What's the best wire gauge to run to the HU?

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I'm redoing the car. The head unit will only be used for its pre-amp (iDA-X100) right now there's a really small wire running to it. I would guess 20 gauge or so. Maybe a touch bigger than what comes out of the HU itself.

Is there any gain to run say a 14 or 16 gauge or larger?
 
phrarod said:
I'm redoing the car. The head unit will only be used for its pre-amp (iDA-X100) right now there's a really small wire running to it. I would guess 20 gauge or so. Maybe a touch bigger than what comes out of the HU itself.

Is there any gain to run say a 14 or 16 gauge or larger?

If you don't plan on using the internal amp then no, there is really no point.
 
Do you have a problem with alternator whine? If not, there's nothing to be gained by increasing wire guage.

Personally I like to have a common power and ground point for my entire system, to eliminate any chance of a ground loop. Right now I'm running 10 awg to the HU for power and ground, which is overkill, but it's what I had on hand.

Dan
 
owdi said:
Do you have a problem with alternator whine? If not, there's nothing to be gained by increasing wire guage.

Personally I like to have a common power and ground point for my entire system, to eliminate any chance of a ground loop. Right now I'm running 10 awg to the HU for power and ground, which is overkill, but it's what I had on hand.

Dan

Nothing wrong with that! :D Thick wire is the best. Overkill=necessity :D

I used 12 AWG THWN house wire for power and ground as well for the HU in my Celica. Also with an external 4700 uf cap behind the HU in parallel to the power and gnd wires for a bit more filtering and peak current.

I recommend thick wire so there's no voltage dips when the bass hits and much less distortion. I've seen so many HU that distort due to the thin crappy factory wiring having too much resistance.

My brother upgraded from factory wire to 12AWG as well and it was a BIG difference in performance. It was in a Geo Tracker. The thicker wire cleaned up the bass and allowed it to go louder.

However, If not using the internal amp, it's not necessary to have thick power wires.
 
phrarod said:
I do run 12g to the amp, but with this new HU I'm having trouble getting that tight punchy bass I used to get. This setup has 4V output which is more than the other one but the bass is weak.

What is the amp rated at? Is it powering subs or fullrange speakers like 6x9's? If it powers subs, are you sure your using the sub pre-outs and not the rear? Maybe there is a high-pass setting on the HU that is active?

I can't imagine that a $400 Alpine HU would lack bass if setup properly.
 
In all the HU eventually cost $450 because you have to buy the EQ add-ons. No matter what I did manually I couldn't get tight bass. Then I ran the software and microphone that comes with the add-on KTX-H100.

I was skeptical but it made a huge difference compensating for any odd acoustics in the car. Sounds great now. Odd as the cheap Sony only did good bass and nothing else. The amp is a Soundstream MC245. The subs are 8" Assassins.
 
phrarod said:
In all the HU eventually cost $450 because you have to buy the EQ add-ons. No matter what I did manually I couldn't get tight bass. Then I ran the software and microphone that comes with the add-on KTX-H100.

I was skeptical but it made a huge difference compensating for any odd acoustics in the car. Sounds great now. Odd as the cheap Sony only did good bass and nothing else. The amp is a Soundstream MC245. The subs are 8" Assassins.

Nice. I didn't really look at the specs for the HU so I didn't realise it had that capability.
 
Its kind of lame. For the same initial price you could get their 7889 model which has a CD and all the built in EQ. Then you just need the $30 mic and software. However even though this is iPod/memory stick only and doesn't have the space eaten up by a CD transport they didn't include the EQ. That's a separate box for $179. In the end I have to say its pretty awesome. I thought my old Soundstream wasn't very good and figured I would have to change it out. I guess I'm hearing it for the first time. I never heard it sound so good...
 
I just can't see spending $400 on just a HU when that could go to amps and speakers. You can get great SQ on a HU just over $100-$180 if you shop around. Sony has a HU with CD, MP3CD, USB and Ipod hookup for $160. It may not like some HU, have a flashy super-fancy color LCD display showing pictures of cities, buildings, and demo video, but IMO that's not needed just to play some music.

*I've also saw DVD HU's for less than $400 as well, and it has connections for extra video screens too.
 
The Alpine replaced a Sony. I always had Sony's. When I went to replace my older hi-end Sony the salesman warned me Sony SQ isn't what it used to be. Boy was he right! It was horrible. Beyond horrible! Making me think all my speakers were blown and the amp was no good.
 
phrarod said:
The Alpine replaced a Sony. I always had Sony's. When I went to replace my older hi-end Sony the salesman warned me Sony SQ isn't what it used to be. Boy was he right! It was horrible. Beyond horrible! Making me think all my speakers were blown and the amp was no good.

In that case, if the SQ is better I understand.

Also, a friend of mine has an Alpine HU in his Mercedes-Benz 560SEC and it sounds really good.

The idiots at Circuit City incorrectly wired his 4 speakers to 2ohms/ch to the front channels and didn't connect the rear channels at all, and despite the overdriven front channels, the sound was good! However, I convinced my friend to return back to Circuit City and have them correctly wire the 4 speakers to all 4 channels. The SQ really didn't change any, but at least he's running the right impedance now. The Alpine is a good unit, I don't remember what model.
 
I don't know why, maybe it was the faceplate layout, but I never liked Alpine. The iDA= X100 changed my mind. I was skeptical and looked at all the units by all the manufacturers at CES and no one came close to the Alpine for true iPod integration or the fact that the Alpine has the license to bypass the internal iPod dac chip and instead use a Burr-Brown. I think this makes a huge difference too.

Someone told me Alpine went through a rough patch but the new ones are back to good SQ. If you want CD the 9887 has CD and the imprint software is built in. All you need is the $30 software and mic.
 
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