Amplifier wire termination suggestions.

I was wondering what everyone’s preferred method is when it comes to the wire terminals at the amps?

Wire ferrules, some kind of adapter, bare wire, etc.

What about speaker wire pants? I’ve seen them used in home audio but not so much in car audio.

I want this install to be safe and look clean and I’m having trouble with stray strands of wire that look like crap. My other amps have had deeper terminals or plastic shields around the terminals. These new amps have neither.



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Yeah, stray strands can be a real problem and thats why I used color coded ferrules in my last install. I also used speaker pants, but all my wiring was on the underside of the amp board, and all you could see was the last 3" of each run, so speaker pants just added a bit of a cool factor.

You could tin the very ends with solder just to keep all them strays in check. Still allows some crush factor to the wire when tightening them screws.

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Originally Posted by chithead

You could tin the very ends with solder just to keep all them strays in check. Still allows some crush factor to the wire when tightening them screws.

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I've never had much luck tinning with anything larger than 4 gauge...

Ohhhh! That's a great point. Yes sir, I agree, it mostly works for just speaker gauge wires up to about 8ga. Not so great for 4ga or larger.

Here's what I did.

Attachment 7313

You just need a better soldering iron :D

I tried using ferrules for the first time with my JL Audio XD600/6V2 amp. I had issues though - they actually caused issues with the "clamps" used by JL Audio for the speaker wires. All seemed fine until I went to remove the speaker wires. I found that the top part of the "wire clamp" (not sure what the technical name is - it's a flat piece of metal that pushes down onto the wires as you tighten them) actually came off completely! This happened on multiple channels. It seems that the ferrules were just a little too "stiff" for the type of connections on the JL amp.

I guess there is a reason why JL specifically says "bare wires" in the owners manual. :-)

So I'd be careful with ferrules when certain types of amps!

I might practice soldering some scrap 4 gauge wire this weekend. I’d have to order some ferrules for wire that size, but I might like to have them in case the solder doesn’t work out.


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I recently swapped one of my Eclipse amps that uses spades for an old Boston Acoustics amp that is just a hex screw into bare wire. For speaker wire I was having issues getting the 16 gauge to stay secure with bare wire so it was either 12 gauge for my mids and tweeters or ferules. I ordered this cheap kit from Amazon:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....AC_SL1200_.jpg
Ferrule Crimping Tool Kit, Preciva

They are very soft and not great for disconnecting and reconnecting but they work really well for holding firmly. The power and ground connections are setup to accept 2 8 gauge wires each, not sure why but I assume for size reasons. I use 4 gauge to 8 gauge reducers for those so that I only need one of each.