Thomas: It is possible that the amps don't like the remote input being controlled by a mechanical switch. Most amps (every one I have seen in the last 10 years) have a "soft start" feature. This keeps the speakers quiet while the amp powers up or down. The amp powers up based on the remote signal. When this signal is driven by a head unit it would switch cleanly, that is, it will either be ON or OFF. A mechanical switch is by its very design very "noisy". The common term is "contact bounce" and is a major problem with any device that needs to respond to a switch input. Devices that are expecting to have a switch input will have some sort of "debounce" circuit. What happens is this: When you flip the switch, the contacts are shoved together very quickly to minimize arcing. Unfortunately, when they hit they bounce, and switch makes contacts, then breaks it, then makes it, then breaks it, and so on for as long as it bounces. This will happen very quickly and you would never notice it on a light circuit or similar device. It is possible that the amp gets confused by this. It is being told to turn on, then off, then on, then off, then on.... This may cause the "soft start" feature to malfunction. As for the size of wire to your amps: I was suggesting adding an additional wire of size 12 guage between the stereo and amps. You should be using much larger wire between the battery and the amp. If you are using the same set of wires to supply two 400 watt amps then the wire needs to be able to provide 800 watts of 12 volt power, or 800/12=66 amps. If you are running 66 amps through 10 guage then you are overloading the wire to start with, and unless the wire run is very short (like less than a foot) you will have an unacceptable voltage drop due to the wire. To properly size the wire you need to know the total wire run. If it takes 10 feet or wire to get to the battery to the amps, then the total run will be 20 feet because you have to account for the ground return as well. If you wanted to keep the voltage drop to less than 3% then for a 20 foot run at 66 amps you would need to use 4 guage wire. If you were running 10 guage you would be getting almost a 20% drop when the amps really worked hard, which would drop the voltage to 9.6 volts and the amps could shut down due to the low voltage. My suggestion is this: 1) Beef up the wire size between the battery and the amps. If in doubt, go to the next size larger wire! You may need to add a junction block near the amps that can accept 4 guage wire and then go from that to the amps in whatever size wire they can accept. 2) Add a second ground wire directly from the stereo case to the amps. This wire can be 10 guage. 3) Reconnect the remote input of the amps to the deck.
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