Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

[zach103]

So this is my idea.. i did a search with not much luck.. its just an idea.. i have 4 speakers right now and was given 4 more speakers for xmas.. so my idea was if i can have all 8 speakers on four switches.. now no more than 4 will be on at a time.. i made a crappy diagram lol so hopefully you guys can figure it out....4 switches.. two speakers on each switch. heres the radio we have..
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Boat..._l=SBC;cat104794380;cat104707080;cat104603580

and the diagram

 

[mcgyver210]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

What are you trying to accomplish?

Actually depending on your Amplifiers Specs & Speakers Specs you may be able to run all 8 at 2 Ohms instead of 4 ohms (most common rating)

My system has multiple zones & does what you are trying to do thru the head unit.


It is also possible to use your fader to create a simple make shift 2 zone 4 speaker per zone if you can run 2 ohms.

 

[zach103]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

I want to do the zone thing like ur saying.. like when just cruising ill have lets say the walk thrus on.. when just sititing there the bow and stern on.. and when in the water just the transom on.

 

[royal0014]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

Switches are just a bad idea. Could cause damage to your head unit. Wire up according to the specs of the unit, then use fade/balance to zone.


<<)))(((>>

 

[zach103]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

I just don't want to go to low on the ohms because of the possible damage to the head.. so thats why i was worried about having all the speakers hooked up at once

 

[Fl_Richard]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

I just don't want to go to low on the ohms because of the possible damage to the head.. so thats why i was worried about having all the speakers hooked up at once

Try something like this - http://www.ramelectronics.net/audio...ker-switch-wall-plates/inwnp8/prodINWNP8.html

It should save you some wiring grief.

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

I just don't want to go to low on the ohms because of the possible damage to the head.. so thats why i was worried about having all the speakers hooked up at once

Zach,
You could do two things:
1) Wire the speakers in parallel and add a 2 ohm resistor in line to get you back to 4 ohm total (recommended)
2) Wire the speakers in series instead of parallel; this will give you an 8 ohm load instead of 4 ohm; the end result will be less top end volume and little added amp heat.

 

[zach103]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

When in the parallel and adding the resistor would i have on for each parallel of two speakers?

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

When in the parallel and adding the resistor would i have on for each parallel of two speakers?

Like this (for each of the four pairs):

 

[zach103]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

i searched for the resistor and idn if this is the right one so i want to make sure.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062325

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

Zach,

That one looks too big (2.2K ohms or 2200 ohms). Also it can only take 0.5 watts. I would go to Radio shack and tell them what you are trying to do. They might have a resistor for this type of application. You will also need to find one that can handle the wattage your head unit will be putting out.

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

Zach,

I contacted the folks at Part Express and posed your situation to their tech guys. They said that adding the 2 ohm resistor wouldn't work well because you would loose too much amp power as heat in the resistor. I was also concerned about that as well. They recomended connecting the speakers in series which was my second option mentioned above. At least with that configuration most of the power is still being converted to sound rather than heat.

 

[zach103]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

Ok. And so in the series with the amount of speakers it wont burn out the head unit??

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

No it shouldn't. Like I said before, it won't get as loud (might be less clearer at high vloumes) as with a 4 ohm load thats all. Amps over heat as a result of too low a load thus more current flowing and getting things hotter.

 

[hrdwrkingacguy]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

wire 2 speakers in series and 2 speakers in parallel to each channel and you will be back at 4ohm's...They series/parallel dual voice coil subs all the time to get 4ohm or 2ohm depending on the speaker...

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

He only wants to put two speakers per channel. Besides your math is off. 2 spkrs in par = 2ohms; 2 spkrs in series=8 ohms; total on line ohms would be 8+2=10 ohms.

For the subs again they (whoever they are) are only using two spkrs...so yeah you can configure them ether way to get your values since most subs are only 2ohms. Would not work with four subs.

 

[hrdwrkingacguy]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

In my car when I was younger and stupider I had 6 kicker comp 12's all DVC(don't remember what impedance) wired series/parallel adding up to 4ohm's...

if he has a 4 channel deck, he can series/parallel 2 speakers per channel and have 4 ohms, fade front to rear for zoning and be fine... This won't actually work, looking closer at the original post..

Check this link Here...About 1/2 way down is series/parallel...Something in there will give you an option or idea

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

In my car when I was younger and stupider I had 6 kicker comp 12's all DVC(don't remember what impedance) wired series/parallel adding up to 4ohm's...

if he has a 4 channel deck, he can series/parallel 2 speakers per channel and have 4 ohms, fade front to rear for zoning and be fine... This won't actually work, looking closer at the original post..

Check this link Here...About 1/2 way down is series/parallel...Something in there will give you an option or idea

ACguy,

Thanks for the link. It was informative. Like I said before though, since he is only using two 4 ohm spkrs per channel there is really no way to configure them to get a 4 ohm total load on that channel. He would have to add two more 4 ohm spkrs per channel to still maintain a 4 ohm load (which is what I think you are thinking?). One thing to note however, is the more speakers you add the more power you need for a given volume level. Since he is using the head unit amp the total amount of power is limited as opposed to throwing a bunch of amps in the mix.

 

[hrdwrkingacguy]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

my speakers are all bi-amp'able coaxial's...Which are essentially two separate speakers in one...So you have 8 speakers and 16 voice coils...If the speakers are lower power handling and bi-amp'able its possible to make a "ok" system to run off the deck power if its really 50w per channel...

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Speaker wiring.. Yay or nay

my speakers are all bi-amp'able coaxial's...Which are essentially two separate speakers in one...So you have 8 speakers and 16 voice coils...If the speakers are lower power handling and bi-amp'able its possible to make a "ok" system to run off the deck power if its really 50w per channel...

Okay gothcha. I didn't know they made dual voice coil coaxial speakers. I knew about dual voice coil subs. Thanks for the info. You are correct in that case but I think Zach just had just stright up sinlge voice coil 4 ohm speakers.