How to Wire a Subwoofer
A car subwoofer can improve the sound of your vehicle's stereo system, by deepening the lows and giving more punch to your music. Wiring a subwoofer in your car properly is important if you want optimal operation. Follow these easy steps and you'll connect your subwoofer like a pro.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Determine how much speaker wire you need. Measure the distance you'll need to run wire to connect the amplifier and the subwoofer. If the distance is great, take into account going around and under obstacles that may be in the way.
-
2
Determine the gauge of wire you should use. Thicker wire (lower gauge numbers) transfer current more efficiently, giving you better performance from your speaker. But before you invest in thick wire, check out the terminals of your speaker and your amplifier to be sure they can handle thick gauge wire. In most cases, your subwoofer and amplifier can handle 12 gauge speaker wire. This is sufficient in most cases.
-
-
3
Strip the ends of the wire's insulation back about ½ inch. If you wish, you can connect speaker wire terminals onto the wire, but this isn't necessary in most cases. Run your wire between the amplifier and subwoofer location.
-
4
With the power to the amplifier off, connect the wire at the amplifier end. Make note of which conductor is connected to the positive terminal and which is connected to the negative terminal. Now repeat the process at the subwoofer end. Remember, positive connects to positive, and negative to negative.
-
5
Test your subwoofer. If everything is working OK, enjoy your music.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If the sound from your subwoofer is weak, check your connections; be sure you haven't accidentally switched the connections.
