27 power wires on my amp, come on, really?

[Shockwave]

One thing I've seen in the radio/amp world is that some "techs" (term used loosely) will take theory and applications from many different areas and apply them into their products. I'm not too good at RF theory, but pretty decent in standard electrical so I can't comment on the effectiveness of it all in an RF application, only the thought process behind it. It would seem, to me anyway, what they are trying to do is incorporate a perceived load balancing in the most cost efficient way possible, not the most effective or practical, just cost efficient. They can charge more for the "beefed up" wiring without investing in solid copper buss and expensive 1/0 cable (1/0@ $36 per 10' vs 8AWG @ <$10 per 10').
But this is just my opinion as to why.

If you've used enough individual 8AWG wires to handle the current in each bank and they can equal the capability of one larger 1/0 wire, have you really used any less copper? Unless all of those wires are soldered to a common lug on the outside, I can measure more voltage drop in the connections under load, than you're likely to find in that short length of wire.

On the other hand, when the "tech" runs out of 1/0 wire, you can't begin to replace a 500 foot roll, for under $1,000 today. You can still replace #8 wire for as little as $200, for a 500 foot roll.

 

[144inBama]

If you've used enough individual 8AWG wires to handle the current in each bank and they can equal the capability of one larger 1/0 wire, have you really used any less copper?

Actually, yes. People are using that copper clad aluminum crap, not really crap but there's waaaay better. And common sense should tell people that every solder joint/ connection is a potential failure point, the more wires, the higher the risk. And yes, every connection creates a point of resistance, however small it may be, it's still there and multiplied say 27 times, can be quite disruptive. Like I said, I believe they are taking theory from many ideas and using them....they're just not taking into consideration the negative aspects of their use.

 

[groundwire]

Just fyi: its not exactly 27 wires. I would have to go count but there's alot. It was just a number thrown out there to get the point across. And yes, im pretty sure that they are 8ga wires, i would have to check that to.

 

[144inBama]

Just fyi: its not exactly 27 wires. I would have to go count but there's alot. It was just a number thrown out there to get the point across. And yes, im pretty sure that they are 8ga wires, i would have to check that to.

I'm going to say 16 leads on your 32 pill. 1 8AWG per 4 pill section.

 

[Crusher]

The one aspect of using real copper 8awg, not copper clad wires. Also You can put 4-5 of the 1/2” x 1/2” 43 ferrites on each lead inside amp to help limit RF from exiting amp through power leads. Anything less and it’s not even worth doing since coupling is not the best.