Do I Need to Upgrade My Speaker Wire After Installing an Amp?

SSTJ

SSTJ

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This isn't really TJ-specific, but you all are my only community for any kind of car project.

97 TJ SE. Factory head unit, and all factory wiring from the head unit to the four speakers. Installing a 4-channel 75-watt RMS amplifier between the head unit and the speakers. Do I also need to upgrade the wiring, or can factory wiring handle the additional power just fine?
 
Thanks; good to hear.

But now I want to know what the weak link is. Factory head unit?
 
I have no idea what the factory wire gauge is, but I'll guess at 16-18. Which is fine, you're not going to need anything more.

The possible issue is a higher gauge (thinner) wire presents more resistance to current, essentially robbing you of power. And this effect gets more pronounced the longer the wire. Which leads a lot of people to pay a lot of money for 12 gauge pure oxygen free copper blah blah blah. Which almost never makes sense. If you're pushing a lot of power (like 500+ watts), and it's a fairly long cable run (20+ feet) then it might be reasonable. But for most normal audio setups, even home systems that make a lot more power than the amp you're talking about, it's just of no benefit to use beefy cables. Spend your money on better speakers.
 
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To be absolutely honest, the weak link is the component that coverts the signal into sound waves; your speakers.
You can probably make your existing system 75% better, by simply replacing the speakers themselves.
You'll understand what I mean when you power up that amp and listen to them.
The HU is probably the 3rd weakest link. It goes like this;
1st to do - replace the speakers.
2nd to do- add the amp (based upon what speakers you go with).
3rd to do - replace the HU.
4th to do - Re-tighten all of the electrical connections that you did on #1-3 that were not original, factory connections.
5th to do - improve your ground connections.

If you do all of the above, you'll still probably never win any competitions with your setup, but you'll hate it a lot less.
 
WestCoastDan said:
To be absolutely honest, the weak link is the component that coverts the signal into sound waves; your speakers.
You can probably make your existing system 75% better, by simply replacing the speakers themselves.
You'll understand what I mean when you power up that amp and listen to them.
The HU is probably the 3rd weakest link. It goes like this;
1st to do - replace the speakers.
2nd to do- add the amp (based upon what speakers you go with).
3rd to do - replace the HU.
4th to do - Re-tighten all of the electrical connections that you did on #1-3 that were not original, factory connections.
5th to do - improve your ground connections.

If you do all of the above, you'll still probably never win any competitions with your setup, but you'll hate it a lot less.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks very much. Yep, replacing the speakers was actually the first think I ever did. Sorry, didn't mention that in the first post because I didn't think it was relevant to the question of whether the factory wires could handle the increase in amperage due to the amplifier.

Thanks again.
 
The weak link in the factory system IS the factory system. If you upgrade anything (head unit, speakers, sub), you should upgrade everything.
 
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