4 gauge to 18 gauge wire?

[Garrett717]

Hello

I will first start off to say that I am a complete noob when it comes to car audio, so thank you all in advance for the help. I just put in kicker speakers and got my first 12" subwoofer. It's a Pioneer TS-WX1210A, which has a built in amp. I am going to be using 4 gauge power wire, but instead of the power wire plugging into the amp like I have seen with the rest, there is a harness that plugs into the enclosure and I must attach my 4 gauge power wire to an 18 gauge power wire that is on the harness. Any suggestions on how to do this? One audio shop said dont solder, another said solder, and a buddy of mine that solders regularly said he doesnt reccomend it. All help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[lovinthehd]

There's very little car audio discussed here; we used to have a subforum for car audio but it got deleted as wasn't used. If your sub has a built in amp why are you talking about speaker wire? It the sub has an amp, it would be a line-level signal feeding the sub.

 

[Garrett717]

Ok thank you for letting me know. And I was referring to the power wire running from the battery to the amp. Sorry if I said that

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

You can’t reasonably solder 4-ga. wire. The insulation will melt long before the solder flows.

I suggest getting a power distribution block. It should transition from 4-ga. down at least 12 ga., or even better, 14 ga. From there you can easily transition down to 18 ga.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[lovinthehd]

Ah, okay, was just thinking of signal rather than power (which in a home setup is just easily plugged in to the nearest outlet, d'oh! ).