ok im kinda puzzled.

[91rangerxlt]

do you mean your using 12awg for power and ground wires? maybe i misunderstood something

nope i got thick stuff for power and ground wires. im running 12 guage wire from the amp to the sub. the other stuff is thick stuff that came in a kit. says it handles like 1200 watts rms or something like that.

 

[Pistons23]

oh, then the speaker wire is not the problem. its that your sub is wired for a 2ohm load, which your amp cant handle bridged. instead of bridging it, you could just use one channel or wire it in series for a 8ohm load. also look into properly setting your gains. its not something you can just guess or do by ear.

 

[91rangerxlt]

yea it is my speaker wire. if your speaker wire will not carry enuff amps it will shut the amp down to prevent damage. ive had it happen before.

 

[Pistons23]

i dont see what amperage has to do with sending power to a speaker. 12awg is actually overkill for your application. even my friends old school orion hcca is only using 16awg to feed his subs. and thats about 1600 watts of real usable power. not the max ratings. its just that your sub, if bridged to a 2ohm load, only has 2ohms of resistance. which draws more power from your amp. and if the gains arent sent properly, its only making the problem worse. and even worse if youre using the LOUDNESS and bass boost features on your deck. oh well, this is my last post in this thread.

 

[Loud Ranger]

i dont see what amperage has to do with sending power to a speaker. 12awg is actually overkill for your application. even my friends old school orion hcca is only using 16awg to feed his subs. and thats about 1600 watts of real usable power. not the max ratings. its just that your sub, if bridged to a 2ohm load, only has 2ohms of resistance. which draws more power from your amp. and if the gains arent sent properly, its only making the problem worse. and even worse if youre using the LOUDNESS and bass boost features on your deck. oh well, this is my last post in this thread.

i thought he meant he was using 12ga for power wire, lol my bad

 

[91rangerxlt]

yea when i put really thick speaker wire on my last setup it stopped the shutting off. did your friends orion have an overload protecter?

 

[baxtej44]

this may seem like a complete noob question, but not really off topic.



what does lower gauge (meaning thicker wire) wire change? just the amount of electrons moving through it i assume?

 

[flyingbrick]

this may seem like a complete noob question, but not really off topic.



what does lower gauge (meaning thicker wire) wire change? just the amount of electrons moving through it i assume?

Means there are more electrons able to move the power, just like having a bigger hose, takes less “power” to move something (or a lot of something) through it.

 

[Loud Ranger]

bigger wire is more efficient. Bigger guage wire will have less resistance from start to end so less power is lost between your battery and amps

 

[Pistons23]

yea when i put really thick speaker wire on my last setup it stopped the shutting off. did your friends orion have an overload protecter?

what kind of question is that? any respectable amp will. and it will go into protect mode for a number of reasons. there could be a loose wire somewhere. it could be getting too hot and going into thermal protection. try this, leave only the power, ground and remote wires connected to the amp. turn your car on or put it in accesory mode. see how long it stays on. if it stays on for a good period of time, its either your rca's, a speaker wire could be loose or the wiring configuration of your sub is overloading your amp. even pull the sub from the box. you may have pushed your sub to hard and actually damaged the sub. check the tinsel leads on the sub. i guarantee you its not the speaker wire. i have 16awg from radioshack running my home stereo system. i have an external amp pushing 250x2 to my tower speakers. and theyre pretty long runs of wire and havent had a problem yet. though i will be upgrading when i run all the wiring through the wall.

 

[baxtej44]

not to hijack... but i'm getting a 460w x 1 @ 4ohms rms clarion amp (DPX1851) and the kenwood excelon 350w rms 12" sub (KFC-XW1200F) and of course my gains are going to be set lower, but I bought an 8g amp kit i believe, is that adequate?

What gauge wire should I go from my amp to my sub? and from the inside of the terminal cup to the sub (interior of the box?)

 

[Pistons23]

not to hijack... but i'm getting a 460w x 1 @ 4ohms rms clarion amp (DPX1851) and the kenwood excelon 350w rms 12" sub (KFC-XW1200F) and of course my gains are going to be set lower, but I bought an 8g amp kit i believe, is that adequate?

What gauge wire should I go from my amp to my sub? and from the inside of the terminal cup to the sub (interior of the box?)

8awg is good up to 400w. 4awg is good up to 1000w. anything over 1000w id run 1/0awg. 16awg should be fine for the speaker wire.

heres a vid to give you some info on setting gains properly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm4aaC87ARg

you will want to set it a little lower. i doubt that kenwood will take any more then its rms rating. be sure no to overboost the signal by using your loudness and bass boost features.

 

[baxtej44]

8awg is good up to 400w. 4awg is good up to 1000w. anything over 1000w id run 1/0awg. 16awg should be fine for the speaker wire.

heres a vid to give you some info on setting gains properly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm4aaC87ARg

you will want to set it a little lower. i doubt that kenwood will take any more then its rms rating. be sure no to overboost the signal by using your loudness and bass boost features.

okay well unfortuntely i think i'll probably stick with the 8g amp kit, and i will get 16g for the amp -> sub and terminal cup -> voice coil


so i might want to look for about 35 volts if their 40v is 400w?

 

[Pistons23]

your target voltage is going to be different than in the video. heres a writeup of the process

http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27819&highlight=setting+gains

to find your target voltage you multiply watts and resistance, then find the squaroot of that. so youd multiply 460 by 4which would get 1840. the squareroot of that is 42.90. but to get closer to 350 watts your target voltage will be 37.42.

btw, i just looked at that amp amd its capable of 850w. go with 4awg. 8awg wont cut it. THIS will work just fine. 4awg will be a good investment.

 

[Pistons23]

and if you have the money a pair of these would make good use of that amps power. and for $150+shipping for a pair, thats a great deal

http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_info.php?products_id=830