Are you using the proper speaker wire size? 

Roberto Rivera WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT THE GUY???

beri232 WHY ARE WE ALL YELLING?

LOUD NOISES!

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

I used 8 yesterday and it can’t fit in my terminals being bridged. I have to go down to 10 or 12 now. Way too big!

Drastic volum increase I have never heard. And it won't help with 12gage if the wires in the speaker is alot smaller anyway😂

​@@Oystein87it will though the longer your wire run is. That all adds resistance. Thicker wire cancels that out. Oversizing components is how you make sure everything runs smoothly, at its max potential, and stress free to all components!

I have a single Skar SVR 12" at 800wrms wired with 6 gauge wire 😂😂 it's my first car sub so I went waaay overkill lmao

What gauge I need for 400w RMS

You will be spending most of your life in bed not a vehicles unless you are driving 8 hours a day. The thickness of the wire depends on voltage and current. The higher the voltage, the less current therefore a thicker cable is not required. The voicecoil likely has smaller wire than the 16 gauge.

@Mark Seven what?

That depends on the impedance and how long the wire is.

The impedance determines what wire size is needed for that 1,200 watts as a minimum, which also dictates what's overkill. Too big of wire has no adverse effects.

I'm using 10ga "lamp cord" to my single 12. Wire is rated for 300 watts @ 12v, but as the voltage goes up, so does the power handling of the wire. I'm getting 47 volts ac at the terminals at 35hz into 1.7 ohms, which is roughly 1200 watts. Using the 300w@12v as a reference, I'm right at the power limit that the wire can handle, and my wire never gets hot, even on extended runs.

10-8 min if you're over 1k power, but 12-14 would be fine for 800 and less in my opinion probably overkill but I'd rather be safe

@@PoXFreak yeah, never had any problems with heat me neither, running 2 12" at 2 ohms with a 1800wrms 2ohm rated amp. I Guess with full constant blast 40hz 10kw install, get bigger wires...

Terminal cups aren't always a great quality connection either, which causes sparking sometimes even. Even with proper wire size, a bad connection can cause the same thing. It's only as strong as it's weakest point.

I agree with ditching the terminal cups especially in high wattage apps. The problem is stainless isn't the best conductor. Do yourself a copper or brass and you'll see much better flow .

@@EMFAudio They usually work great up to 2000w rms if you bolt ring terminals directly to the inside, thats a little secret trick. All of the best buy kicker crowd just use female slip terminals on the shitty little foil strip that comes off the inside of the cup. THOSE GET HOT AND WILL MELT CUP!

@@rmblwgn Terminal cups are current limited, not wattage limited. Impedance matters.

@@EMFAudio please elaborate.

That's like asking "is it dark enuf outside that I should turn on my car's headlights?" If you gotta ask then you should bump it up. Just to be sure. Don't sell it short.

Wired in series is LESS amperage. Lower impedance coils can be MORE of a strain on components. There is a protection circuit found on most amps called "over current", that's from impedance being too low or to the point it's a dead short.

You'll have a loss in those bolts but 4 gauge OFC is more than necessary. At most you'd have 90 amps of current, which in that length could be handled by 8 gauge.

You can, that's larger than necessary even being CCA. 12 ga copper would be sufficient, 14 gauge could be if it's a short wire.

In the same exact model comparing coils, yes, as long as you run the amp at a higher load. Example, if you ran a dual 1 in series or a dual 4 in parallel, you'd have 2 ohms at the amp and results would be the same. Now, that being said, while the higher impedance may run cooler, it won't be wildly significant when you're talking about using it at rated power (as intended)

Yes, energy is lost in heat but because makes the impedance at the amp higher too. Less power gets to the speaker.

www.emfcaraudio.com/wire-sizing-calculator/

Yes.

That's not how electricity works. There is a reason both wires are the same size, they need to be. Additionally, it's AC, meaning it flows both directions.

If the terminals aren't meant to fit larger wire, that should be your first clue it doesn't need it.

Some companies have made 8 gauge speaker wire, but I just use power and ground wire from spools.

I used size m6 stainless steel nuts and bolts. If you are using ring terminals to fix the speaker wire to the bolts then the size of the hole in the ring terminal will dictate the size of the bolts. Alternatively you could get SMD terminals they are good.

No, I like real results. I have tested them in car a lot, those videos are posted. It makes over 14k in a car, on a sub, how it's actually used. Not manipulated resistor numbers.

Yes, but if you have to trim like half of it, that's not good.

Daniel Harrell there are calculators for that kind of thing. You plug in the wire size, and type, and length. It will tell you how much loss you will have.

That depends completely on how much power you have.

I do the same thing. Seems to work fine

12 gauge can handle quite a bit of power in a short length. Unless you're running over 4k per sub you probably don't need 8 gauge.

@@EMFAudio Thanks for the reply. I was trying to use the wire I already had but I only had a few short pieces of 12 gauge but about 5 feet of 8 gauge. I am upgrading from about 600 watts to 1200 watts. 8 gauge is probably overkill but I'm going to try to make it work since I already have it.

@@2000S10V6 You could use 16 gauge and be OK, on the whole thing.

@@EMFAudio I appreciate you replying! Maybe I will just go ahead and get new wire rather than try to cram 8 gauge in the terminal.

@@2000S10V6 We have spools of 12 gauge at www.emfcaraudio.com, that would be more than appropriate and easy to fit in.

Overkill but yes

What's crazier is that things don't actually get cold; they just get the heat sucked out of them.

Johnathan Hunter cca stands for copper coated aluminum which is no good you want to get ofc which is oxygen free copper, awg just stands for American wire gauge

12 to 16g is fine bro..

The wire length matters but 12 gauge is definitely fine, even 14 gauge is likely OK.

@@EMFAudio must be an echo in here

It's about current. The power input is DC at a low voltage. The power output is AC and higher. The higher the impedance, the lower the amperage for a given power level. Example, 1,000 watts @ 1 ohm is around 31 amps and 31 volts, and the wire is shorter as well. But, that 1,000 watts of output would be around 1,200 watts of input because amps aren't 100% efficient, and at 14 volts that would be almost 86 amps of current. That's why you need bigger power than speaker wire, it can take 3x the current to produce the power you're making.

Multiple runs will have the same effect as a larger gauge wire. Think of it as the amount of wire being used, not the size of the wire being used.

@@EMFAudio thank you for clarifying that, so multiple runs of smaller gauge is equal to 1 run of a larger gauge ie 2-16ga vs 18ga?

@@kevinAuman1 The lower the number, the bigger the wire size. So two 18 ga wires would be close to a single 16 ga.

Pro tip, if it won't accept 8 gauge, it doesn't need 8 gauge. 2,000 watts DEFINITELY doesn't need 8 gauge. It sounds like you need a higher caliber of sub. What do you have for an amp exactly? CEA ratings tend to disappoint me, but to be completely honest, you might find yourself happier with a pair of our Lowballer 15's that are also on sale now. You could be in a pair of those for just over $300.

@@EMFAudio Yep I should've checked the speaker inputs first. I'm glad you mentioned your Lowballers because now after researching them I'm literally one click away from completing my purchase of two 15" Lowballers but I noticed the ported box size needed which for 2 won't properly fit in my vehicle so which box do you recommend and would it be fine to add (eg 2 lbs) poly-fill to a smaller enclosure?? Maybe I should go with one 15 but the thing is as I previously mentioned I'm disappointed with my 2 L7S12s so I don't think one 15 would make adequate improvement. To answer your question, my amp is the Rockville DB16 which on the dyno puts out 2400 RMS W Dynamically and 1750 Certified at 2-ohms which is how my system is set-up. I really like "Q-Bomb" enclosures. Thanks for your prompt input.

@@lowhertzhighspl I won't get started on amp Dyno results but I don't recommend polyfill for ported enclosures.

I've seen then before, never paid much attention to them since we use gauges

Just get the largest wires that fit your terminals

Your cheap 21" sub won't play 30 hz or below very well, maybe not even below 40 hz. You're also forgetting something else, displacement. Displacement on your 21" might be say, 10mm of Xmax compared to the 60mm of Xmax of the Ermagerd v2. If you do the math you'll find the Ermagerd v2 15" has 160% more displacement than the 21". The best part, all that theory means nothing. I'll be doing a video on that showing reality sometime in the near future.

What's your sub's output at 6,500 RMS? Right. Your comment is hilariously petty. Just outrageous. Step up your game, bro. You're not impressing anyone.

The wire you see is basically it. The amp is about 2 ft under it. Yes 100F isn't THAT warm, but it's also a short period of time. The point was to display what happens and any energy lost to heat is a loss of power.

This is so true!I had way too long of a wire (wrapped up)and my 1000watt set up straight melted the thing!it was a big glob of wire stuck on itself.

91rickstar that has nothing to do with this video, but the wire used in a coil on a speaker depends on a lit of design aspects.

I know it has nothing to do with this video I just wanted to ask, I’m making a set of 6.5” midbass woofers with aluminium round wire 0.5mm

Yes and no. Yes there is what they call "skin effect" with AC voltage. However, it is frequency dependent. For the frequencies being used in a car it isn't relevant. Example, notice how home wiring is a single strand that is thick? It's because at 60 hz it's using the whole thing, not just the outside. Now, that being said, having more strands isn't always better because when the strands get too fine, they become fragile. Now a slight bend can break the strands and it's no longer transmitting signal. Simply bending the wire can break the wire because it's hair thin so to speak. Appropriate strands would be the way to view it for the best performance, not highest strands. There are VERY few instances where 4 gauge will do anything more than 8 gauge or even 10 gauge as speaker wire. I will be doing a tech video on that sometime in the future.

@@EMFAudio AWW right, i totally forgot about the frequency. Thanks for the detailed explanation and the facts. That would be a good video to watch, thanks again.

@@EMFAudio Fine strands when manufactured in a cable rarely break. In fact, as we get higher and higher in current we often employ many fine strands in ac cables. The only thing to be aware is the connection area is fragile once stripped. They make specific terminations for such applications or utilize a copper film we wrap the conducters with when terminating in set screws. Works great but requires time,skill, and attention to detail to perform correctly without damaging those fine strands. I enjoy terminating that type of wIring.

@@ronaldarchibald2506 Every instance of dine stranded wire I've had was bad. Bend the wire not at a connection, wire breaks too. It was also cheap wire trying to sell based on strand count.

You can't really open things up to see something because it would change how heat is transferred, defeating the purpose. You can only use what you have.

@@EMFAudio I could not figure out a non-contrived way either. The best I came up with was to use neo magnets with some space between them with an oversized pole plate (thermal mass of the ferite) to simulate a ferrite magnet, then plug the gaps and seal the TI in one of the gaps. I might still do it, but I know my speaker would be a real POS compared to yours.

@@EMFAudio BTW if you are using a Flir One Pro with USB C, I have been able to get mine to run with external power plugged in. Add a USB C extension to the phone and a wireless charger for the phone and you can take really long videos or timelapses.

@@jdrissel I'm using a mini USB with USB C adapter. I know a way I could do external power though, I've made USB injectors before to boost amperage.

@@EMFAudio I had one of those. It was an early version and mine shut down the imaging hardware when a charger was connected. However the back of it comes off fairly easily and the battery just unplugs, so you could put a larger battery or an external power supply in there if you wanted to.

The impedance it's wired at matters, over time at full power you could probably measure an SPL difference but it may not be audible. Length of the wire matters too. The longer the wire the more likely you'd hear a difference. 10 gauge is definitely not necessary. Anything past 12 gauge I know you wouldn't see a difference at all, 14 gauge would probably solve any losses.

EMF Audio would there be any difference if i went from 16 gauge to 10 gauge? my wires are literally starting to melt and turn dark colors at the terminal of the box

That sounds like you have crap terminals. If it's the kind you push the lever down and it springs back up, those are terrible and that's likely the issue, not the wire.

EMF Audio yeah that’s the terminals i have 😂😂

@@DatHondaBoi223 Replace the burnt wire, get rid of those jank terminals, fixed it.

That depends on impedance and wire length. 4 gauge is stupid to deal with, especially for how much it won't do for you.

@@EMFAudiocan you elaborate on that

Silver wire isn't cheap but maybe I can do that. The reason people say that goes beyond wire heating up so I'd have to test that because they'll go nuts.

@@EMFAudio I'm a believer in quality cables and wires and by saying so I open myself up to being labeled a elitist I feel your demonstration is scientific and would end the argument as far as proper gauge . If this was a demonstration on lets say the proper extension cord for a power washer no one would argue . You change the conversation to audio and now you have become one of them . People would just look up on a chart my washer uses 13 amps I need a 100 ft extension (10-3 minimum 12-3 ) or maybe use a voltage drop calculator . I'm saying quality cables and wires , not magical cables and wires costing thousands per foot . When did it become so crazy ? Here's where my sick sense of humor kicks in . People look at the conductivity charts and figure out Silver is more conductive and because of cost use a thinner gauge cancelling out any gains . So they spend more for less and get less performance "Earth to Matilda" This is one of the best videos on the subject so far and the message is so clear PROPER gauge . What part of PROPER gauge don't people understand ? It's not like you're saying you need 000 gauge welding cable for tweeters .

More heat is more energy lost, there is less power going to the sub. There is an increased resistance as well. It's not about destroying the insulation but there is a point where it could set carpet on fire. Voltage will always be within reason on the cable, current is what makes it warm.

Except for you aren't.

The length of the wire is the consideration of if it's OK or not. If it's a short run, yes.

Yes, it does tend to exaggerate variance but it does show that wire heating up from power is bad, be it 10 degrees or 30 degrees. Ideally, it shouldn't be heating up at all.

@@EMFAudio well all wire heats up some, its a cost/performance balance you have to strike.. in the process of hooking up two 350rms 4ohm subs upto a 1100pea watt 550rms 2ohm or 300rms 4ohm amp.. not ideal but got all components for under 100$ cost, amp was free any tips to keep the gear from smoking up? just set the gain appropriately and dont expect max performance out of it should be no big deal?

What would it be worth to you?

@@EMFAudio how do they compare to the LMS ultra 5400?

@@EMFAudio I will contact you soon.

I'm a Refugee The lower the number gauge wire, the larger the wire is, the more power it can take.

what gauge wire would you need for a 6.500rms sub?

Ours has dual inputs per coil so you could get away with smaller, but depending on the wire length you'd need 8 gauge wire as a single run to the sub as a minimum. If you ran 1 set per coil you could do less, but larger doesn't hurt anything. It's just not necessary.

bummy 906 damn. Baseball bat size wire for that sub! Lol

That is subject to impedance and wire length also. That isn't that much power so 14 gauge is certainly fine if the amp and speakers are remotely close together.

EMF Audio if I was to upgrade my amp what would u recommend ?

@@kscrm_6883 That depends what you upgrade to. There are wire size calculators online that will tell you what's appropriate based on your parameters.

Yes.

CCR Creative Concept Review that's a whole other video, which I've done before.

well why don't somebody tell us why

what's the big secret here

@@jjhill7638 they need the quads cuz of the gobs of power these amazing subs can handle

That depends on the wire length.

@@EMFAudio probably 5-6 ft each sub in series on own run paralleled at amp

@@mistanotu8791 12 gauge should be fine

@@EMFAudio thank you for the reassurance ^.^