sckscrkeeper

Hi everyone - I am going to be installing a system in my car soon, and I've been reading all these posts trying to figure out the best thing to do, and then I realized I should just ast directly since you all really know what you are doing.
First of all, I am going to be running an alpine 9857, kappa perfects, and an alpine pdx 4 (a sub is a little later once I replace some of this money!)
I also have seen a bunch of people saying that the wires from knuconceptz are very good and I plan to go with them, so here are my questions-

1)Is 4 gauge power (ground) wire a lot better than 8 gauge, and would it really matter much if I ran one instead of the other?
2) I know quality RCA's are a must and I plan on that (4 channel), but my real questions lies in speaker wire. Is 4 conductor wire necessary? I know it is supposed to be better, and I do want quality stuff (I want my sound to match the awesome car), but it is much more pricey and I wonder if it makes an audible difference. Also, what gauge of speaker wire? I plan to run 150W from the amp, and is 12 gauge to much? Would 16 work? Does the gauge change enough to affect sound quality?
3) The big question. I plan to mount the amp and x-overs over the gas tank next to the spare tire, how much of each type of wire (speaker/power) do I need??? This is the question that has been killing me and I would just like to get some kind of answer so I can stop guessing!

Thanks so much for any help I know I had a lot of questions, any answers or extra suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Dave-ROR

1. Depends on how much power your amps need. Need more info to provide an answer.
2. 4 conductor is easier for running wire into the doors (on wire only, assuming you aren't putting the crossovers into the door). With 2 conductor you need to run two sets into the doors (again, unless you mount the xover in the door itself). 4 conductor is easier to route in general since you'll be going from the amp to the doors, etc, just less mess to deal with.
3. Depends on where you run the wires. I can't recall what's in my car but you'll want to run the signal wires down the pass side, so it's not really a direct shot to that area, unless you run them in the center console, which you can do.

smurf2k

1. 8 gauge is sufficient
2. nope. i have standard RCA from kit from ED and there is absolutely 0 interference/noise. running about 200w per channel to my speakers on 14gauge wires...
3. i wish someone had told me! i had 17' speaker wires and it was just enough for 1 door! crossovers in the door with amp over tool well. i would guess 20' for your amp location per door... though i would err on safe side and get 25' per

suggestion: plan a full day for install. putting speaker wires through door is a biotch! use clothes hanger and lubricant. get mdf for speaker mount. i ran power wire across firewall, and went into the car under the brake fluid master cylinder whatever... very easy, and keeping power on the left side of car made for a clean install w/o interference.

oth

http://www.bcae1.com/ has various calculators that can answer
questions about effects of different wire gauges, etc.
one thing I'll toss in there is that the hassle of wiring is far greater
than the expense of incremental gauge increases, so make sure
you won't have to redo it. I personally ran 4-gauge power to a
distribution block in the trunk, then 8-gauge to my amp. this way,
upgrading the amp or adding a second amp is trivial. I also ran
RCAs for 6 channels (L & R front, L & R rear, L & R sub) even though
I have no sub (yet) so I won't have to do it again. costs a little more
upfront, but well worth it if you value your time.
20 ft of speaker wire per side (40' total) should be sufficient. if your
crossovers are in the door or kickpanels, use 2-conductor, if in the
trunk use 4-conductor (or twice as much 2-conductor). I bought
15 feet of 4-gauge power wire, which was enough to run down the
passenger side to the dist. block (or directly to an above-tank amp).
you'd probably want more if you're going to run down the drivers side
though. I used 4-meter RCAs through the center console - plenty
long. don't know about correct length if you go down the sides though.

sckscrkeeper

Oh wow perfect, thank you guys so much for your help. I think I pretty much have an idea of everything I want to do, now just a matter of time until its all complete!