Do new speakers require new wires?
Do new speakers require new wires? Ok so I have an alpine head unit, the speakers in my door and sail panel are alpine but the rears are stockers and I'm guessing the oem amp is disconnected? Not really sure about that.
When the front alpines were installed they split the component wires and hooked them up to be running with the stock radio, (there was a write up on how to hook up the alpines to work with the stock radio so they would sound good because of the 2 ohm...) Later I got the head unit and just recently i replaced the sail panel speakers.
Do i need to replace the wiring? Since the factory wires were set up to run on 2 ohm?
When the front alpines were installed they split the component wires and hooked them up to be running with the stock radio, (there was a write up on how to hook up the alpines to work with the stock radio so they would sound good because of the 2 ohm...) Later I got the head unit and just recently i replaced the sail panel speakers.
Do i need to replace the wiring? Since the factory wires were set up to run on 2 ohm?
a wire is a wire is a wire, doesn't matter if it is hooked up to 2ohm speakers or 100ohm resistors, is the current running through the wires that matters and that is determined by the power of the amplifier and speaker impedance. If you are powering your speakers off the headunit or stock amp then the stock wiring it fine since you will only be running 5-30W of power to each channel. You should only have to upgrade the speaker and power wires if you are running a high powered aftermarket amp.
I'll just add to what he ^ said and say that if the wiring is in good shape than you are fine. I'd look at changing the wire out if the copper is turning brown from oxidation or the insulation is drying out.
It will turn a darker brown inside of the insulation in a vehicle, and when it does, it is not conducting as well as it did when it was new. Current flows on the outside surface of the material (which is why a finely stranded power wire works better for your amps)...it turns green when it's really exposed to the elements and corroding really badly...but a darker brown as indicated above is still bad too...you'll usually find better sound quality with better wire that isn't turning brown inside the insulation (most aftermarket speaker wire holds up a lot better than the wire GM uses).
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The skin effect is for VERY high frequency. It does not even SLIGHTLY apply in audio. First of all, oxidization is not going to occur far down the wire from just air, and it won't affect anything if it does. Oxidization of copper, like aluminum, forms a protective barrier, unlike iron where it will continue to eat through the material.
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The OP is talking about connecting speakers to the factory system. Hell, you can run 300W continuous into 4 ohms on 16-gauge wire so 12-gauge is overkill for anything but high powered systems or subs.
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