Did the wire upgrade by adding to existing ground wires and running the Bat+ to alternator. I measured baseline voltage at 14.23v at idle. After Bat- to chassis and engine to chassis wires added voltage was 14.34v. Lastly, with Bat+ to alternator ended up w/ 14.39v for an increase of .16v total.
This was an easy upgrade and I did it to both clean up the terminals by using these: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=263-682 and to quicken startup. Seemed to have worked for start up and I was really surprised that the my modestly powered sound system (600 watts) had a noticeable improvement in bass amount and clarity/detail top to bottom.
This was an easy upgrade as I went w/ smaller 4 and 8 gauge wire which was easy to route and terminate. I think I'm gonna do this on the TL and Lexus, too.

 

16 views so I ll go first. I have been wanting to do the Big 3 for quite some time now. What kind of sound system are you running?

 

Very modest system. Old school Eclipse HU, Focal Polykevlar comps, ID 12" sub in sealed enclosure, older RF 4 channel amp. Doors are sound deadened.

 

I would recommend using 0 gauge wire for the big three, you'll see the most "improvement"

The Big three installation is not gonna give you any sort of boost, but acts more of a regulation. Basically, the stock wires are small, they are going to strain the power coming through them. It's not really needed to have huge wires to run your stock electrical system, there's not much power being pulled through them. (headlights, taillights, AC, interior lights)

Now with a few hundred (or thousand) watts of power being pulled from your battery, those wires will strain when having that power pulled from them. This is where the Big 3 kicks in, its gonna let the full potential of your alternator push that power to your batt.


Werd.

 

Just finished the TL and did just the new terminals and added Bat- to chassis ground. Baseline voltage was 14.14v at idle and after adding 4ga. ground wire it went to 14.25v. Again, like the CL the bass was more pronounced, enough so that I needed to make a slight adjustment by decreasing the sub gain. The increase in clarity was not as pronounced as the CL. I looked at the path to from Bat+ to the alternator and the run is long and tortuous so unless I get less lazy I don't know if I'm gonna add it.
Alx, you must be right that it is a voltage regulation issue 'cause I can't see a .11 or .16 volt increase resulting in and audible improvement. As for the thickness of the wire, I think the formula is if ya double the run - parallel - you get the equivalent of 3ga. sizes down (bigger). So since my existing wire is 4ga + the 4ga I added, I have a 1ga connection. Anyway seems to work and I didn't want to hassle w/ the garden hose sized sized wires.

 

Haha, i had 17 ft of a garden hose in my old car.

But yes 2 runs of 4awg is gonna be about the same strand count of 0 gauge.

 

Sound deadening, that's what I will definitely need after my install. I got a competition set up ready to go in the car. Orion HCCA D 5000 and HCCA 12.2, its gonna do some damage. Eclipse and RF is good stuff, don't know to much about Focal components. I will go sealed as well for better power handling. Got a Kinetik HC 1400 battery for the trunk as back up and a Stinger 200 amp isolator too.

 

there are people that claim 10hp increases but I am skeptical........ considering that there are several places in the car that stuff is grounded to....

 

Focal makes a very solid component set among other things.

Expensive shit.

Damn...I'm wouldn't think this upgrade to the Big 3 is necessary unless I upgrade to more watts RMS.

 

What total RMS are you pushing right now? I didnt upgrade my big three in my D until i was running close to 2kwrms.

 

Not even close to that...

I'm only running 400 rms to the sub.

And I have a five channel which I think runs about 100 to the front components and 80 to the rear.

I'm can't remember exactly but I think those numbers are close in the ball park.

So I am not sure how much an upgrade like that would benefit me except a more pronounced low end.

 

I would say Do It! The routes on our cars are really quite easy. And the improvement in bass attack and transparency is surprising.
I need to amend my statement above re. less clarity in my TL system w/ just the terminals and Bat- to chassis. The TL system again while modest at just 500w total from the RF amp has decent pieces w/ Eclipse HU, CDT carbon fiber comps and Illusion Audio ND12 sub sealed. Anyway, I always thought this system was too soft/muddied and should sound better and now it does. Transparency is much better, like a veil of haze is gone. I can't tell you how many times I've tried tweaking this system and this simple mod helped more than anything short of initial tuning of levels, xover and aiming. I'm pleased and pissed at the same time 'cause I research my hobbies a lot and I've never heard the importance of this mod until reading it here. I think back to the dozens of systems I've done This is gonna be a basic for any system I do from now on.

 

Hmm...good info. there.

I'm going to def. look into doing that then.

 

yeah right.

hyperground kits Right...........

 

after reading all of this, i am still confused as to what a BIG three is ?????
sites, DIY or a Pics will definatley bring this to life.

 

I found a couple of articles because I also was not familiar with the "Big 3"

Not sure if I can post links to other sites but...

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Big-3-...ade&id=1411196

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/...TID~73496~PN~1

Some pics would be helpful over here because then it is specific to Acuras.

 

thanks getting the info.
very helpful.

 

No trouble.

Yeah...those links have some good DIY info in there.

I feel I have a much greater understanding now.