Great point! I am doing a new head unit this weekend and will run wires directly to the battery. Thanks for the great idea.

HMM. So this is why my top-of-the-line in 01 Clarion deck sounds so crappy. Looked in the owners manual and it says to run a direct line to the battery. So if I do that I'll definitely do the ground too. Probably will do it tomorrow and let you all know how it goes.
Can't sound any worse (but it could read no CD'* at all compared to reading only 3 out of 10 that I put in it -crappy Clarion'* -this is the second Clarion that I've had that is really picky about original CD'* - CD-R'* And CD-RW'* are absolutely not accepted).

Hey, in the middle of doing this now since I am hooking up an EQ. I found a ground on the passenger side kick panel, was going to run a direct wire from the battery for constant fused into the passenger compartment, is that what you guys did, or did you run off the fuse block? If the fuse block, what color/wire did you tap off of? Or anyone know a good wire off the fuse block to tap off of? Thanks!!

Such a simple concept, yet almost always overlooked. Good writeup my man. Depending on the current requirements for the head unit to make optimum power on the output section of the amplifier, this should, in most cases, be one of the simplest and most effective upgrades to you can do to your car stereo. And it makes perfect sense, less resistance in the wiring, means more current capacity.

my alpine came with an 8 guage wire for the power supply and got more 8 guage and hooked it up directly to the battery and it still dimmed on the big hits, it wasnt until i got my cap and amp did it stop dimming, oh and the HU isnt on the line with the cap, its just that that HU doesnt need to provide the speaker power anymore and the amp is capped so the whole car wont dim