you would loose sound from replacing the wire with a thicker gauge.  The reason may be because you wired the subs differently after you replaced the wire.  Give us the information on the setup and we can help you out further.

Answer 5

use 12 gauge and you should be fine. keep in mind no matter how much power you get to the speakers terminals there is only 1 piece od solid copper inside the tinsel leed so there is really no need to over kill on the wire.