Help the newbie = P

najahaja wrote: »

just remember, y7ou want to match the fuses to your wire going to the amp rather than the amp itself.

Your amp has its own fuses to protect it. YOu need to protect your wire feeding your amps from burning out, therefore must put a fuse in that would be rated to that.

Where on earth are you getting this from? you choose your fuses based on your total amperage draw for all the amplifiers on that line. Your power wire doesn't have a "fuse rating" and power wire won't burn out... If the coating gets striped and it contacts metal the electricity could arc causing a fire, but you're making it sound like the wire itself can get fried from just too much power... True there is a limit to how much current any given wire can carry, but when you try to exceed this limit it won't hurt the wire because the capacity of the wire is based on it's physical characteristics.

najahaja wrote: »

That is also the reason you put it as close to the battery as possible. No use in protecting your amp when the wire fuses and burns your car out because your fuse is located in the boot.

Yes though, you do always want it by the battery...

You dont choose the fuse based on the wire. You choose it based on the current draw youre pulling.

You also choose your wire based on the current draw youre pulling as well so the fuse should line up with the wire on its on.

You wouldnt use 8 gauge wire for a 2000 watt system. And you wouldnt stick a 120 amp fuse on a 500 watt system.

I won't say capacitors are worthless and not necessary but it has alot to do with the type of amplifiers you are running. MTX and Rockford both recommend adding a capacitor when installing their amplifiers. Personally I see this as a sign of under designing the amplifier. Fortunately for both of these company's they also sell them. What luck. Both of these company's build their amps with unregulated power supplies as well as many others. This way as your voltage increases so does the power output of their amplifiers. 12.5 volts yields less power than 14.4 volts. You see this type of specifications all the time. If your amp has a regulated power supply and is built right you will not need a capacitor at all. These amps will give you the same amount of output regardless of the voltage level (11volts to 14.4 volts). Also as fuse ratings go the chances of you drawing 2000 watts from a amp while listening to music is extremely low. When you run a sinewave of say 40hz you can reach the max current draw but usually not when listening to music. If the amp has fuses in it them these will protect the amplifier and the one at the battery will protect the car. Use as small as you can get away with at the battery, JUST USE ONE. One little side note. The new Rockford Fosgate T600-2 power series amp incorporates a circuit that lowers output to keep the amp cool. The heatsink design is not large enough to carry the current load. The amp is 200 watts by two and bridgeable into 4ohms. You will get about 750 watts with 14.4 volts of input and 600 watts with 12.5 volts. This amp is $650.00. ON the other hand the ZED AUDIO Deuce is 200 watts /channel, 900 watts bridged into 4ohms, will not overheat and the power will not reduce because of a poor design. This amp does this at voltage levels of 10-14.4 volts and only cost $389.00. Plus the sound quality is excellent. Not bad.