are all power/ground wires one and the same?
 

So...the power/ground wire aka PG wire for an amplifier...is there a difference In quality between the $1 per foot gauge copper wire at Home Depot, $1.75 per foot 4 gauge marine boat wire (Marine Wiring, Boat Cable and Electrical Genuinedealz.com, and $3.00 per foot NVX 4 gauge copper wire on Car Audio Stereo - Car Subwoofers - Car Amplifiers and Speakers

Now when I mention quality I am referring to the PG wires job to.. well.. power or ground effectively. Basically just do its damn job correctly.

You need to make sure the gauge of the WIRE itself is the same. A lot of cheaper wire just has excess insulation

many places have different standards for calculating wire gauge. VERY few brands are rated with true wire gauge, most include some of the insulation. But 99.9% of people cant tell the difference in wire quality through speakers.

A wire is a wire is a wire. As long as your ohms/foot is low enough and the insulation is tough enough, you'll be OK. From a installer POV, stranded wire is easier to handle but, electrically, it's all the same. The connectors you use and how you install them will make a bigger difference than whether or not you are using "audiophile" wire.

Edit: The "marine" wire you mention usually has very rugged insulation. Not a bad idea for automotive use but a little overkill. The "audiophile" wiring is snake oil - any difference that they might make (extremely little in the best of circumstances) will be drowned out by road noise.

Wires and electric is complicated in a way. All you really have to know is:

-correct guage (This is important because it tells you if the wire is rated for x amount of amps. The wire wont heat up and burn.)

-how much copper (The amount of copper is important because it conduct well.)

-how many stands of wires make up the cable (Electric actually flows along the outside of the wire and not through it in a sense. So if you have 1 big fat wire, the amount of electric that can flow around the outside will be less that one cable made of 2 wires. Simply think surface area.)

-how well is it insulate. (once again, for safety as the wire may get hot.)

Excellent summation.

Skin effect is a function of current flow and frequency. Not a problem with DC or the relatively small current we are talking about. Stranded wire is more flexible than solid, which can be a big advantage in a car.

Not exactly man you should look into quality research a bit.


http://www.knukonceptz.com/kitreview.cfm

OP as long as your ground wire is the same gauge/kind as your power wire you will be fine. Just don't run a 4 gauge wire to your amp and a 8 gauge ground. I recommend knu for your power wire.

The knu cable seems to be good quality and its about .42 cents cheaper than the genuinedealz wire. Plus, it seems more flexible. I used the boat wire from genuine in my last car install. Really strong wire but it was so rigid. On top of that, it was .50 cents cheaper few years ago. I also liked it because they added the terminals on the end of your choice too. And they are on rock solid. 3+ years later the terminals are like brand new.

Does knu offer that? I suck at putting on terminals. Lol

Wire is not wire. Especially when it comes to "audio wire" many of which are aluminium or copper coated aluminium. For example if you wanted to run up to 70A through copper wire you would want AWG #4 wire size, while if it was aluminium you'd want to run #2 which is a larger diameter. Audio wire meets very few standards for most of them out there and price has no really guarantee on performance.

Go with tested and good end user reviewed cables.

As long as the voltage drop across the wire is within limits, it doesn't matter what the conductor is made of. Yes, some materials do not conduct as well, eg, Aluminum vs Copper, and a larger wire size is required to get the same voltage drop.

The power and ground wire sizes do not have to match as long as the smallest wire is big enough. Eg, if 8 ga wire is called for, you can use 6 ga (or larger) for one of the wires.

As long as the wire will handle the current with little voltage drop, nothing else matters. This is DC we're talking about, not AC or signal.

Edit: To sum it up, get the wiring with the least resistance that will fit in the hole. That includes the connectors (if any). Copper, Aluminum, Silver, Gold, solid, stranded, whatever - it doesn't matter. I don't recommend Al for various reasons (cold flow, &c), but, electrically, it works great for power.

Since we are on the topic of least resistance.

As far as the ring terminals I will be using. Will silver or gold plated terminals be "more effective".

Silver would seem to corrode in the engine bay. In that case will gold last longer?

Yes, Silver will tarnish. If you seal the connectors (eg, RTV plus heat-shrink tubing), it doesn't really matter what metal is used as long as the connector material is compatible with the wire. Ie, any "industrial-grade" connector will work well if you select it for the type of wire you are using (eg, Cu or Al) and install it correctly.

Keep in mind that many "gold connectors" use very thin gold-plating that doesn't survive a crimp very well. Usually not worth the money/effort if weather-proofing is your goal.