if you have thicker wires connected to your subs will they hit harder or does it matter???

Question

right now i have 12 gauge speaker wires connected to my subs in my vehicle I want to know if having 8 or 6 gauge wire will provide a wider path for more electricity to flow allowing them to hit harder????

Answer 1

Your speakers consume power measured in Watts. The resistance in your wires also consume power measured in Watts. To compute the Watts absorbed by your wires (and therefore not by your speakers), simply multiply the square of the current in amperes flowing through a speaker wire times the resistance of the wire. It's not likely that size 12 wire will absorb more than a watt or two compared to your speakers for wire lengths less than 25 feet.

Answer 2

many of you are right on the money here. small guage wires can cause a decrease in the power going from the amp to the speaker and can cause both the speaker and the amp to overheat (as a result of the constant draw of power through too small of wire). Think of it like trying to push a ping pong ball through a lenght of stretchable hose that is a tad too small for the ball to slip through: sure, you can push it through but the force exterted is more than you care to give. If the hose was a bit bigger the for ball would fall through.

12 guage wire is going to be just fine in 95% of your installs. Most companies who produce wire will make a 12 guage or at most, a 10 guage wire for subs. Most installs dont have their sub speaker wiring running more than 8 feet from the amp, and a vast majority under 3 feet, so that size will be fine. To do 5 or 9 guage (where would you even get that from?? it's not a standard size) or even 8 guage or 6 guage is really unnecessary unless you were pushing over 1500 to 1800watts RMS continuously, and even in that case, 8 guage could be argued as "overkill". The largest wire I've ever done in over 18 yrs of system design and building (many in competition) has been 8 guage on one application and 10 guage on many others. The 8 guage system was done more for show than for realistic reasons as the amp and sub could do just fine with 10guage wire for a less-than-2ft run.

Seriously, 12 guage will be fine and though you wont hear any significant difference with the bigger wire, you will with smaller wire but even that's to a point. Your ears are not going to be able to differentiate between using a 12 guage wire or using a 10 or 8 guage wire. I assure you of that. In fact, I'd dare say that a person couldnt honestly sit there and tell the difference betwen 16 or 14 guage wire even. It would be iffy with the 16 guage maybe but unlikely with the 14guage.

12 will be fine.

Answer 3

It depends on how much your amp puts out. If you get a new wiring kit and say your amp is 1000watts.. get a 1200-1400 watt wiring kit the larger wire will allow more power to your amp and hence to your speakers, but your amp is only going to put out so much no matter how big the wire. I do think that 12 is a little small tho, unless you have a 250watt amp or less and one woofer. Other wise try a 5gauge to your amp and 9 gauge to your speakers.
hope it helps

Answer 4

You'll get the most out of your amp and sub cause of the thick wire is letting more watts through I think.

So the thicker the better.

Answer 5

It really depends on how much power you're sending to your subs. Another positive to having thicker wires is the overheating factor. The thinner the wires, the hotter they run. Electricity flows better as the temperature is decreased. Another topic to consider.

Answer 6

yea it wont make your subs hit harder bc it all depends on the power coming out of the amp. for some reason if your amps not getting enough power then this would supply it with more power and then your subs will hit harder. 12 guage is small though I would upgrade to 6 or 8 guage just to do it (ensure there is enough power to the amp)

Answer 7

it wont make them hit harder but having a thicker gauge will send more power to it and you will get the most out of your amp

Answer 8

the thicker the wire the better. most important is to have a real thick power lead to the amp and even better if you have a cap.