Civinfo - View Single Post - Wanted -Speaker Cable, Stinger Battery, Split Charge cable, rca leads, 4gauge, MLK2's

Koen · 22nd November 2007, 19:38

I don't know much about brands and types and numbers, but I can give you some general advice.

1. Power cables: Since everthing runs on 12V, these cables carry very high currents! Therefor: (OFC) thick copper wire, with good insulation, and with as low loop-resistance as possible. Generally that means VERY thick cables!
2. Signal cables: Can be anything. Don't have to be thick, but good insulation is again important. Gold-plated is recommended.
3. Speakers: When I was young (ahum) we used mostly Magnat and Kenwood sets. Always split units, except when it was absolutely imossible (or not wanted). Speaker choice is also a question of budget. I know however that there is a lot of expensive crap for sale. So price is not always a benchmark for quality!
4. Use as much gold plated termlinals as possible. Solder gold plated O-rings to your power cables, use gold-plated fuses, fuse-holders, connectors,... Do not combine gold-plated and non-gold plated on each other. Over time the contact between two different metals will cause corrosion, resulting in bad connections.
5. Watch out for (sometimes expensive) OFC-cable with PVC insulation. The chlorine in the PVC will migrate into you copper wire, resulting in corroding the cable, OFC or not. I've had expensive speaker cable that went bad in just a few years because of this. Fortunately the insulation was see-trough, so I noticed the wire becoming green. When I measured, the loop-resistance had gone to almost 2 ohms. With 4 ohm speakers that's 33% power loss!

I wouldn't know for insulation or batteries. I think the yellow ones are great.

22nd November 2007, 19:38	#2 (permalink)
Koen Supporter Triangular Exhaust Join Date: 18th September 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 238 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I don't know much about brands and types and numbers, but I can give you some general advice. 1. Power cables: Since everthing runs on 12V, these cables carry very high currents! Therefor: (OFC) thick copper wire, with good insulation, and with as low loop-resistance as possible. Generally that means VERY thick cables! 2. Signal cables: Can be anything. Don't have to be thick, but good insulation is again important. Gold-plated is recommended. 3. Speakers: When I was young (ahum) we used mostly Magnat and Kenwood sets. Always split units, except when it was absolutely imossible (or not wanted). Speaker choice is also a question of budget. I know however that there is a lot of expensive crap for sale. So price is not always a benchmark for quality! 4. Use as much gold plated termlinals as possible. Solder gold plated O-rings to your power cables, use gold-plated fuses, fuse-holders, connectors,... Do not combine gold-plated and non-gold plated on each other. Over time the contact between two different metals will cause corrosion, resulting in bad connections. 5. Watch out for (sometimes expensive) OFC-cable with PVC insulation. The chlorine in the PVC will migrate into you copper wire, resulting in corroding the cable, OFC or not. I've had expensive speaker cable that went bad in just a few years because of this. Fortunately the insulation was see-trough, so I noticed the wire becoming green. When I measured, the loop-resistance had gone to almost 2 ohms. With 4 ohm speakers that's 33% power loss! I wouldn't know for insulation or batteries. I think the yellow ones are great.