well i be ok with 14gauge speaker wire to my subs that are getting 1200watts?? seems like a silly question to me but i honeslty dont know.
Replies (2)
compvr15s on 05/26/2004 09:48:20
i would go with 12awg to be safe im sure the 14 will handle 1200 watts, i know swez listed the ratings for wire but i forget what listings were and where it was posted.
swez on 05/26/2004 10:26:59
You may end up frying the speaker wires with that much power. If the wires are very short from amp to subs, #12 gage is adequate. However, if you push your amp hard regularly, might want to drop to #8 to subs off amp.
Here's the FAQ Comp VR mentioned. It applies mainly to power feed lines of ~18' or less:
http://www.clubknowledge.com/Car_Audio_FAQ/?t1
BTW, was doing an install in a large venue arena yesterday. (hockey rink) We flew 2 huge midbass/midrange Horn enclosures ("Gorps" from Community Sound) and each enclosure has a pair of 12" MB drivers and midrange horn, in each enclosure. Used #12/2 wire (50') from channel B enclosure, to channel A enclcosure. Then used a 100' line of 12/4 conductor back to amp.
These will be powered with a QSC amp that can generate ~1000 watts per channel. Never had problems with this arrangement either. Point of fact, these drivers are very efficient. Something like 108dB @ 1watt/1meter. So, it does not need a huge amount of power to get them up to 120 reference dB. (16 watts RMS will produce SPL of 120 dB.)
The rest is just overhead power reserve to prevent clipping the amp and damaging the horns. Of coarse, these speakers will be limited to enough power to produce the SPL target... so the wire gage and length of runs have minimal effect on power losses in that cable size.
Swez
Replies (2)
compvr15s on 05/26/2004 09:48:20
i would go with 12awg to be safe im sure the 14 will handle 1200 watts, i know swez listed the ratings for wire but i forget what listings were and where it was posted.
swez on 05/26/2004 10:26:59
You may end up frying the speaker wires with that much power. If the wires are very short from amp to subs, #12 gage is adequate. However, if you push your amp hard regularly, might want to drop to #8 to subs off amp.
Here's the FAQ Comp VR mentioned. It applies mainly to power feed lines of ~18' or less:
http://www.clubknowledge.com/Car_Audio_FAQ/?t1
BTW, was doing an install in a large venue arena yesterday. (hockey rink) We flew 2 huge midbass/midrange Horn enclosures ("Gorps" from Community Sound) and each enclosure has a pair of 12" MB drivers and midrange horn, in each enclosure. Used #12/2 wire (50') from channel B enclosure, to channel A enclcosure. Then used a 100' line of 12/4 conductor back to amp.
These will be powered with a QSC amp that can generate ~1000 watts per channel. Never had problems with this arrangement either. Point of fact, these drivers are very efficient. Something like 108dB @ 1watt/1meter. So, it does not need a huge amount of power to get them up to 120 reference dB. (16 watts RMS will produce SPL of 120 dB.)
The rest is just overhead power reserve to prevent clipping the amp and damaging the horns. Of coarse, these speakers will be limited to enough power to produce the SPL target... so the wire gage and length of runs have minimal effect on power losses in that cable size.
Swez
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