How to wire a six speaker system to a car stereo with only 4 outputs?

Question

Should i run the medium and small speaker in a paralel circuit off of one output? the instructions say to only use 4ohms speakers, so if i run two 4ohm speakers in paralel wont it reduce the resistance to 2ohms? is this ok?

Answer 1

Make sure the speakers arent to many watts for the deck and hook up two speakers to the fronts of the deck and four speakers to the rears of the deck,it wont hurt the deck as long as the deck has more watts per channnel then the speakers put together.

Answer 2

You do not want to run the speakers at 2 ohm. You're only option to keep everything working within it's design is to wire 4 of the speakers in series (increasing the impedence to 8 ohms) and run the other set stereo (4 ohm). The ones that are wired 8 ohm will receive about half of the power, but with twice the speakers, the output should not be significantly noticable.

Answer 3

No it is not ok. You'll overheat your amp.

If you run them in parallel, yes this will make them 2 ohms, which your system is not rated for. If you run them in series, however, they will become 8 ohms, which is more than sufficient resistance for your system, but the audio output will be cut in half. You can then balance your radio to halfway to the rear or so and turn up the preamp and main volume. You MAY get alot of static out of the front speakers, but you can balance your speakers this way. Connect the middle speakers to the rear outputs.

To wire in series, connect the out put of the amp to the first speaker wire, then the return of the speaker to the next speaker, and the return from that to the return of the amp. Make sure you use 14GAW wire for 50Watt channels and 12GAW for anything above that so you don't provide too much resistance or too much ground loss in the wire.

Answer 4

Your system won't mean squat without a well designed box to put your subs in. Some manufacturers have recommendations as to dimensions of various types of boxes. It is best to find someone who builds boxes if you go with something other than a sealed box.

You should always match up RMS (Root Mean Square) watts of Subs and amp per channel as well as impedance's(resistances).

If your amp is rated at 4Ω don't subject it to 2Ω, it will fry.

Here is the formula for subs in parallel:

Z = 1 / (1/sub1 + 1/sub2 + 1/sub3 + ....)

For series, just add them up (sub1 + sub2 + ...).

You can mix and match these equations to get the right impedance required by your amp.

Example: 4 subs @ 4Ω each. If I connect two in parallel and the other two in parallel and tie the two pairs in series, I would have a total impedance(resistance) of 4Ω. So to the amp, it's just one sub.

You should use a capacitor as well.

Recommend for every 500 watts MAX you use a .5 Farad cap
Example: 1000 watts MAX - 1 Farad cap

Try http://www.soundomain.com/shop you can find some really good deals, and this site is manufacturer certified. VERY IMPORTANT WHEN SHOPPING ON-LINE!!!

You will also need what's called a "line level converter" if your stock head unit doesn't have RCA outputs or your amp doesn't have high-level inputs.

If you like I can send you some plans for reference. My plans are for a 4-th order band pass bass box that holds two 12's. Also included are java calculators you can use to figure parallel and series values given Ω values.
Just e-mail me [e-mail]

I chose Blaupunkt TSw1200 subs with a Sony Xplōd XM2200GTX and it moves my coffee table around when I'm in the driveway.

My amp is 1200 watts, subs are 600 watts

Answer 5

It is perfectly fine. And yes it will lower it to 2-ohms. Most amps are capable of 2-ohms in stereo. I am running, 4 coaxes, and a set of tweets off my two channel amp.... I have NEVER had it shut off. The worst that will happen is your amp will shut off and go into protection, assuming it has that.

Give me some specs of your equipment, and I will be able to better answer your question.

Answer 6

You'll need to get a couple Y-connectors from an electronics store (like Radio Shack). These will take the two lead down to one.

Answer 7

just as long as it doesnt pass 2 ur good, if it gets to 1 u may have a problem