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