correct cable

hey you guys me and my freind hooked up my 4 12's to my jbl 1200.1 amp. Its only like 14 gauge and i heard it was much to small. What size speaker cable should i hook them up with? thanks

Practically, 14 gauge is fine. For looks, go with 10 gauge. There will be little performance gains, but they won't be audible. But the bling factor over-rules the function factor. Paul

ok cuz the installer at the local car audio shop said i should be using much thicker cable.

Here... Check the speaker wire calculator...It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Ohm's Law applies.  The installer should know that.  But seriously, for a short run of speaker wire, who cares?  As Paul said above, go with whatever you think looks best...but know that 14 gauge won't even get warm to the touch.Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

ok now would 10 gauge have any better sound performance

10-14 guage will not make a huge difference in sound i have 12 awg running to my kicker s15L7 subs and its finejoe

I use 8awg wire for my subs. I come off the mono block amp with a 4awg pos and neg, they go to 4 gang dist blocks, then the 4 8awg pos and 4 8awg neg go to the 8- 2 ohm dvc subs wired @ 2ohms. my subs are inverted and I use chrome spark plug wire looms to route the wires. Like a V8 engine. looks real sharp. And it is for looks only. I don't think my ears could tell the diff between 14 and 8 awg.Big Dave

Wait, do you mean that you sent the speaker wire through a distribution block? If so, WTF? COuld you post a picture please?