house speakers with a car stereo?

Question

I have a pontoon boat, and I am trying to put a stereo in it. And I was thinking about instead of going with a marine 6 1/2" going with a pair of bose 151 outdoor speakers(older model not the se). The price isnt to bad comparitively and the sound quality out of the fully enclosed 151s is alot better. I am worried about ohms and maybe wattage compared to a house stereo. Will it sound close to as well using a car stereo? I dont want to use an amp and those speakers say rated for 40 watts I believe. which doesnt sound like much for a car stereo, but a house stereo 40 watts may be considered more. Any experts on the subject with an opinion appreciated.. tia

Answer 1

Your car stereo it rated at 4 ohms nominal, it is likely, and unless I am mistaken, many Bose speakers are rated as 4-8 Ohms nominal (Bose never seems to give complete specs). My guess is that the speakers operate at 6 Ohms, and therefore your car stereo will be delivering less power to them than an equivilent 4 ohm speaker. I have no doubt that the speakers can be used, my only concern would be that, as most decks really make around 10-15 watts RMS, the 151's are going to be underpowered for the noisy boat environment. I would suggest finding an inexpensive amplifier capable of 50 or so watts a channel to complement the speakers.

Answer 2

Speakers should always have a higher Watt rating than the amplifier they are connected with.
Speakers should ideally have the Ohm value specified by the amplifier. If the speaker value is too low, the output transistors in the amplifier could "die". If the speaker value is too high, then you don't get the desired power.

Answer 3

they will work fine off the car stereo...on worries...they will sound just as good