Recommended car stereo power and ground and speaker wire sizes

Recommended car stereo power and ground and speaker wire sizes Recommended power and ground wire sizes and speaker wire sizes for a car audio system

Ground cables must be the same size (or larger) than the power cable. When choosing the cross-section of the power cable, always consider the RMS power of the stereo system in watts. On the Internet, recommended sizes are often given in AWG (American Wire Gauge) units. Below is a table for converting AWG cross-section units to square millimeters (Table 2)

Although wire sizes smaller than 10AWG may be acceptable for current, we recommend using the smallest current wire size of 10AWG for a 100 watt RMS or larger stereo/amplifier. The goal is to give the amplifier as much current as it needs for optimal performance.

Table 1. Car radio cable cross-section
 
 
 
Recommended car stereo cable cross-section by RMS current strength and length
Total RMS
Power (watts)

RMS power
Distance
1,2m 2,4m 3,6m 4,8m 6m
100 10 AWG 10 AWG 8 AWG 8 AWG 4 AWG
200 10 AWG 8 AWG 8 AWG 4 AWG 4 AWG
400 8 AWG 8 AWG 4 AWG 4 AWG 4 AWG
600 8 AWG 4 AWG 4 AWG 4 AWG 4 AWG
800 4 AWG 4 AWG 4 AWG 2 AWG 2 AWG
1000 4 AWG 4 AWG 2 AWG 2 AWG 2 AWG
1400 4 AWG 2 AWG 2 AWG 2 AWG 2 AWG


















Table 2. Corresponding square millimeters of AWG
 
AWG mm2
30 0.05
28 0.08
26 0.14
24 0.25
22 0.34
21 0.38
20 0.50
18 0.75
17 1.0
16 1.5
14 2.5
12 4.0
10 6.0
8 10
6 16
4 25
2 35
1 50
1/0 55
2/0 70
3/0 95
4/0 120
300MCM 150
350MCM 185
500MCM 240
600MCM 300
750MCM 400
1000MCM 500