I have everything grounded to the designated ground adjacent to the battery however the last amp I installed the instructions stated that the amp MUST be grounded within 30" of the amp.

Curious to know the technical reason why this is the case.

T.

 

That's kinda my point.

Take Fosgate's install guide, it specifically says "Ground cable should run directly to battery. Grounding an amp to motorcycle fairings or forks is insufficient due to higher current requirements of amplifier." Now I get why Bill says that (and sells their kits with the short ground). Their amps are extremely efficient and is one of the reasons they can use 14 and 12awg wiring for power and ground where other amps require 8awg. As Tombo stated you do want your ground wire to be as short as possible to minimize the power loop (in most cases, especially cars). However one way to have noiseless ground is to simply ground where the battery is grounded at. Fosgate however recommends the battery.

My point is that there's a "why" to all of this.

Fosgate guide:
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/suppo...i=&p_topview=1

 

That's for cars. Tomobo has a good explanation.

 

Just off the top of my head TW I'd say the longer the wire the more resistance. So a shorter wire would mean less resistance. I could be wrong. But that's the only technical reason I can think of. Where's my friends Nutz and Aawav when I need em!! Lol!!

 

Boooyaa!!!!

Just doing a quick search on the interwebs here's a pretty good explanation from a car forum:

It's a resistance issue... resistance = total area of the circuit or wire... with a wire, you can calculate resistance as length X diameter. So, a shorter wire will have less resistance. The basis of the short ground wire is from the early days of car audio where a high powered amp was pushing 200W. The typical power wire was 8ga. Compard to 15ft of 8ga wire the chassis of the car (whaich was quite substantial in the 80s) is of low resistance. Look at where we are today. A modest system has over 1000W and the primary power wire is at least 4ga if not 0ga. At the same time the metal of the car itself has gotten thinner and as such a worse conductor. Length doesn't matter. Resistance does. As long as the ground is of low resistance, there won't be an issue. The same goes for the power wire. If you are looking at using 0ga for the power wire, you will proably get a better ground by going straight back to the battery with the same size cable.

 

Looks like a started a sh$t storm. Maybe Bill from BT will chime in.

 

You guys got it. It's basically Ohm's Law, if you increase resistance without bumping up the voltage you will have less current. Thus not enough power to the amp.

In some electronic circles, current flows negative to positive, I.e. Ground to positive. In others it flows positive to ground or negative.

So the shorter the path to ground the less resistance you will have, giving better current to the device.

 

Got my install done. Instructions/directions could have been better.

Hardest part was fitting the headlight assembly back into the fairing with the additional stuff in there.

Oh and that dang screw that holds down the front of the console on the tank! Thought I was gonna have to take a big hammer to that thing.

Overall, very pleased with the sound and loudness.

 

Yea the front screw on the tank console is a pain. You can do it without taking the console off though, pull the 1 or 2 vacuum lines and the connector for the pump is the white one under the seat.

I am pretty satisfied with the volume and overall sound of the system. Wish I could get just a touch more bass in it but it is light years beyond the factory set up.