New Speaker Wiring

[moffett]

I was wondering how to rewire my door and rear speakers. I put in brand new speakers and a new kenwood head unit, but the wiring isn't doing the system justice.

I read the section about removing the entire dash, but I was hoping there would be a way that wouldn't require such a massive removal since I'm just hoping to feed a thicker speaker wire from the head unit through the door and to the back.

As a side note, I was also wondering how to get the rear deck on top of my speakers from rattling so much, so if anyone has any solutions to that, include them as well!

Thanks guys!

[Hypnose Zx2]

why do u want to rewire them?

[moffett]

why do u want to rewire them?

Because currently the wiring, I think it's an 18 gauge, is terrible for getting the sound I know I could get if I used a larger, say 12 or 10 gauge, wiring.

I rewired my last car with a thicker wire and it made a significant difference.

[moffett]

Any recommendations?

[droptoutzx2]

unless you are running an aftermarket amp your wasting your time, trust me

[Connal]

Ok, so you want to tear apart the harness, use a bigger guage wire in the plug, and re-route the wires for the speakers?

Can it be done? Yeah sure. You would need to take everything apart, even the clip for the harness. Rewire the clip itself, and run the wires from there. It would take a fairly good amount of time and effort.

The vibration could be a few things. Is it the rear deck lid vibrating? Or is it the third brake lite cover?

[moffett]

The plan is to ultimately run it to an amp, I guess I'll just wait until then.

And the rear deck itself is the source of the vibration. I guess the most obvious way to solve that problem would be to better secure it, but I'm not even sure how I could do that without making it permanent...

[dropped_eskort]

I did this in my crx and i just left the original wires and routed new ones but the only reason i did this was because like the above poster said i was adding another amp.

[ZX2R]

The plan is to ultimately run it to an amp, I guess I'll just wait until then.

And the rear deck itself is the source of the vibration. I guess the most obvious way to solve that problem would be to better secure it, but I'm not even sure how I could do that without making it permanent...

If you're doing the amp later, wait until then to do it all. Run the wire from the amp down the pass side to the front speakers and directly to the rears. All of the wiring doesn't need to go up front. The rear deck issue is probably the brake light on the deck, I don't have too much for that one. I'd recommend glassing the backs of the panels if that is the vibration.

[ZX2Fast]

Why are you posting this in the Knowledge Base? You aren't giving us info to use, you are asking a question, it does not belong here. I'm going to move it to the proper section.

[SimpleAudio]

running 12 awg to your door speakers is pointless unless you have >1000w rms going to each....16awg is plenty...if you want better sound use cat5e networking cable. if you do a google search you will find plenty of tutorials on how to make speaker wire from cat5e cable

[soundman1024]

SimpleAudio is completely right. 12awg is waaaay more than you need. In fact, 12awg is what they run through the walls in your house to feed most power outlets. 12awg is rated for around 20 amperes, and 10awg is rated for around 30 amperes, and 14awg handles 15 amps happily. Since most audio centers at round 70v (it changes as the sound changes) we can use a bit of simple math to find out what you really need.

10awg: 30amps x 70volts = 2100w
12awg: 20amps x 70volts = 1400w
14awg: 15amps x 70volts = 1050w
16awg: ~12amps x 70volts = 840w
18awg: ~10amps x 70volts = 700w

I wouldn't push 16 or 18 to their potential as there is a bit of wiggle room in the other calculations. That said your Kenwood head probably puts out around 200w max for all four channels, and about 20rms for each channel. The existing wire will carry more than enough current. If your convinced the wires sound like crap go ahead and replace them, but the change you hear will be in your head, just like the "change" in quality you would hear using Monster cables.