I just got a 1600 watt amp, what gauge wire should I use for the power and ground wire? Would 10 or 8 be okay?

 

You will have to use a much larger ga, for that power.You didn't specify if the amp power is in RMS, but you should go with at least a 2ga power and ground.

 

the biggest possible wire that will fit in the terminals on hte amp.

 

I hooked everything up using the 10 gauge from my old amp and it seems to be working okay, what will happen if I don't replace it with the lower gauge wire...? BTW it is 2 x 80 W RMS in response to MADTIB.

 

if its too small a wire you will lose voltage to ur amp(bc there is more resistance)...if its very small the wire could heat up(which wastes energy) and worst case scenario cause a fire...not good results..dont be cheap...its not worth it...

 

If it's only 2 X 80Wrms, then you don't need tobig of a ga.What does the owners manual suggest? My guess is a 10 or 8ga. My suggestion would be the 8.In my opinion it's better to use a little larger then what is called for.That way there is NO question, and if you later deceide to add another amp, then your main cable will probably already suffice.


EDIT*****

What brand amp is it? Just wondering,cause I don't see where the hell they get 1600W from????? You say it's 2 X 80Wrms, so assuming it's 2 ohm stable,then it will do about 160Wrms X 2 @ 2ohms.That's a total of about 320Wrms.Peak value of that is 400 and something.......Peak to Peak is 800 and something.So,WTF?? They must have rated that waaay beyond the actual usable power.

 

Im assuming another zero was supposed to be at the end there. And if its 800 RMS I would think a 4 gauge wire would be great. My amp I have right now is only about 500 Watts RMS and im using 8 gauge so Id definately go bigger wire for the bigger amp

 

Madtib, power doesn't have a "peak to peak" value because you can't have a negative power. Peak power = 2 x rms. And yes, if your wire is too small a gauge, it can burn.

 

Nope, it says 80 RMS... and the 1600 is actually just the max output of 4x400 so I kinda got screwed becuz it just said that it was 1600 Watts on e-bay. I'm thinkin I'll just switch out the 10 gauge with my 8 and then when I add on later it should still be alright.

 

1. 8 gauge wire for 500w rms is not sufficient.

2. how many channels does the amp have?