Need Help!!! ASAP!!!

ChevyMan4x4

I finally got my dream amp and want to hook it up I had to trade one of my guns but whatever it takes right??? Your probably asking your self what amp it was it was a Memphis Audio 16-MC2000D put's out 2000 watts at 2 ohms here my problem... all I have till funds get better is two Polk GNX 12's and 10 guage wire with a 30 amp fuse... Is it safe to run the amp as long as I keep the gain low... I am not looking to blow the GNX's cause my g/f wants them... And Will the fuse blow before the 10 guage catches on fire????
amp specs @ http://www.memcaraudio.com/P08&09_MClass_Amps.htm

PoweredByDodge

well... let me preface this with "I WOULD NOT DO IT".

that being said...

yes you can run your amp off that wire kit -- for THIS reason... if you only want like 300 watts to push your GNX subs, and u dial back your amp till the gain is on the floor and its only doing like 300 watts then that big amp will only draw the same power than a 300 watt amp would ("in theory").

However... if i were you i wouldn't worry about the wire - i'd worry about that amp that you went to such lengths to get ahold of ... using improper wire gauge on a big **** amp will obliterate its internal components... it'll be starved for current, and possibly **** the bed on you.

that amp needs a 0 gauge power / ground line and a 200 amp fuse.

I understand the strapped for cash thing -- but I think in the long run its better to go without bass and just listen to your highs for a few months than to possibly damage an amp that you would sell your first born for.

Jstas

I agree with PBD, even if you got it on the cheap, if you break it, odds are you won't find another one that cheap for a while. Better to spend the 60 bucks or so and jump up to at least 4 guage power and ground wires. 2 or 0 would work best but a 4 guage wire is capable of supporting a current flow that will produce about 1200-1500 watts. Most kits are underated because they use 8 and 10 guage ground cables and that is where the limitation is.

Consequently, I have only used Scosche and StreetWires wiring kits in the past. They use high quality wire with equal guages one the positive and negative sides. Rockford Fosgate has the same kinds of syuff but they are usually about 25-30% more expensive than teh Scosche or StreetWires for the exact same thing. I even installed an amp with a kit the owner of the vehicle gave me. The kit said Rockford Fosgate on the box but the printing on the power and ground wires said StreetWires. :eek: But you don't have to get a whole kit. You can even use power wire for ground wire but you can just get power wire in feet and go from there.

Anyway, its better to have too much power wire than it is to have not enough. By too much I mean a monstrous guage wire. It is 100% reuseable too. Unless you need a longer length. The problems that arise from having too small a guage power wire are many. The most important ones are fires and shorts. That would make for a bad week. Also, the 10 pounds of **** in a 5 pound bag theory comes into play here. Think of the wire as a pipe for electricity. If the amp has to pull 100 gallons of water an hour through a pipe that only supports a flow of 5 gallons per hour then the pump in the amp (the power supply) is going to burn out because there will not be enough flow to support the power supply during normal operation let alone peak and emergency times.

When you burn out a power supply, the transformer can actually start to melt and fuse connections that shouldn't be fused. Of course it causes a short but 9 times out of 10, when a transformer blows, it sends electrical surges up both sides of the circuit that it is powering. Not only do you fry every connection on the positive side but all the negative sided stuff is getting a positive current shoved down its throat. Wanna see what happens when you do that? Wire a polarized capacitor backwards and turn up the juice. Stay back because you may get hit with scalding capacitor parts. Its the same reason your power goes out when lightning strikes a transformer on a telephone pole.

Granted, those are very extreme cases but it just emphasizes what kind of damage can be caused by using improper equipment for the wrong job. Why worry about it now? Spend some extra money, get the wires you should get and never worry about it again.


Oh, another thing that happens with current, especially in a DC environment. If you cause a voltage drop across the line by doing something like using too small of a wire, corrosion can actually travel down a wire, under the insulation. The reason a voltage drop is caused is because you are trying to pull more current through the wire than is posisble. While your power supply is pulling say 30 amps and your wire is only rated to 15, you get a voltage drop because 30 amps is not being supported and you can't push any more voltage to support the current flow that is being demanded. So eventhough you have voltage and current, it is not being moved fast enough. Its like trying to pump a modern firehose with an antique hand pump. It'll work, barely, for a short while but sooner or later, your arm is gonna fall off from pumping! Well, not really but you get the hint. However, pulling too much current causes the wire to start to degrade because the power supply in the amp will actually start pulling electrons off of the copper molecules. That opens it up for oxygen molecules to run in and fill the voids left by the copper electrons. Hence, corrosion. Since the oxygen makes a more stable bond, the current can't pull anymore electrons away so it starts sucking from other copper molecules, starting a chain reaction like a fuse, down the wire. So the corrosion marches right down the wire to your 1200 dollar amp. Sounds like fun right? Oh yeah, and the whole time the corrosion is travelling and growing, it is reducing the cross-sectional area of your wiring and thereby increasing impedance and resistance which cause an even greater voltage and current drop. So your problem just gets progressivly worse and not only damages your audio equipment but can actually cause other bad things to happen like the spontaneous destruction of your car battery and charging system. Ever see what happens to an engine compartment when the battery blows up? Trust me, you don't want to, it's ugly. You want to know what is even uglier? The price tag to get it fixed.

Do it right the first time man, save yourself a ton of money, time and aggravation.

Systems

this is some cheap ****-nit
www.knukonceptz.com
-Cody

PoweredByDodge

ya but u know what cody -- when i actually NEED wire cheap - i go and look and whatta i get ? a bunch of "sold out of 4 gauge" labels... "sold out of 8 gauge" -- what the shizzy!!!!!

everybody has everything when i dont need it-- then when i need gear and i get $ -- things are sold out, unavailable, or lost in a nuclear winter.

oh well -- i'm going to dairy queen!

Keske944

Hey PBD are you saying that you would buy wire from Knuknoceptz? If so then great I am actually thinking of wiring my system with thier wire. It looks to be of good quality and cheap too. If you guys who have been in the land of the audiophile much longer than I have will use thier stuff than so will I. I am planning on buying wire in teh next month or so.

p.s. If I get thier bi-wire speaker cable can I run two speakers off of it as long as they are in the same basic location (i.e. kicks and door panel)?

PoweredByDodge

yup thats what bi wire is for...

far as would i buy wire off them -- after u introduced us to them like hell what was that 6 months ago? i was pretty much sold on them for stuff like wire /terminal ends/ batt terminals. i wouldn't buy their patch cables, but definatley the wire

they're just sold outa 4 gauge (of any color at that!).

Keske944

What do you mean by "patch cables?" Are these RCA cables or what? BTW what exactly are the RCA cables used for in the car (I am NOT doing my own install just getting the stuff needed for my buddy to do it).

Jstas

Patch cables is a generic name for any cable that will transfer a signal from the source to the other components in the system. It doesn't have to be RCA, it can be coaxial, fiber-optic or even CAT5. In car stereos, most patch cables are RCA cables. RCA is the name of the cable itself, patch cable describes its function. I use them interchangably when discussing car stereo but usually only when it warrants.

If you are going to run an external amplifier and/or an external signal processing source, you will need patch cables to transfer the signal from your head unit to your EQ or your crossover or your amp. But basically, any time you have to send the unamplified, low-level signal to another piece of electronic equipment, you will need patch cables.

Systems

frens i need to know if there is any way to prevent the cracking sound from my radio in the car ... all the time i need to twist the antenna cable and some time it sounds better and sometime it does not...

if there is any way that i could prevent it pls do let me know
if dont understand wat i speaking tell me too...


rdg,
looseman

PoweredByDodge

maybe you just have a bad connection... maybe you have corrosion or other crappy buildup on the antenna lead terminal that's going into the back of the radio (or wherever it is that youre "twisting" it as you say).

or else maybe you have a loose connection somewhere?

if you dont find any bad connections, try a new antenna, you can get a basic antenna for 10 dollars (U.S.) which isn't really bad for a "lets see if this is the problem" kind of thing.

i wish i could offer you better advice but i really dont have much of a clue as to what is going wrong for you other than that you've got a bad signal somewhere.

Systems

thank you man
i will try it with a cheap antenna and see the diffrent

wether it still does have the crippy sound


rdg,
looseman