Wire Comparisons

[shizzzon 461]

yea, u know audiobahn copied that sub design from the ground up.. seriously..

Built it lookin ugly.. and can only handle power for a couple seconds when given it's rated power before u literally to get blowed off your feet.

But not from a high pressure reading.. from using college ruled paper cone...

sad sad sad..

My paper shredder is louder than that and it's powerless.

[edouble101 314]

This should be pinned.

[///M5 2,833]

Nice write up!

There should be power testing rather than just tech details listed only...

We discussed that, but it isn't possible to do without some very expensive equipment. And realistically if the copper content is high, the diameter is right, and it is flexible the power testing isn't what I'd use to make my decision anyways.

[95Honda 486]

one thing i'd like to add-One thing about real world power tests is Monster claims that magnetic rod in the center of the wire supposedly helps current flow.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it a plastic rod in the center? And since this is DC, there obviously doesn't need to be a test to show marketing BS here...

[ssh 924]

Great write up, appreciate the time you spent doing it, and the donations of wire others sent you

[Sencheezy 689]

From your findings, it seems that KNU Kolossus has the most copper in it, which would mean its the better one standing? IMHO, flexability isn't that much of a big deal, I'd rather have more current flow, and I guess, it seems 3.75/foot is about avg for this kind of quality.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

one thing i'd like to add-One thing about real world power tests is Monster claims that magnetic rod in the center of the wire supposedly helps current flow.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it a plastic rod in the center? And since this is DC, there obviously doesn't need to be a test to show marketing BS here...

you know it felt like plastic to me but I didn't look into it to much.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

too bad u didnt have Kicker wire in there..

Kicker is very identical to Knu Kolossus cable!

Also.. i've always wished someone would test that retarded ass priced IXOS power wire off ebay.

Wire is $10 per foot.. it better be like 1/0 wire, 7/0 performance, lol.

GOOD news the IXOS company is sending me 3ft for free to test!

plus I am getting the DC power wire to test from a member, and some bullz audio wire also! I will post names once I get them! also I have welding supplies I will be adding sooner then later! so just to recap:

IXOS

DC Power

Welding supplies

Bullz

[shizzzon 461]

I call Bullz!

[diablo_331 23]

Sweetness! Thanks for taking the time and effort to put this all together! This should be pinned! I saved the thread in my favorites for future reference.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Nice job, great to see you go into great depth.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

I can tell you from first hand experience that Bullz Audio is undersized CCA.

Great job though, keep up the great work.

[Tremonic 7]

Nice review. Great info. I am curious to see your review on the welding wire. That is what I have and I think it's great but I want to see how it stacks up against these other brands.

I'll definitely be watching. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[J@SouthSlap 0]

I can tell you from first hand experience that Bullz Audio is undersized CCA.

It may be.. But I've been using it for a year now and I honestly love it.

For less than $1 a foot I can live with it being "undersized" just as much as many other cheaper wires are.

[siccostyle 0]

Hey I have some shok ofc left over from my build that I would gladly send you to use in your next review. Pm your shipping address and I will ship 3' out to you asap.

[Ohjay 116]

That Bullz Audio ought to be fine in a lower powered setup. It should hold ~200amps

[knockinthastreetzof608 1]

i have some ofc compention shok wire from mechman if you wanna 3ft to test?

i got 2 spools for my build and i got about 15ft left after let me know

[Kanaworm$ 292]

I can tell you from first hand experience that Bullz Audio is undersized CCA.

It may be.. But I've been using it for a year now and I honestly love it.

For less than $1 a foot I can live with it being "undersized" just as much as many other cheaper wires are.

I bought mine like 3 years ago or so. It might be a lot better now.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

Hey everyone thanks for waiting this out for so long. The reason it took me so long to get part 2 of 3 of this review up is Canada post was on strike for a good month and you can imagine the mess that made!

At any rate here we go with part 2 of 3. I will be reviewing these brands in the same fashion as I did previously. Here are the 7 brands

Audiopipe - Supplied by sacsking916 on CA.com

Bullz Audio - Supplied by J@SouthSlap on SSA.com

IXOS - Supplied by Fusetrapper on ebay.com

Kicker - Supplied by Audio4ever on CA.com

Mobilespec - Supplied by yet again Audio4ever on CA.com

Flex-A-Prene Welding Wire - Supplied by faizal_jamal on ebay.com

Shoc OFC (current discontinued) - Supplied by siccostyle's

I would first like to say thankyou to everyone who donated wire to me and or made it very cheap for me to purchase. If you notice I said this is part 2 of 3. Part 3 of 3 will consist of 3 brands, IXOS, KNU KOL, Monster being load tested with a clamp meter and a carbon pile load tester of about max ~500 amps, This will be a two man event more on that later.

Now onto the info!

Subjective review

14. Flex-A-Prene Welding wire wasn't to easy to flex and bend but it was do-able, one thing worthy of mention is there was a cardboard liner on the inside of the jacket it made a cool noise when I cut it. also I noticed that these strands were a lot thicker and were straight. The price on this wire which I found on ebay which was being sold as fork truck/ welding wire was quite reasonable and down to earth, the only down side to it was it had the least conductor OD of all the wires viewed today.

15. Audiopipe, this wire was difficult to bend, and the cost was very cheap! The price I found was on ebay and it came to 1.54$ per foot, but worthy to say the conductor OD was on the average size so this will get an average rating although I suspect this from CCA wiring

16. Bullz Audio was another one of those super hard ones to bend but it was also the cheapest wire I was able to find, with the cost being 1.06$, and Conduct OD was also average on it.

17. IXOS, is the next on the chopping block. This wire is what some would call the holy grail, or rather an infamous wire as it was the most expensive wire I have reviewed. The bend-a-bily of this wire was extremely easy to bend and offered little resistance, and yet again the conductor OD was yet again average.

18. Kicker, yet again another fan favorite, this one was also very easy to bend and the conductor OD was above average here. the only down side was the price tag.

19. Mobilespec, a brand I personally haven't heard of and it was a bit hard to find a price tag on this wire but I eventually did and I got 3.7$, which is a bit high, the bendy-ness of this wire was horrid and the conductor OD was under the average overall this wire wouldn't be my favorite pic.

20. And last but not least Shoc Competition OFC wiring. This wire was very easy to beind and one of my favorites to bend! The price is unknown as it is currently discontinued from what I can tell, and it has the average conductor OD of the wires viewed today.

and to wrap it up have a quick look at this!

Well this has been a long and drawn out subjective review filled with lots of pictures, I hope you all have enjoyed it and I would like to give my subjective top picks and my closing thoughts at this time.

Out of all the wire I was able to play around with my favorite pic from the OFC side of wires was a tie between Knu KOL, IXOS, Flex-A-Prene. These wires will always get my nod of approval because they are easy to bend and they don't cost that much, along with a nice amount of copper in them to support a fair amount of current flow. Any of those three listed above would/ should be able to suit anyone needs.

My top picks for CCA wiring would have to be Cadence and KNU KCA. Both of those wires showed great amounts of CCA in them and very flexible to bend around a tight corner! Again I have never used CCA wiring before but if I ever had to or wanted to switch I would most definitively pick one of those two.

Here is the original for comparison

Not So subjective review

Just like last time I gut a 6inch section from each brand and cut the jacket off to reveal just the copper and I weighted that copper and displayed my findings.

Based off of my findings with the tobacco sale I would have to pick either KNU KOL, Kicker, RF wiring and IXOS , as they all showed a lot of copper content. But based on price and copper content I would have to pick KNU KOL over all the brands and a close runner up would have to be the welding wire. I would have picked Kicker or RF or IXOS but their pricing is a bit high as compared to KNU or even Welding wire which is an excellent runner up for its 3-3.5$ price range. Also please note that since I did this review KNU has raised there price of the KOL wiring and it is still a better value!

So with this I would like to conclude and say I had a lot of fun doing these reviews a I have learned a lot about 1/0 and how companies will all vary but please keep in mind that the Conductor Diameter of 1/0 wiring should be around 0.325" as per the standards I have read on the web and all of the wires are over this standard. ( http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm )

Again I hope you all have enjoyed reading this and maybe learned a little bit along the road! Please feel free to post comments, questions or maybe even ask for a little bit of clarification on certain points I have touched on that weren't fully understood. Like always if you would like to see some more pictures of anything close up or a different angle please just drop me a p/m and I will be glad to help.

Enjoy your day and week

Kenneth

[Shogen 325]

amazing Ken... you're def taking alot of time doing this and it is much appreciated... Need some more "bendable" wiring as my Welding Wire 1/0 isn't making it easy to move things around...

[CrazyKenKid 64]

amazing Ken... you're def taking alot of time doing this and it is much appreciated... Need some more "bendable" wiring as my Welding Wire 1/0 isn't making it easy to move things around...

ya bend-able does help out a lot! I am glad you liked the write up, be sure to spread the word!

[emh9009 199]

Very nice topic. 5 *s for you! Oh, and a beer too-

[Shogen 325]

I think we should get a group buy on KNU... Shok looks nice but holy camel nuts the prices on SSA are insanity and it's CCA!!!

[CrazyKenKid 64]

one slight correction on my part!

the diameters listed on the cart are for solid wire standards. Stranded wire must be larger diameter to compensate for the air gaps between each strand. Stranded wire 0 gauge according to AWG should be 9.53mm (or .375") in diameter.

this link: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

so with that I would like to restate my last paragraph.

the following brands do not meet the standard:

sound quest

Q-Power

Raptor

so lets try to avoid those brands!

[imsolost7886 1]

Great review sir! Definitely makes me happy I spent the money on my KNU Kolossus. Usually do tons of research before spending a ton of money on anything, can't believe I missed this. Very good write up though, very detailed.