Wiring

No doubt the biggest step of car audio is the actual wiring done. Skill levels is determined and manifested. You either get a sub par sound unworthy of your system components or you get the best audio capable of the said equipment. Do you know your DiY? Frankly, if you can’t tell the difference of the sounds of specific frequencies, its best that you leave car audio wiring to professionals. It’s not enough that you know both ends of pliers; in car stereo wiring, you need advance understanding of how components such as woofers, band pass speakers, and crossovers work.

But You Can At Least Read On.

For you see, car audio wiring is one of the most daunting, yes, but also the most interesting part of car audio installation. Many enthusiasts gauge their expertise by combining several concepts and creating new ones. Of course these guys have generally a lifetime spent learning the skill. While you don’t have to be on par with them you can at least learn the basics.

Let’s Start With The Car Audio Power Wiring.

Car audio power wiring is the wiring done to provide power to audio components that need them. It is ultimately important, due to that purpose, yet it isn’t that hard, provided you know the basics of wire usage (size limitations) against the power consumption. And because it is to be used on a compartment where substances like oil and battery acids are frequent, it’s best to acquire power wires whose jackets are resistant to such substances, and to high temperatures typical of an engine compartment.

Wires to be used for wiring components outside the harsh engine compartment need not be as durable, thus may allow you to save even just a fraction. Still, for car audio speaker wires you have to get the specific thickness or size in relevance to the amount of power consumed by a specific component. The larger the component, the more power it does consume naturally therefore the ticker car audio stereo wiring you should get. Do not over-feed power on the same wiring, as it will be a cause for shorts. Under normal circumstances, I would go for an oxygen free copper (OFC) wiring, usually at 12 to 16 wire gauges as this is the most common wiring thickness used by car audio systems.

Now We Go To Car Audio Signal Cables.

The trickiest part in wiring for an audio system for a ride is not for the purpose of providing power (or electricity), but the wiring done so that the signals released from a node is still the signal received from another node. In the essence, it is to make a schema that can transfer sound signals with the best integrity intact. For such purposes, several car stereo wires can be used.

RCA connector cables are top picks for their noise rejection capabilities. Network cables, such as coaxial cables are also fine since they shield the sound signal from outer interference. RCA signal connector plus cables can variably cost to several dollars to over a hundred dollars, depending on the scope, the manufacture and the brand name. Coaxial cables can be surpassed twisted pair cables (shielded or unshielded), but the trade off is more dollar to divest. Twisted pair cables are expensive, up to $50 a meter, and installation of them can be pretty tricky. They are very remarkable in eliminating noise floor, thermal noise, blackbody, sound bleeding, and crosstalk, that sometimes you may not have to have line drivers installed.

Again, I tell you, wiring a ride is a daunting task. If you have the money and you don’t have the expertise, what I suggest is hire professional audio installers and propose for a twisted pair system.