Power wire and speaker wire - help?

[Trayten]

I need a little help with speaker wire and power wire.

This might be a dumb question but can power wire be used for speaker wire / do people use it for speaker wire? I was on Sky High's ebay page, and the only speaker wire I could find was like 12 gauge at the lowest.. I guess I'm also wondering why I couldn't find 0 gauge speaker wire while 0 gauge power wire is so easy to find? I know my 2 aq 1200 amps will take 4 gauge wire, and im going to get reducers for the wire so that it fits.. but I'm just a little surprised about this. I thought wire was wire and it could be used for anything, and maybe it can be and that is my main question. Thank you!

[Trey_Dog650]

lol

yeah you can use 0 gauge speaker wire if you want but uhhhh overkill ftmfw? lol

he used to make 8 guage speaker wire not sure if he still does. but yes you can use any gauge for speaker wire. i think the only different is that "speaker" wire comes in pairs for the + and -. where as regular power wire is just a single wire

[g2shuck]

you can still get 8 gauge speaker wire from sky high message cj18 on here that is what I run. Trey is right the difference it the speaker wire has positive and negative together and is cheaper to buy than two runs of 8 gauge power wire.

[David Bailey]

0 gauge speaker wire? Are you serious? This has to be a joke, right?

[jepalan]

I thought wire was wire and it could be used for anything, and maybe it can be and that is my main question. Thank you!

^^^ this. Yes, wire is wire. As long as it is true gauge and you are sizing it for the application

[n8ball2013]

Im willing to bet you will never max out a run of 12 gauge speaker wire.

[HHR Ed]

Do you mean that your AQ 1200 has 4awg inputs for power wire?

I think you may be having some confusion.

But yes, wire is wire (To an extent)

When wire is classified as "Speaker Wire" It usually has 2 conductors.

"Power Wire" Is one conductor.

Also, wire gauge is chose based on the voltage and current that needs to pass through.

DC Voltage would need larger gauge wire due to the lower voltage and higher current. This is why Power wire into amplifiers is so large.

AC Voltage is usually lower current with higher voltage, and inherently AC can travel further on thinner wire. Speaker outputs are AC Voltage.

For a 1200W amp, you can actually use 12awg wire on the speaker outputs for up to 10ft of wire length. Anything over that is just gravy and reduces resistance which is good. But you get to a point where it is overkill and a waste of money and effort to make it fit.

I would say that 10awg speaker wire on a 1200W amp is plenty.

[Trayten]

0 gauge speaker wire? Are you serious? This has to be a joke, right?

Hey man thanks for being a smartass, I really appreciate it. I said this might be a dumb question.. and would ya look at that.. someone had to post about how dumb it was. Seriously thanks a lot dude you helped a ton! Cant you fucking tell I don't know much about this stuff? I bet you were the smartest guy out there when you started with car audio huh..

[Trayten]

you can still get 8 gauge speaker wire from sky high message cj18 on here that is what I run. Trey is right the difference it the speaker wire has positive and negative together and is cheaper to buy than two runs of 8 gauge power wire.

lol

yeah you can use 0 gauge speaker wire if you want but uhhhh overkill ftmfw? lol

he used to make 8 guage speaker wire not sure if he still does. but yes you can use any gauge for speaker wire. i think the only different is that "speaker" wire comes in pairs for the + and -. where as regular power wire is just a single wire

Thank you guys both for the serious answers.. So a 12 gauge speaker wire would work just fine for my application?

[bighossf150]

I'd do 8 ga but I like overkill on speaker wire, runnin 4ga in my truck