Ohm my......(speaker question)

[Omega Man]

So the ohms for our speakers(Clarion) are 4ohms, and the speakers I'm running are 8ohm. Is this why I don't hear much until the volume knob is around 1/2 power, the bass craps out soon after that, and lastly the volume spikes up as I'm turning the stereo off?

In other words, the speakers only sound good around half volume.

~O~

 

[Five]

Sounds logical and ohms are a measure of resistance, but I'm no electrical engineer. If I was I would work in an office and make more money :grin:

 

[dan filipi]

If the polarity connection to the speakers is wrong it'll sound strange. The bass gets washed out too.
That's about all I know about speakers.

 

[paddy.shadow]

lower ohms equals better bass response, polarity is important in this aspect also, that's all I know! :thank_you:

 

[Omega Man]

So I'll be better off getting the 4ohm speakers? The polarity is correct on my application.

~O~

Edit -

The polarity is correct on my application.

I think...I'm using the factory wires and using the striped one as positive. Is that correct?

 

[lew1701]

You definatly want to switch back to the 4 ohm speakers...trying to drive a high impedance speaker with an under-powered stereo will fry your unit. This is especially true of factory installed systems or stereos spec'ed for a specific application. More modern components have a little more wiggle room but if you're dealing with an older stereo you really want to watch out.

 

[dan filipi]

I think I've had it on speakers in the past where I was sure the polarity was right but it still sounded strange.
By trial and error I found even having one with reversed polarity actually sounded better. I don't know why but it did.
Try it, swap polarity one speaker at a time, You might be surprised.
You'd have to ask someone that knows more than I if the unit could be damaged with reversed polarity, I don't think so.

 

[lew1701]

So I'll be better off getting the 4ohm speakers? The polarity is correct on my application.

~O~

Edit -

The polarity is correct on my application.

I think...I'm using the factory wires and using the striped one as positive. Is that correct?

The wire shouldn't be polarity specific...just make sure you hook up all speakers the same way.

 

[Omega Man]

You definatly want to switch back to the 4 ohm speakers.

Damn...last weekend I was at this huge swapmeet here in Vegas and I saw some new 4" 100w speakers that were 4ohm for $10...the wife even said "get them if you want," but I didn't :head bang:

~O~

 

[lew1701]

If there is one thing I've learned after 20 years of marrage (today is our anniversary) when she says "go ahead and buy it if you want it" I jump on it.

 

[user 92]

Happy anniversary! :music:
We're working on #19 so far.

If there is one thing I've learned after 20 years of marrage (today is our anniversary) when she says "go ahead and buy it if you want it" I jump on it.

Not sure what I've learned. I think I'm just here to mix the Tang and see what I can get for these old moon rocks.
"One of these days Alice, one of these days......."

 

[toytender01]

:hi: If a man makes a decision and a woman is not around is he still wrong???? :head bang: :head bang: :head bang:

 

[stratocat]

I con't know much about stereo gear but in the world of musical instrument amplification impedance matching between amp and speaker is supposed to be critical especially with soid state amps. I have a bass amp that died I believe because of that. :music2:

 

[AApple]

Having the + and the - wires on the correct terminal of a speaker will greatly improve the sound. Having BOTH speakers wired correctly is called "in phase". I have found over the years that the little + and - signs on the speaker terminals don't mean squat.
What happens when you get the + and - "backwards", or out of phase on one speaker, is that speaker's cone is moving in the opposite direction from the other speaker. This will kill any bass, but for some reason, it seems to work fine for talk/speaking.
I always connect one speaker with the + & - on the corresponding terminal of one speaker. Then, with music playing, I'll connect the other speaker both ways, and see which way has the best bass, and overall sound. That's the way it gets wired from there.
I'm sure there are way more scientific explanations, and methods to doing this, but this werks for me. :mrgreen:

 

[dan filipi]

An audio engineer buddy way back would use a 9 volt battery to check speaker polarity.
He'd touch the leads from the speaker to the battery watching which way the cone moved.
If it moved out (as it should) he'd mark the speaker terminal pos and neg to match the way it was connected to the battery.

I guess it was accurate enough. I just swap them back and forth and listen for the best sound.

 

[AApple]

I've known about the trick with the 9v battery for years, but.....really....do you ever have a 9v battery laying around when your doing audio werk? :smilie_happy: I think I actually did it once, a hunnert years ago, just to see if it werked, and it does. :mrgreen:

 

[paddy.shadow]

These guys have a lot of stuff reasonably priced and purpose built.

https://www.gooddeals18.com/product/SHKC ... o-pkg.html