Right now I have an 80 amp stock alternator with stock battery etc. I am powering a Kicker 450.2 (500rmsX1 on birth sheet). When I crank it up really loud the lights dim a little and every once in a while the amp goes into protect (only at very high volumes). I was wondering if I could run my old 8 gauge power wire as the "big 3" as well as the stuff that is already there. Would I notice a little extra power?
Amp going into protect mode is most likely not caused by lack of power. Some cases yes, but in your case, it's due to incorrectly set gain/level control or not meeting minimum ohm requirement. Upgrading stock wires won't do much good without HO alternator. Think of it as a pale in the rain. You can use 5" wide straw and try to suck the water or 1" straw. No matter what the size is, you're only going to get water at the speed of rain drop. If you're alternator is not supplying the power, you can demand all the current you want, you're not going to get any, except the ones stored in the battery. And you know that battery won't sustain that kind of demand for long.
thanks isaac. Incorrectly set gain/level control. Does that mean it is probably trying to push/receive more volts than the HU and amp are supposed to? Should I just lower the level a little. Also, with the EXACT same settings, whenever I change the setup from stereo to mono at about 35 or 40 out of 60 on HU level the amp goes into protect, any idea. This happens only when it is in mono.
Set the gain on your amps just alitte past half but less then a quarter down.
If you had a HU with 4 volt preouts then you whould set it at halfway and no higher.
My HU puts out 6.5 volts so i set it less then half way and it sounds perfect and have no problems.
Try that and also turn down your bass boost if your using that.
If you have crossovers on the amp you can use them or use the ones on the HU but dont use both.
Set your LPF to 80hz on your HU and your HPF 80-100hz range.
Turn off everything else and set your EQ to flat while your setting this up and see how it sounds and take it from there. Let me know if you have any questions.