MM6 Wiring!

[mekanism]

I'm about 1/4 of the way through my install and was wondering if having the crossover's in the rear of the car while the speakers are in the front if I would lose signal quality. They're being amplified by the Momo C400.4. I have a little Honda CRX so the wire would only have to run no more than 8 feet. Thanks!

[neomagus00]

i'm not really an install guru, but the only problem i could envision is noise - the more cable you run, the more chance noise has to get in the system. running high-quality stuff drastically reduces that possibility, but i dont think anything eliminates it entirely.

[mekanism]

Yeah I figured I would have problems with a long run. I will just have to invest in some really good wiring. Thanks

[neomagus00]

dont go for the ridiculously expensive stuff, it won't make a difference unless you're planning on serious expansion or competition. if you're doing either of those, go with the best you can afford, otherwise, a step or two down should be just fine.

[mekanism]

thanks!

[TheAudioSpectru]

If your gonna run wires that far...i would wrap those things in tin foil then another layer of electical tape...anybody else ever used this technique

[MTXMAN]

never heard of that before... how well does it work??

[geralopez]

Sounds like mmm... a shielded wire "made in home", Isn't it?

-GLopez

[TheAudioSpectru]

i've seen some rca's wrapped in tin foil kinda material when there taken apart...but yea,it's kinda a ghetto thing to do but what the hell,if it works and it's not visible...i mean i dont know many show cars with awesome systems that dont have a LIL duct tape in em ya know...and duct tape is bout the most ghetto tool eh...

[geralopez]

I think speaker wires doesn't need to be shielded, they handled power and not signal, from your HU to the amp it's OK, cause HU is sending a low voltage signal (mV) -if it is not preamp, but in the case of speaker, you most be worried for other things like jacket resistance. During installation you can damage your wires if they don't have enough resistance, you know sharpened holes, etc. You most consider the correct gauge to avoid dropped power, if you don't you will limit the power that can receive the speaker and underpowered a speaker its worst.

-GLopez

[PolkMomoRam]

RCA Cables use low power, and usually low resistance and capacitance, this makes them act like an antenna that tries to pick up all your nasty ground loop, ignition noise, an computer switching in your vehicle. These must be shielded if possible and ALWAYS run away from your power and turn on leads. If they must cross them, make sure to use duct tape or zip ties to cross over them at a 90 degree angle. As far as your setup with the cross overs in the back, it's fine. Speaker wire is not as "antenna like" as signal wires because of sheer voltage. One thing that is important is voltage drop and capacitance. Use approx. 14ga to 12ga high quality wire (read QUALITY, NOT PRICE) and you will be just fine. I would also do the following two things.

1. Just for fun and looks...run these speaker wires away from power and signal wires.

2. DO NOT WRAP SPEAKER WIRE or ANYTHING else in your system with tin foil. I might be new to this forum, but i've been around for quite awhile in car audio, home audio, and theater. I can give you detailed reasons why you shouldn't do this, but instead I'll give you two simple reasons why not.
a. Wrapping wire with tinfoil can help reject noise if done exactly right w/ the right wire, but you will most likely turn your wire into a primative capacitor (think about it, all capacitors are made up of a conductive foil, tin foil in this case, and a dialectric, the insulation of the wire in this case.) This can cause nasty resonances at certain frequencys and phase problems.
b. When you want to increase the signal response of rabbit ear antennas, (in our scenario read signal response as noise pickup), what do you do? Add tin foil!! LOL

[neomagus00]

what are the detailed reasons? :)

[PolkMomoRam]

Speaker connections should not be shielded, because the power transmitted in speaker lines is much greater than any induced signal, and there are side effects of shielding that can change the frequency response such as:
skin effect
and
frequency balancing, or inbalancing

[PolkMomoRam]

of course you can elemenate the skin effect by grounding the shield at one end, but then you just created a whole bunch more problems.

[mekanism]

Thanks again for all of the suggestions! So when I get around to wiring should I put all of the RCA cables and speaker wire on the left side and the power wire on the right? Or RCA on the left, speaker wire in the middle, and the power on the right. My battery is on the right side of the car so I figure this would be easiest. Another thing is that I'm running 0/1 gauge power wire from the battery so would I have to shield this wire so it doesn't interfere with all of the other wire. I have never ran this big of wire before so any other tips would be great, thanks.

[sntnsupermen131]

i dont have a problem at all with noise going into my power wire(1/0)
its not shielded
i doubt you need to worry about it
-Cody

[PolkMomoRam]

Don't shield the power wire. With your setup If it was me, I'd run the Power wire and turn on lead on the right, the Signal wires down the middle, and the speaker wire on the left.

[mekanism]

OK i will try that thanks!