I'm looking for suggestions on how most people get speaker wire into their fiberglass enclosures after there completed. Specifically on enclosure that are made entirely of fiberglass with exception to the speaker rings.
I've heard of people drilling a hole in the enclosure to run the wire through and then sealing it up later. I've also heard of installing speaker terminal cups right into the enclosure.
Any other ideas?
Which method is best?
Is it better to have the wires from the amp go directly to the speaker leads--meaning do you lose any quality in sound/signal when you introduce something like a speaker terminal cup into the mix?
-Chris
The best and cheapest method is to drill a hole and seal it with silicone. I normally only use terminal cups on pre-fab enclosures and enclosures that will be removed from the vehicle often.
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I would think that if you have take the time to construct a fibre glass enclosure, you would do it the justice by using a terminal cup and not just drilling a hole into the box that will just make it look scrappy.
And if you do the wiring properly with quality wires and conectors there should be vertually no percievalbe drop in sound quality.
The mear fact that you would use a cup on a pre-fab and then not use one on the glass one says something as well.
1- I don't run the wires through visible holes in the enclosures
2-if you use terminal cups on 12 ga speaker runs to 1200wrms subs there will be a drop in sound quality and output.
3-people don't want to pay for speaker terminals glassed into enclosures.
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u can run a pvc pipe that will make a route for the speaker wires so u can run them to the back of the box then drill a hole and just silicone it. Drilling a hole is not a bad idea and doesnt look scrappy just dont drill it in the middle of the front part, remember topps the box is 3-d so drill in the back
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dream it, build it, fiberglass it
another good idea is to use brass or gold plated 1/4inch bolts (1/4 refering to the shaft width of teh bolt) and use washers and wing nuts to secure. this way you wont worry about teh air leaking out or the siliconed spot.. or resealing the wire holes every so often if you would like e-mail me and i can show you a picture of an example i did on a MDF application
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zonefire317
most of the time you are not going to see the wire run anyway. drilling a hole and siliconing the wire in is not a bad choice....usually when you are making a glassed box you are making some sort of trim panels or it is siting in a contoured cornre some place.
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