Quote:
Originally Posted by Compelica
My understanding is that the HU amp sees a 2 ohm load based on the parallel wiring configuration on the tweeters and midbass. Both stock tweeters and midbass are at 4ohm, so if the tweeter is bypassed the circuit basically becomes a single sided speaker wired in series, hence that replacement speaker has to be 2ohm to match the impedence seen by the HU amp.
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but if you pull apart any random 2, 3, 4, or 5-way bookshelf/floorstanding speaker, the back will say something like "8 ohms nominal" and every driver will measure around 6-8 ohms.
the general rule of thumb is that it is always safe to go up in resistance, but it is not always safe to go lower in resistance. unless there is something from the mfg specifically stating that the amplifier is rated to work at the lower resistance rating.
i would run 16 ohm speakers if i could find a decent selection, but alas, 4, 6, and 8 ohm have become commonplace. generally, the higher the resistance, the more sensitive the speaker is going to be to more delicate sounds, which stands to reveal more detail in the music.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Compelica
Also I have some questions regarding '2 way' and '3 way' crossover modes on the Kenwood head units if you don't mind... I recently installed a DDX918WS and it has '2 way' set by default. Speaker setups are as per stock configuration.
In '2 way' mode, the HU sees outputs as fronts and rears, hence they are lumping the door and dash speakers as single output. I was thinking if I could use the '3-way' setting to further optimize the filters? From what I see, all the speakers already have a simple filter pass installed so there's no unlikely going to be any damage.
Still a beginner at this but I'm trying to understand what I can use at my disposal to tune it to my liking. Low-end is enough for me but I would like to improve the midrange based on what I have for now... and then look at drop-in recommendations once I've gotten my best out of it.
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your radio's feature is the same as my pioneer 80prs' 'network mode'. you unfortunately can't use this mode without a lot more wiring work. it's how this thread has gotten to 50 posts! if using this mode in the future is a serious consideration for you, i would not go with the previous speakers i recommended-- network mode is specifically for installations that comply with the very-vanilla 'car audio install', where one installs an off-the-shelf component set consisting of a small tweeter, and a midrange, with an additional powered subwoofer. this car just isn't compatible with that setup out of the box, and would require re-wiring to be made compatible.
while there are technically 8 speakers in the car, the radio only ever 'sees' 4 speakers. it see's 2 front speakers, and 2 rear speakers
the dash tweeters and mids are connected directly to the 'front' radio output, and the amplifier that works the door speakers gets it's audio signal from the 'front' output of the radio as well.
and then the back 2 speakers are connected directly to the 'rear' output of the radio.
if you were to set your radio to 3-way mode, it would cut all of the bass from the 'front' output--the door speakers would do nothing, and you'd hear mostly just the cymbals of a drumset out of the dash speakers, it would also attempt to send the midbass to the 'rear' output(which the rear speakers can only sort of handle), and would require an additional subwoofer to handle the lower frequencies after that.
it's possible to re-wire the factory sound system to use the door speakers as a subwoofer, but the easiest way to do that would be to change the factory amplifier for an aftermarket model, and that amount of work quickly cascades into my typical recommendation of gutting the factory system for a nice set of aftermarket amplifiers to run all the speakers. and once all the speakers are on aftermarket amplifiers, changing modes, settings, or speaker styles becomes a lot more freeing.