Changing a tweeter with a speaker.

[NeonSerg]

Hi,
I recently found myself a Pioneer HIFI system, unfortunately both diffusers have broken tweeter. So I do not want to spend money to repair that problem, so I want to replace tweeters with some small speakers that I have hanging around. I tried to simply connect the cables to this speakers for testing and they worked pretty good.

But because they are around 3 W power and 4 ohm impedance and the diffusers are around 90W (with the subwoofer) and the original tweeters were 7,6 ohm impedance i do not want to let them blow up with louder volumes.

So my question is: what can i do to prevent them explode? can i use basically some resistors in parallel ?

Thank you for the answers and sorry for my english, it's not my mother language

 

[Martaine2005]

Hi Neonserg,
I am not familiar with diffusers. Do you mean a full range speaker has no top end frequencies?
It is not a good idea to use any speaker with a lower impedance than the amplifiers specifications.
If the amp is rated for 4 ohms, then other impedances upwards can be used. ie. 8, 16ohm. But a loss in over all power will be noticed.
However, an amp rated at 8 ohms will eventually be damaged by a lower impedance speaker of 4 ohms. Especially at higher volumes.
So, is the Pioneer you found 8 ohm rated? And the small tweeters are 4 ohm? Then it's not a good idea.
If the amp is 90w and the small speakers are 3w. That's not a good idea either.

You can wire speakers in series and parallel to change the overall impedance. But with just two tweeters, you don't need to worry yourself about that for now.

Martin

 

[davenn]

If the amp is 90w and the small speakers are 3w. That's not a good idea either.

Tho don't forget that the tweeters will be rated much less than the full output power of the amp as they are only seeing a small portion of the freq spectrum
most of the power out will be in the base and mid-range

 

[NeonSerg]

Hi Neonserg,
I am not familiar with diffusers. Do you mean a full range speaker has no top end frequencies?
It is not a good idea to use any speaker with a lower impedance than the amplifiers specifications.
If the amp is rated for 4 ohms, then other impedances upwards can be used. ie. 8, 16ohm. But a loss in over all power will be noticed.
However, an amp rated at 8 ohms will eventually be damaged by a lower impedance speaker of 4 ohms. Especially at higher volumes.
So, is the Pioneer you found 8 ohm rated? And the small tweeters are 4 ohm? Then it's not a good idea.
If the amp is 90w and the small speakers are 3w. That's not a good idea either.

You can wire speakers in series and parallel to change the overall impedance. But with just two tweeters, you don't need to worry yourself about that for now.

Martin

uhm...so for solving that impedance issue i can just connect those two speakers in series right? Talking about the Watts i think there aren't many problems because i connected the speakers to the tweeters outputs in the diffusers, that have much less power than 90W like Davenn said,And however if the power is too much i can easily use a resistor to scale down the power.

Tho don't forget that the tweeters will be rated much less than the full output power of the amp as they are only seeing a small portion of the freq spectrum
most of the power out will be in the base and mid-range

I'm gonna try this way (connecting speakers in series),but are you sure I can't add a 4 ohms resistor, or maybe a coil with the same impedance in series to increase the total impedance in order to avoid damages to amp? it will be much better with the wirings.

However I know that is better buying new tweeters,for sound quality as well, but it's an HI-FI system that i found in the trash on the road and I wanted it just working,maybe not good but just working.

 

[Martaine2005]

Tho don't forget that the tweeters will be rated much less than the full output power of the amp as they are only seeing a small portion of the freq spectrum
most of the power out will be in the base and mid-range

Agreed, which is why I said small speakers. The OP said about changing the tweeters for small speakers.

uhm...so for solving that impedance issue i can just connect those two speakers in series right?

Yes you can. That will give you 8 ohms.
The power/wattage issue will only be a problem with small speakers if you turn the amp up. The small speakers could blow/short and fry the amp.

Martin

 

[NeonSerg]

Yes you can. That will give you 8 ohms.
The power/wattage issue will only be a problem with small speakers if you turn the amp up. The small speakers could blow/short and fry the amp.

Martin

So what about using a coil with 4 ohms in series with each of the speakers for increasing the impedance?

 

[Martaine2005]

To be honest I have never tried. So I cannot really answer that.
Maybe somebody else here can answer that.

Martin

 

[NeonSerg]

To be honest I have never tried. So I cannot really answer that.
Maybe somebody else here can answer that.

Martin

No problem, sure i'm going to try this way before, i think it should work but I keep this thread updated. if it won't work i'll wire the two speakers in series.

Thank you all for tips!!

 

[davenn]

uhm...so for solving that impedance issue i can just connect those two speakers in series right? Talking about the Watts i think there aren't many problems because i connected the speakers to the tweeters outputs in the diffusers, that have much less power than 90W like Davenn said,And however if the power is too much i can easily use a resistor to scale down the power.

No, you cannot connect your replacement tweeter in series with the mid range speaker

If you still want a tweeter, then you must use a cross over network so that appropriate frequencies go to appropriate speakers

yoo haven't commented as to if there is an existing cross over network ???

 

[dorke]

NeonSerg,
What is the model of that system?

Is it a "boom box" style,
the one that has speakers attached on it's sides?
What is the size of the speaker box,what is the size(diameter) of the woofer inside?
Is the rating of power in RMS watts?other "type" of power?

 

[NeonSerg]

No, you cannot connect your replacement tweeter in series with the mid range speaker

If you still want a tweeter, then you must use a cross over network so that appropriate frequencies go to appropriate speakers

yoo haven't commented as to if there is an existing cross over network ???

yes i know,but i'm using mid range speakers instead of tweeters, so they are already connected to a "high pass filter" (don't know the exact word in english). they are enough good for me.

 

[NeonSerg]

NeonSerg,
What is the model of that system?

Is it a "boom box" style,
the one that has speakers attached on it's sides?
What is the size of the speaker box,what is the size(diameter) of the woofer inside?
Is the rating of power in RMS watts?other "type" of power?

The amp is a Pioneer A-X330 with 270W and 8ohm-16ohm of impedance, the diffusers are Pioneer S-X330 90 W both with one woofer 6,3 ohm , 20cm and one dome tweeter 25mm, 7,6 ohm

 

[dorke]

Couldn't find the amp on the web.
The A-X340 and 350 are 30W RMS per channel. soI think the 330 should be about the same.
I wonder were dose 90W or 270W come from?

Connecting 2 small 3W/4ohm speakers in series instead of the tweeter will get you a 6W/8ohm equivalent tweeter.
With a 30W RMS(like you probably have) it will be fine.
The only thing would be the way the all thing would sound...