Power Source

This may sound like a stupid quesition.  I just can't remember the answer.  If someone did not want to drill a hole through the firewall and run a power wire from the battery, It is possible to use a switched 12 volt power source to provide current to an amp, right?  For example: Splicing into the power wire on the cigarette lighter.  Would doing (or not doing) this procedure depend on what kind of power would be needed for that particular setup? 

If you don’t have a remote wire connection on your head unit. You can splice into the cigarette lighter or another switched 12volt source for the remote turn on lead that turns the amp on and off. But you never tap into anything except for the battery terminal for the main (constant) power to your amp.

The reason you need a constant from the battery source is because mainly you need a supply of power that is always hot. This enables all of the memory (for digital) systems to be kept up to date. Other than that you MUST have a constant power source from the battery because of the AMOUNT of constant power you need. For most systems to run properly, you need around 12-14 volts (average car battery) and to conduct THAT MUCH power, you need the correct guage wire. Obviously a cigarette lighter wire is nowhere near the correct guage to give an amp enough power to work properly. This is the main reason you must come straight off of the battery.

unless you have some tiny amp the current draw is much too great for any 22 gauge wire laying around, you have to run it from the battery, if you try to pull that current though a tiny little wire like that it will just blow the fuse on it, or catch fire