The Best Amp Wiring Kit to Buy (And Does Your Amp Wiring Kit Even Matter??)
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2023
- BUYER BEWARE: not all amp wiring kits are created equal! And in this video, I'm going to show you EXACTLY what to look for when buying the right amp kit for your amp and subwoofers. Enjoy!
- Auta a dopravní prostředky
Stinger also makes OFC wire
😂
To add stinger wire is fairly cost effective, JL is severely over priced & hyped.. .
lol
@@bobadingoJl is definitely not overhyped🤣 they make some of the best stuff, and you paying for it
@@marcovaldovinos5009what’s funny?
Obviously you’re going to recommend overpriced JL. There’s plenty of good OFC for a much better price
Yep I’m running GP Audio 0/4 pure copper wire and it’s some huuuge wire
I'm using 1/0 welding cable
@@man912man this is probably the best choice and i'm sure its alot cheaper than these "brand names".
@@man912man Thats exactly what I'm running in my vehicle! Welding wire or nothing. I've got a place by me that sells it by the foot for a decent price.
@@man912man same here I'm using the same kind and I just distribute it 3 ways using 4 gauge wire
People are stupid, they will spend 149 on the JL Audio kit to wire up their BOSS woofer and amp 😂😂
Ive never seen that. More commonly its a $20 amp kit used to power/ground boss audio equipment, not JL wires
Honestly fck JL for even attempting to sell that to me. Tells me all I need to know bout them as a company
@@Luminous.Dynamicsyup. Spend $400 or more on a nice amplifier any to power it with some no one undersized CCA wire
I ended up going with Skyhigh OFC 1/0 gauge power wire. Compared to other brands it seems like the only one who actually measures their wire properly.
That’s all I use. Over sized and cheap. And flexible too. That’s all they run at competitions.
@@henrybabin8031stinger and knuconceptz are the only two other brands along with sky high I like to go with
same here
Absolute bang for buck. JL, Memphis, Alpine etc etc all make great kits but way overpriced. Sky high is the way to go!
@@MLProductions.1 I have sky high 0 gauge and 0 gauge ring terminals don’t even fit on it. I had to order 2/0 terminals. No other company over sizes there wire like that.
Can use US made welding cable or any other high strand copper OFC without paying lout the wazoo
I use these in my installs all the time.
Yep I found some really nice orange coated 0 awg welding wire with 2000 strains it’s super flexible I love it.
A big difference. .05 Volts after a 15 foot run. In test Ofc was 12.55 volt. CCA same 15 foot run was 12.49 volts. So for $100 more you get .05 volts. Please make it make sense
They are just to dumb and lazy to do actual testing like the real hobbyist I bet they tune by ear and can't articulate what an SMD or a DSP is. I just gave someone a break down on how to determine their amp load to figure out what gauge cable he needs for his particular setup. Under a 200 amp load he doesn't need anything bigger than 4 gauge. He didn't believe me. Man I wash we could post photos and screenshots on here I have a chart I would love to share with these people 😂
Not just about voltage my friend. You can push the same amount of current while only using half the gauge of wire with OFC. Personally, you're better off buying wire by the foot since these kits are overpriced to begin with.
Were those voltages measured under load?
@@gavincurtis yes they where under load no load means no voltage no voltage no test you have to have a load to test this otherwise your just testing the resistance which is not the same thing 🤷🤷🤷🤷
@@gavincurtis the key is to know when to use the correct wire for the application as far as size goes. A lot of things factor in bigger is not always better. The problem with cca lies within the bone head trying to run over 2000 watts of power from a 20ft run of 4 gauge wire. Running too much current through a small cable causes heat excessively! The smaller the cable the Greater the resistance it's like applying brakes in a car while maintaining the throttle. Nothing good comes of it. I can argue this till you pass out 🤣💯💯💯💯
I ran ofc when I competed. Now I run CCA and its just fine for lower powered systems
CCA is absolutely fine for anything below 2k
Been using stinger for over 20 years on many many systems and it works great
cca works just fine on my jp23 but yeah ofc is the better choice
Clipin all day long. I fought to get mine adequate power(ie voltage goes from 14.6 to 14.4) wired at .5 ohms mine can pull a constant 250amps which is more then then cca is rated for.
The gauge of the wire makes a difference to
Definitely.
@@hi-techcaraudio4303so would 4gauge ofc wire be better than cca 1/0 wire?
Depends on the system really for example if your total system is under 250 amp total load then you don't need anything bigger than 4 awg unless your b+ cable is longer than 20ft-25ft knowing what gauge wire to use is just as important as knowing what type of wire to use. For example if you have 2 amps hooked up one rated for 800 watts RMS and the other 1200 watts RMS you add those together now you have 2000 watts RMS, the Next step is to determine whether you have a class A/B amp or a class D amp. A/B amps are generally about .5% efficient and class D is .8% efficient. Let's say your amps are a class D you take that 2000 and divide it by .8 that gives you a total of 2500 watts which is what it will take to make that full power of 2000 watts. Now take that 2500 and divide it by 13.8 as an example most stock charging systems have an output voltage of 13.8 so with 2500 divided by 13.8 is 179.8 that number is the total amps that are being put out to power this system now that means you need a 200 amp main fuse or circuit breaker "because they don't make a 180 amp fuse and the 179.8 amps is closer to the 200 amps than it is 150 amps. That being said this system requires 4 gauge and anything bigger is pointless and a waste of money.
If you are going to compare the 2 brands you need to do the stinger ofc kit not the CCA
That's fair. But I'm more comparing CCA to OFC - not necessarily the brands.
@@hi-techcaraudio4303with a 15 ft run the difference between ofc and cca is only .5 volts. Anyone can use words but only a few can actually do the science to debunk the ofc and cca misconception. Why pay loads more money for only .5 volts? This question seems to be ignored a lot my guess is because people don't actually know what they're talking about. OFC only shines better than cca in high amp loads where the amp load is over 350+ amps. Most people don't even have a 200-250 amp load. Hell on average 2000 watts RMS generally has an amp load of about 180 amps most guys like you over kill and exaggerate when building a system it's quite hilarious! 😂
@joshuahockman1128 I totally agree with you about what kind of power it can deliver. And yes price point is good. But there is other problems that come with CCA that I personally don't want to deal with. In cars I have worked on for customers who had it done or done it themselves that used CCA come to me why won't my amp come on. Well if the ground wire didn't get wet somehow and trun into rotted aluminum 6 inches inside the wire to ware I can hit it on something and all of the aluminum fall out to ware there is 6 inches of shielding left. It's just stuff like that for me I want to use my system not work on it. It's just what I have noticed about it and the smaller wire tends to brake easily. I do hope I don't upset you with this not my intentions just for me I will use ofc for durability nothing else.
@@joshuahockman1128so you would use cca if you built a house?
In housing, aluminum is used to go from the meter to the homes distribution panel.
Homes are high voltage, low amperage, cars are low voltage, high amperage.
I didn't know if that's why aluminum is looked down on for car audio installation wiring.
I think it’s mostly just a stigma. But copper is a much better conductor so.
Stinger Makes ofc as well... no one is over paying for Jl audio wiring..
Exactly. Stinger Ofc kits are pretty much the same thing. Its 100% reliable and more affordable. Might have few threads less than Jl audio Ofc power wires but absolutely makes no difference. Just be sure not to get the CCA lines.
I sourced some Southwire made in America. Can't remember what gauge. Bigger than I needed. It ended up being welding lead wire. Knowing welding leads are made to run a lot of current. That'll do just fine. It cost me about $50 for 15 ft of red and 15 ft of black.
Welding wire is a good alternative, just not as pliable as car audio cable.
When I use Walmart wire I just get the next size up to make up for the cheap wires. 1500 watt wire kit for the 1000 watt pioneer amp was perfect and cost the same as the jl wire kit lol
Thanks for the advice buddy.
I run Stinger and it’s ofc
Stinger is also great.
i’m pretty sure the walmart wire is the ofc copper too
The same goes for speaker wire. OFC all the way. 👍
I use welding cable.
Works best 4 me.
But you don't have to spend all that to get the same quality of wire just keep an eye out for it and you will see they sell it for as cheap as 2$ a foot in some places and any where that is automotive based they charge like 12-20$ a foot it's crazy
When Stinger started offering cca wire I was very disappointed. I still use their real copper wire but the fact that most people don’t know the difference is a reflection on the company. They know that they have built a trusted brand and to intentionally confuse customers is a bad move for them.
Damn brother why do you have to be posted in cali im up in NM. Cuz you know your shit and I learned a lot from your videos. I’ve had horrible experiences here with the sound shops Ive taken my vehicles too and if I was in California I would definitely have you install my next system in my suv. Thanks for the educational videos of not getting burned by these shops.
I paid 20 bucks on Amazon. Works fine for my 1 12.
Is there anything to worry about adding a better amp and subs to a hybrid?
Obviously the best one is the one you can mark up the most. Guys go to Windy nation or somewhere else you can get 100% copper welding cable. 2/0 gauge 25ft for less than $130 😂
We also carry Stinger, Kicker and other brands of OFC for $99 or less. This video was meant to distinguish CCA vs. OFC
CHECK AND GROUND YOUR GROUNDINGS PROPERLY THUS IT'S THE MAIN CULPRIT FOR ALL YOUR WIRING ISSUES MOST OF THE TIME! 😉😁💯💪🏼
Didn't realize this was important, I've just been using old extension cords
Pure oxygen-less solid silver wire obviously the one to go with, $14,900.
Na you need the Pure Platinum otherwise you are leaving .0000002% of your power on the table, only 80k for a 10ft run of 12AWG :)
Stinger gets the job done
We caryy and install Stinger as well, yes.
Can you use welding cable?
Sky high ofc ftw
It also depends on the gauge and how much power you’re pushing because if your only pushing 400w on 2/0 gauge wire being cca will not affect it.
Well no. The resistance of the metal itself will still affect it. But the resistance of the wire diameter won’t really.
And bigger IS always better, I'm running two sets of 1/0 cables for both power and ground on a 3k amp with a 320 amp alt and a extra battery, F*** voltage drop!
Nice!
I went with Kicker wiring kit
One thing I would have done different is gotten bigger spades for my 12 and 8 G wire I made it work tho
Kicker makes great wiring.
@@hi-techcaraudio4303 best way to cable manage ? Zip ties, tesa, or cable hiders meant for household ?
youre not wrong, but its much more than this. copper-clad aluminum wiring CAN be used, but if you use it, it has to be bigger than what you think. but be warned, aluminum expands and contracts with the changing of temperature, sometimes aluminum is a cheaper alternative, but be sure to calculate that aluminum is a lesser conductor compared to copper. if youre willing to do a bit of research, you might find it cheaper to piece together your own wiring kit. there are wiring calculators out there. you probably dont need pure copper conductors for the remote turn on wire, and you can probably get away with larger CCA speaker wire, but i would definitely go with what is often referred to as welding cable to power the subwoofers
but if youre just wanting something easy, then just go for the copper wiring kits
And can we please start installing the fuse next to the battery please. It doesn’t do much good at the wrong end of the car ie @ next to the amplifier
Princess auto welding cable is what I use. $9cnd per foot for 0guage and that stuff looks like 4guage and it’s about $3 per foot. For that price you can buy the crimping tool a hammer and all your ends and fuses and probably still be less than $140
Real talk, if you’ve got an amp that 500w rms or less, CCA 4ga is fine! More than 500w rms? Sure get the OFC. It’s still cheaper to get a cca 4ga kit for that 500w amp than an 8ga ofc kit, assuming both actually follow the AWG correctly.
OFC 8 gauge kits are only $29 (Skar ones anyhow)
I got my 4 ga $79 bucks from brand NVX is OFC and is one of the best for the buck the wire is very similar to kicker wire it feels flexible you can bend it is very nice and I did felt difference to my previous CCA wire
The biggest difference is ofc will stay cooler in high power systems, running massive amounts of power. The regular Joe is good with either and will never be able to tell a difference because there is none.
if really in to it go with welding wire its ofc but you get that in 0 gage i got it for my bus batter solar in 2 gage
What if I'm only going to push a 100-250watt amp to a single 12. My draw isn't going to be that much..
CCA is fine in that case. It's just a bit more difficult to install.
@hi-techcaraudio4303 thank you! Quick question. I'm considering using 250watt rms sub. Is it ok to underpower a speaker? I understand if you overpower it you could blow/damage the speaker. However someone mentioned to me that if you use a lower powered amp you could damage the amp? They mentioned that the sub would call for x amount of power which would put a strain on the amp? This didn't make sense to me. Am I missing something? I don't want to have an excessive draw on my alternator and I only want an upgrade over the stock stereo so, after seeing that skar has a box that should specifically fit my 2023 1.5T accord I was going to use their ix-12d2 speaker which is 250rms 500peak and power it with a class d mono amp that has 1-200watt rms rating. I'm doing this to keep the amperage draw down on the stock alternator as I don't want to damage anything and keep everything stock.. do you (think) that my conservative approach is safe and won't fry the alternator? And is it ok to use a lower rated amp and underpower the sub (yes I'm willing to accept underperformance if it means safety of the car) it's still going to be leaps and bounds better than the stock stereo lol
Cca will hold up but ofc little better back in 90s we only had copper but still held it's rattiing the amps woofers was low output I wired all my sound systems never paid just to easy
THHN has never let me down. Amps are amps. They don't care about fine wire. Be realistic people.
If you are just trying to enjoy some bass going with the cheaper wire is fine.
There are plenty of ofc amp kits that are half the price of jl audio.
Well that all depends on the amps needs. I wouldn’t hook up 1500 watts or up without ofc but a 800.1 or .2 is fine on cca 4g
I don't really disagree. Only issue is that it's typically harder to install cheaper wiring (CCA) than OFC. Most CCA wiring kits will add lots of minutes to your installation time.
Just bought ct sounds 4 gauge ofc kit
Don't cheap out on your wire but you can find good wire cheaper than a hundred and fifty bucks shop around
We carry good OFC wire for $99 or less, and often discount our JL wiring.
uaf in mobile alabama tried to sell me cca wire. i told them get bent ofc is king.
My local shop used mesa amp kits for my 2 amps. Is that a good brand ? I've never heard of them haha
Yes, they're quality product.
Cca is just fine, the power difference is very minimal unless your pushing real big power but for an amplifer only pushing 3k watts or less it’ll be just fine,, however there are ppl using Cca on big builds to however they are running way more runs of the wire then they would need to with the ofc,, so in other words know what your building and then know what the capabilities of each wire is and then decide if it’ll be suffice for what you got going on, instead of just buying the most expensive stuff just because someone says it’s better when in reality you may not need to buy the more expensive stuff
Aluminum conductor loses 70% of conductivity uopn oxygen exposure
Yea cause who's running around with exposed electrified aluminum get real
Just get a thicker gauge, ofc is cool for speaker runs but you don’t need all that fancy stuff for a basic 12 or dual 12 setup 😂. If your doing a full comp build maxing out the capacity of a 0 gauge amp wire then OFC is for you
Stay away from the CCA.
Agreed.
It makes no fcking difference I beg you to prove me wrong
@@Mr.Thermistor7228it does. Espeically when u are powering up high end amps or systems over 1000 watts. U want it properly tuned to be louder and clearer without clipping, get Ofc. U can never go wrong with Stinger ofc wiring. Cca will not give u the full power of a top tier or high end amplifier.
Are you sure about this. I’ve never seen stinger wire that isn’t OFC perhaps you have a 2000 watt amp kit and maybe a 400 watt amp kit there ?? I’m not saying stinger don’t make CCA I’ve just never seen it if they do.
I'm going stinger cause they have the best ofc not only CCA is also effective if you know what your doing lol. There huge build with CCA just to show its effective.
Doesn’t matter if you know what you are doing, if you sue cca then you don’t know what you are doing. Cca don’t hold up to weather at all. I assume you would build a house and use some cca wire. Cca wire comes to our shop lot and is nothing but dust. We don’t use that cheap stuff.
Stinger is name brand and been around for 20 plus years stinger makes ofc as well i use ofc 4/0 gauge for power and grounds
Correct. We love Stinger. Not knocking it here. We also carry their OFC wiring which is actually great. This was more a "conceptual" video than a "which brand is better".
@@hi-techcaraudio4303 👍
Quit giving false information, both wires will do great. I’ve ran both wiring with clamping over 24k. If you don’t want replace wire a few years done the road, then ofc is the better choice. But cca works just as good. I know plenty of system (of course there trailer queens and not exposed to elements) that have a lot of cca
And many of our customers DO opt to upgrade their systems down the line ... so setting a good foundation with OFC from the beginning is ideal. This ain't false info - it's pretty common knowledge.
6 15” sundowns and using cca, don’t give advise. I’m a sundown lover so you got one thing right.
Just go to a welding supply store and get welding leads 👍
Will it work tho?
Of course!
I paid 20 bucks for ofc copper cable that is 3 times bigger and its 5m with light fuse and chinch
What's better is welding cable
Damn I gotta upgrade my wiring I have the blue one
Facts❤❤❤❤
Jumper cable wire is the best!!!
I bought moat expenive wire and now have power distortion wven that theyare separated on one end 👎👎 were in past axhep az and never aissues
What?? I got Stinger wiring kit on both of my rides and i assure you neither of the Stinger wires are copper clad but 100% Ofc and much better price than JL audio wiring kit. They are pretty much the same thing when u go for the ofc lines of the Stinger. I prefer Stinger OFC kits over the ridiculous priced Jl Audio wiring kit. Other JL AUDIO equibments(amps, speakers, dsp) are among the best though and worth the prices.
i use GP, knukonceptz kolossus..about $50 cheaper then JL Audio don't get me wrong the JL stuff is vary nice if you don't have a budget hell stinger makes nice OFC but again not the cheapest.. and if ya need the cheaper OFC kit the Rockville 1/0 and skyhigh kits are cheaper but still good kits
At least he didn't try to say one sounded better than the other..(ala Monster) But, "More power to your amplifier" C'mon man...
sky high is the way to go for any wire
Dont buy JL wire unless well you like burning money just buy a good brand like stinger ofc, ct sounds ofc , skyhigh ofc, and so many more
Do a bench and show the difference
Spent 25 on my wiring kit at Walmart and 0 problems
It also depends on what you're putting a system in. Something like a boat or side by side should get cca it holds up better to corrosion.
😂😂😂. Now that’s funny
@@LeonD519 wonder why your the only one cracking jokes at my comment? Because you are stupid! Surprised your daddy didn't teach you better. Or did he run away when you was a crying dirty diaper bitch baby?
Amen. Welding wire people!!! 1$ a foot o/2. Jl 0/2. 100000$ an inch
There are many good ofc kits for $70. Absolutely no reason to pay double the price.. now thats the real scam
Anyone on a budge should buy their own connectors. It only gets tricky when you need massive power. Like 250 amps and so on. 60 amps for 300 watt systems is overkill and easily done on the chesp eith proper gauge wire.
50ft 8 gauge wire ofc is 19 bucks. An anl fuse system is 12 bucks. And you can get a stack of eyelets for 5 bucks. You just need some speaker wire and a remote wite and some rca wires. The stinger kits arent bad. Just get the anl version. Agu fuses suck.
Correct
Aka the mark up on the jl is more
Won't disagree there ... but we typically give discounts in-store. Stinger is another option we recommend that's a little less pricey.
Not all stinger is not CCA I run stinger and never had any problems all of mind is ofc
Throw it on a scale. I'm going to by the one that weighs the most. Copper weights more that aluminum.
They clad the aluminum in copper for better longevity
All stranded copper wire is ofc.
Because $59 kits are plenty fine for most systems.
Oxygen free means it's made in space and vacuum sealed for you listening pleasure.
Do your connections quickly or it will spoil!!
Ironically, he will sell ya both!
But only after I've warned against the CCA repeatedly Lol. I mean ... CCA is ok if you're running less than 500 watts and never plan to upgrade.
Cheaped out and happy fym 😂
i never saw a cca stinger wire in 25 years of audio
Well ... one Google search will break that 25 year run.
CCA vs OFC isn't really an issue, open both of those kits (if they claim the same AWG) and I bet you the stinger 4awg isnt true 4awg while a rockfordfosgate kit will be aka stinger kits are cheap and your not getting the proper thickness compared to others.
Unless you do Stinger OFC. Those kits come packed generously with copper in the insulation.
Mannn. JL must be paying you a lot.😂😂
Dude you left out the most important part that cca wire will corode and become almost unusable after a few years or less i had an old cca kit left out in my back yard after i ripped it out and now its for demonstration purposes of why not to buy cca buy once cry once
We've got a few other videos on our Facebook and IG page that speak about the dangers of using CCA.
Actually aluminum is an excellent conductor.
Welding cable FTW
Welding cable.
I use nothing but weld cable. Its the best.
Always use the biggest wire available. Never skimp on wire. If you do you will melt shit and amp will always overheat and cut off.
The difference is if you have $50 in your pocket or $150 in your pocket
Just ordering wire from amazon that isn't in a kit would probably be the best bet.
Id but money on no one being able to tell the difference if it was a blind test 😂