grounding mulitple components

[lithium 358]

i got 2 amps (soon to be 3) and one of those things with the flashy light... i think they call it a cap.... forget what the does... but anyways. ive always heard that you should ground to the same location but its getting harder to mount all the components close enough that i can reach a common ground location.

amps: kenwood excelon (600rms for the sub), kicker 250.2, (adding second 2 channel or 4 channel amp after xmas)

Questions?

1) can i ground to different locations? if so how?

2) does the ground wire have to be like 18" long or less? can it be more? if i use a ground distro is there a max length in this application?

3) do you need more info on the install?

[95Honda 486]

The best place to ground everything is in the same place, with as heavy of cable as possible. This is always possible.

For about the last ten years I have followed this principle and I have installed close to a 100 car audio systems, I have never once, under any circumstances had a noise problem that wasn't from a defective piece of equipment. I have always used at least 8 awg even for the deck ground. evrything is grounded to the same point. Period. My proof to this technique is in my outcome, every time.....

Any time you ground at different locations, and even worse with too small of ground cable, you run the risk of creating different ground potentials between equipment and this almost always will result in alternator AC leakage working it's way into the signal chain through the low level signal cable ground(s), AKA engine noise.....

There is no limit to your ground length. The length and gauge of wire will determain the voltage drop you will see on your ground cable, less is better. To put this into perspective, a 10' ground of 1/0 is better than a 18" ground of 4 awg. The longer, but thicker, 1/0 cable will have less resistance and less voltage drop.

[lithium 358]

all right sounds good. i needed a pro's advice here.

thanks alot