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Seriesing speakers?

D

Danny Johnson

Jan 1, 1970
0
If I were to replace one 8 ohm speaker 500 watt with two 4 ohm
speakers 300 watts each in series, how would this affect the quality
of the sound?

Thanks,
Dan
 
D

Danny Johnson

Jan 1, 1970
0
no_one said:
depends on the quality of the speaker.
All things being equal except impedience, 8 ohns Vs. two 4 ohm speakers.
 
D

Danny Johnson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Palindr?me said:
Speakers even of the same impedance and power handling vary greatly in the
"quality of the sound" that they produce.

Speakers even of the same or very similar measured frequency response vary
greatly in the "quality of the sound" that they produce.

Speakers vary greatly in the "quality of the sound" that they produce -
simply by changing their position and/or the environment in which they are
used.

Thus your question cannot be answered with only the details given.

If you specified which make and model of speakers that you wished to
compare, the environment and the type of music, plus details of the rest
of the system, you may find that a hifi group could give you some idea of
the difference you might expect. However, "quality of sound" is an
individual experience and just because it should sound better - it may
not to you.

I would suggest that, if you really want to know, you try it and see.

BTW I assume that by "speakers" you mean speakers in enclosures.
Correctly designed enclosures are vital. Also, expensive, well-designed
speakers can often sound worse than cheap ones- because they don't mask
the distortion produced by the rest of the system to the same extent that
limited bandwidth cheap speakers do...
The reason I want this is on camping trips, my family and I
often enjoy playing music together. One brother is a loud
banjo player, another mandolin, a sister plays battery operated
keyboard. So my acoustic guitar doesn't have a chance
against these loud instruments. There is no 115 VAC available.
 
A

Andrew Gabriel

Jan 1, 1970
0
All things being equal except impedience, 8 ohns Vs. two 4 ohm speakers.

Speaker impedance isn't constant -- it varies widely with the
frequency and is dependant on the enclosure too. For two
identical speakers in identical enclosures, it should be OK.
For two different speakers with different impedance/frequency
graphs, they would each sound like they were being driven
through different graphics equalizers with the sliders set to
random positions.

You would get more predictable results with two 16 ohm speakers
in parallel. Then they wouldn't need to be identically matched.

In either case, the total sound output might be higher or lower.
That would depend on the efficiency of the two speakers verses
the original speaker. The output can become much more directional
though (Youngs Slits effect*) giving loud and quiet areas, which
in some cases (off-centre) will vary by frequency.

*See http://www.practicalphysics.org/go/Experiment_115.html
 
E

ehsjr

Jan 1, 1970
0
Danny said:
If I were to replace one 8 ohm speaker 500 watt with two 4 ohm
speakers 300 watts each in series, how would this affect the quality
of the sound?

Thanks,
Dan

It would still be too damn loud.

Ed
 
G

Glenn Baddeley

Jan 1, 1970
0
Being in series, the electrical damping as seen by the LS
back into the amplifier would be very different, hence
the bass response would vary. Putting LS in series
is generally not a good idea. Glenn.
 
J

Jimmie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Danny Johnson said:
If I were to replace one 8 ohm speaker 500 watt with two 4 ohm
speakers 300 watts each in series, how would this affect the quality
of the sound?

Thanks,
Dan
From an electrical standpoint there should be no trouble in doing what you
want. wire the + or red terminal of one speaker to the - or black on the
other. How it will sound depends on too many variables, many of them very
subjective, to discuss
 
J

John Ray

Jan 1, 1970
0
FWIW the de-facto standard in guitar amplification is a series / parallel
combo of 4 16 ohm 12" speakers.

John
 
G

Glenn Baddeley

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yeah, but its designed to work like that in the given cabinet.

The LF damping on each speaker would be different if they
were all connected in parallel, or all in series, and then the LF
response would vary.
Putting LS in series is generally not a good idea.

better qualified as "without considering the effect on damping".

Glenn.
 
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