Audio Cable HELP

[Deutscher]

Hi Guys,

I'm having to upgrade my power cable to 0-gauge according to my sales guy for my amp and sub. I'm looking in different shops & ebay.

Are the cables all the same? will there be a difference?

I can get a 0-gauge amp kit from a car audio shop for $175. That includes 6M red power cable, 1M ground, 250A fuse holder, 6M blue cable. But the make is DNA. On the packaging it says Oxygen Free Copper, but doesn't say if 100%.

A rockford kit has a 300A fuse holder, but only 5.2M of cable but it says 100% pure-crystal, oxygen free copper. I don't think that would be enough. I got a VS sedan ... battery at the front but amps pretty much at the very end of the boot.

Should I look for a well-known branded name? (rockford, stinger, tsunami, kicker) will it make a difference?

[Phreddy]

Is this bloke talking about for a single amp/sub combo??

0G seems a bit excessive for that - what sort of power are we talking about here?

"Better" branded kits usually have higher quality cable and components, but really it's not that critical. Even the lower end kits can work just fine if the installation is done right. Conversely, a "top shelf" (and price tag :P) kit might work crap if the install is bodged!

Seriously though, let's have a think about why this bloke would be recommending 0G power feed - excepting of course the fact that he's probably trying to sell you more stuff....

Cheerz.

[Tasmaniak]

Hi once again Deutscher and hello to you to Phreddy!

Knowing the system that you will be installing to the car, you will require 0ga unfortunatly. (Phreddy, we are talking about 2600WRMS at full tilt!) You can use the cheaper kit with the extra cable just fine, I honestly wouldn't worry about it.

[Phreddy]

Oh my - that much.....

OOPS! I'll pull my head in now.... LOL!!



G'day Ray

[Tasmaniak]

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[Deutscher]

Hi,

Cheers for the reply guys.
I hope you know what your talking about Ray, I'm trusting you haha.
I was just wondering cause, I read 100% OFC and Pure-Crystal OFC. Or when they start talking about strands. A rockford fosgate one says 4,704 strands :S Pure Crystal Oxygen Free Copper etc. and others say Twisted cable etc.

I don't want to learn about cables haha.

Edit: I was just thinking, I'm going pretty deep with my new sub+amp, so I don't really want go cheap on the cable. I don't want to spend heaps if I don't need to. I called Alberts and they said they had a Rockford one for $300 and I was like ... Uhh I'll Have a think haha.

[Tasmaniak]

the more strands the better as current tends to flow along the surface of wire more so then it does the core of the wire...so the more strands means more surface for the same size cable...and I like to think I know what I'm talking about, I tell you one thing though....I sure as hell make it look like I do

[Deutscher]

Yer you do make it look like you know stuff.

The DNA kit doesn't say much about specs .... no amount of strands or anything to determine how good it is compared to others.

[garfa]

well really you will be pulling say between 200-220A at full power so really I doubt you will see any difference between RF or a lower brand. If you were considering something with say 5 strands then I would probably avoid for a few reasons, however a slight increase in strand count will be min as you are not close to the cables generally accepted rating

[Deutscher]

Thx for the replies guys.

Also wondering, What does 0/1 Gauge cable mean? My sales guy said I need 0-gauge cable but has recommended me the Kicker PKD1 which has the 0/1 gauge wire written on it. Is it the same stuff?

[Tasmaniak]

yarpp////same gear

[commsirac]

the more strands the better as current tends to flow along the surface of wire more so then it does the core of the wire...so the more strands means more surface for the same size cable...and I like to think I know what I'm talking about

For DC electricity(which is what we are considering here) it doesnt matter if the cable is stranded or not, its only the mass of conductor per metre that is important. The surface effect you mention is of only a consideration for very high frequency AC. The number of strands in DC use is just an indicator of how flexible the cable is, which may be of importance when needing to thread it through tight corners etc, it will generally be more expensive.

ps; I wouldnt pay any attention to the oxygen free ratings etc.

[kopper69]

For DC electricity(which is what we are considering here) it doesnt matter if the cable is stranded or not, its only the mass of conductor per metre that is important. The surface effect you mention is of only a consideration for very high frequency AC. The number of strands in DC use is just an indicator of how flexible the cable is, which may be of importance when needing to thread it through tight corners etc, it will generally be more expensive.

ps; I wouldnt pay any attention to the oxygen free ratings etc.

Exactly what I was going to point out commsirac

[Tasmaniak]

you know, I was always under the impression that it didn't matter AC or DC...so why doesn't it effect DC? and if it effects hiHZ....how high are we talking? KHz? MHz?

[commsirac]

^ If you do a search for high frequency skin effect, all will be revealed.
Some audio purists will claim that this will have an effect on the timing of high frequency audio signals and finer stranded speaker cable will sound better, though with blind a/b tests such experts have never been able to tell the difference.

A quick search revealed:
NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Skin effect
Examples
In copper, the skin depth at various frequencies is shown below.

frequency d
60 Hz 8.57 mm
10 kHz 0.66 mm
100 kHz 0.21 mm
1 MHz 66 µm
10 MHz 21 µm

In Engineering Electromagnetics, Hayt points out that in a power station a bus bar for alternating current at 60 Hz with a radius larger than 1/3rd of an inch (8 mm) is a waste of copper, and in practice bus bars for heavy AC current are rarely more than 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick except for mechanical reasons. A possible solution to this problem consists of using cables with multiple insulated conductors. A thin film of silver deposited on glass is an excellent conductor at microwave frequencies.