Car Audio Question

[JMai22]

you guys are really good with car audio. i asked a question here about couple weeks ago and you were able to solve it. i have another one for you guys. Will i shorter and better ground give the amps more power. i admit my ground wire right now is pretty long and there is a little bit of paint to where its hooked up. but do you think if i cut my ground cable shorter and cleaned up the ground location i will get a better charge on my capacitor and get higher voltage?????

[retrodrive]

Yes you need to sand that area real well and make sure that your power and ground cables are the same gauge. Length is not such a critical factor if your wire gauge is big enough for your system.

[vfr-rich]

To answer your question, NO, a shorter "better" connection will not give you, or the amp, any more power. It will lessen the likelyhood of ground loops, ans system noise. Conventional wisdom says that the ground wire should be the same size (gauge) as the supply wire, and less than three(3) feet long.

[LUNI2NZ]

vfr-rich is correct. Ground wire should be short to avoid engine noise in the system. If you have none, you're probably OK to leave it alone. The rule is: Ground wire should be same guage as power wire, less than 3' long and connected to bare metal chassis.

Jay