2/0 welding wire for stereo/ do you run rev 10's on full or high?
 

Hey guys, I am rewiring my entire stereo due to an incompetent shop that did it the first time but that's a whole other story.

The stereo system is:
2 pairs rev 10's - 1 SD2
2 pairs xs-650's - 1 SD4
1 xxx 12" sub - 1 SD2

All of the above was being powered through 4awg wire. I have about 50' of 2/0 "welding wire" laying around and was wondering If I could use this for the power and ground cable for my stereo system? The wire is very flexible and can pass up to 600 volts through it.

Second question when you are running your Rev 10's do you have them on full or high?

Thanks

Any elevated tower speaker in a small pod should be run in the highpass mode. No exceptions. Even with a speaker as large as a 10-inch. For a multitude of reasons a tower speaker cannot reproduce very low frequencies. Trying to make it do so via running it fullrange taxes both the amplification and the speaker. The amplifier and speaker will be at their best when both are limited to the natural bandwidth of the speaker.

Each one of those amplifiers require a dedicated 4-gauge run. If the run is short then three discrete 4-gauge runs are fine. If the three feeds share a common supply (trunk line) then the common supply needs to be much larger, or 1-gauge minimum considering the very short distance. No harm in going larger.

Thanks David,

The 2/0 welding wire I was planning on running for my ground and power from the 2 6 volts batteries. I have two distribution blocks which would then split to 4 awg for each amp. They were running the entire system off 4 awg.

Each pair of rev 10's was originally each being powered by an SD2 with the SD4 running the 650's and the xxx. The Sd2's were both set to full and I ended up getting some crackling from two of the 10's. Which is what caused me to pull everything apart and see how things were wired up.

That's a LOT of power on the 650's, be careful.....

Run all amps on high pass, except for the sub. The SD4 should be set around 110-140hz, the towers at 80-100hz, all depending on what you listen to.

Get this:
http://www.amazon.com/KnuKonceptz-Ko...nceptz+0+gauge

Run that to your distribution block, then run 4 AWG from your distribtuion block to the amps. Use a second distribution block for the ground side of it also.

Thanks John, The 2 pairs of 650's are running off channel 1 and 2 leaving 3 and 4 open for now. Which I think makes them ok?

Mike, Thanks for the link but I think I am going to stick to the 2/0 welding wiring to the distribution blocks and then use 4awg from there as you and David suggest. I did find some cool connectors from Knu that reduce the 2/0 to 1awg to fit into the wet sounds dist. blocks.

That should be okay. You could add 1 or 2 pair of XS-808's if you have room.

If your boat is putting out 600V, id run and run fast and far! So hopefully no more than 14.5V

Just kidding. Whats important is the cable gauge, whether its labeled as amp cable, welding cable or battery cable. 2/0 should be more than plenty to feed those 3 amps.

Id say full-pass was the reason for the distortion from the tower speakers. 400W rms is a lot of power in full-pass. Good choice to use a single SD-2 for both pair of tower speakers.

Run the in-boats on hi-pass as well.

Tuned right, i dont see a need to run half the amp @ 2 ohm x 2 for 2 pair of in-boats. Run them each on their own chnl.

It'll work fine, but I wouldn't do it. The insulation on welding cable is very different from SGT or SGX though. Works fine in a pinch or handy for cheap jumper cables and such, but not ideal for a permanent install.

Personally I would be using SGT/SGX in a pinch or preferably marine rated (SGTM) cable if I could source it, for added corrosion resistance. SGT/SGTX should be fine though something kept in a relatively "dry" part of the boat instead of the engine compartment. I would crimp and solder the lugs and use heat shrink along with a liquid sealant under the heat shrink. You want it totally sealed from air and moisture.