Personally I wouldn't do it. I seriously doubt you'd hear any difference at all.

 

unless you're going to run a lot more power than you are, i wouldn't worry about it either.

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That sounds like an honest shop, and I would keep them in mind for other work.

 

How much honest power will you be sending to the speakers? Typically the cars I have worked on use 18awg from the factory. Usually thats good up to around 125w+/- depending on the total run length.

I agree with all above...you will probably not hear a difference...unless you can hear .25 db resolution while driving down the road, lol.

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Thanks for the feedback. Honestly not what I expected, so I'm glad I asked. I thought the majority would run new wire.

I have a potential of 75 watts rms from the amplifier, but the likelihood of me actually sending that much power to the speakers is basically nonexistent.

 

The only reason it would matter is if the factory wire is undersized for the power that you're sending it, and you have noticeable voltage drop. Besides voltage drop speaker wire will not affect the sound quality. It's not a debate about whether or not you'll hear a difference, you won't, because there won't be. As long as you aren't running too much power through the factory wire it will be every bit as good as any wire you would replace it with.

 

Another vote for not being worth the hassle to upgrade.

 

I don't know what gauge Ford uses but if it's like 22 gauge or higher. I would consider it but I'm not scared of molexes. You could route the wiring yourself and be strategic with it and not screw with the molexes. I think it's one of those is it worth the $200-$400 rcas people buy from some of those companies for higher quality. Probably not to most people but some people yes. It's one of those diminishing returns type of thing.

 

Just do it and be happy its your vehicle i was told the same thing by a few shops. But i still did it anyways just some thing i have to do i guess you can says its.... o
OCD

 

If you are going to do it your self thou because a shop will charge $150-300 to do thats what i was quoted. Honda odyssy van at that

 

No need to drill through molex plugs.
Use these
https://m.summitracing.com/parts/el...BRA1EiwAwCv6Jm9AJPsZwkr5FNQGbKyM5k0OtFEgha5dBXQo1nzqIw_yuH_Jq1u8LRoCEPwQAvD_BwE

 

I'm curious, would it matter if you were running a high
wattage using 2 ohm speakers?

 

For the same amount of power, lower impedance (or resistance) loads will have less voltage potential but draw more current. Example:

2ohm speaker with 100 watts: ~14V at ~7a
4ohm speaker with 100 watts: 20v at 5a.

In the real world there's a few things to consider with speaker wire. First is the the power from the amp is averaging a small fraction of the rated RMS power. There will be transient peaks that may reach full current draw but they will be far and few inbetween (on most music). The second thing to consider is loss through the wire. All wire will have an insertion loss of some kind, but it might be so small it's unnoticeable, especially on music.

For >99.9% of installs 16AWG is plenty for anything other than subwoofers with hundreds or thousands of watts at low impedances. Anyone who runs larger gauge wire is doing so because it makes them feel better, or because the like the look of it or something similar. That's fine, and I'm sure there are people who hear a difference when they upgrade wire because they want to hear a difference.

 

For 200W-250W per side, and over 12 ft long wire per side, 14 gauge wire would be better.

Some may say, it would be overkill, but those fraction of a second peaks of power above 200 W with 16 g wire, could leave burned areas of insulation and wire that can be seen if the insulation is clear.
I've seen it before.

And it's not just the factory wire length from the radio to the doors unless a factory amplifier is under the seat. If you add an after market amplifier, install it in the trunk and connect it to the factory wire, you could be talking about 25 feet per side, if not more. In that case I would add new wire if planning to each door using 200 W plus per side.

 

Thanks folks, interesting stuff plus I learned something new.