Stereo Upgrade - question on wiring front channel

[su20]

I'm planning to replace the Bose "upgraded" CDR-220, amp, and speakers in my '02 C4S in stages, and have been reading everything I can find on the forum - lots of great advice. I'm planning on decent speakers and probably a 5-channel amp (5th channel for subwoofer so I'll only have one amp). What is confusing me is how to hook up 6 speakers to 4 channels, in particular... what is the best way to connect the four front speakers to the front channel of the amp?

I think there are two options as far as I can tell:

- Use a crossover to split the channel between the dash and the door, using the door speakers as mid-bass speakers. Would this keep the load at 4 ohms?

- Wire the dash speakers and door speakers in parallel, which would effectively make the front channel 2 ohm

If I did the latter, I believe most amps are 2 ohm stable and this would actually give me a bit of a boost in power to the front speakers, but would this cause a problem if the rear panel speakers were hooked up as a 4 ohm load? I suppose I could add resistors to the front circuit to bring it back to 4 ohm.

If I did the former, would I have to buy additional crossovers and where would I install those?

I appreciate any advice!

[laalves]

Hi,

You should try and get a 3-way kit from any manufacturer with a 3 way crossover. Most of the 3-way kits I've seen come with 6.25", which may be too big to fit.

Alternatively, use a 2-way kit with a 5.25" mid bass driver and a tweeter and use the in dash receptacle just for the tweeter.

I used two Alpine PDX4.150, totalling 8 channels. I bridged two of them for the sub and used the other 6 for everything else: two for the rears and four for the fronts.

What you should NOT ever do is wire different sized speakers in parallel. The results are guaranteed to be absolutely horrible: different sized speakers will have completely different frequency responses, in some frequencies you will have unnatural boosts, in others sound will seem to disappear into a hole. Do not do that, your amps will not complain, but your ears will.

Check my install in the 996TT DIY section of this site.

Have fun!

Edited September 8, 2008 by laalves

[su20]

Hi,

You should try and get a 3-way kit from any manufacturer with a 3 way crossover. Most of the 3-way kits I've seen come with 6.25", which may be too big to fit.

Alternatively, use a 2-way kit with a 5.25" mid bass driver and a tweeter and use the in dash receptacle just for the tweeter.

I used two Alpine PDX4.150, totalling 8 channels. I bridged two of them for the sub and used the other 6 for everything else: two for the rears and four for the fronts.

What you should NOT ever do is wire different sized speakers in parallel. The results are guaranteed to be absolutely horrible: different sized speakers will have completely different frequency responses, in some frequencies you will have unnatural boosts, in others sound will seem to disappear into a hole. Do not do that, your amps will not complain, but your ears will.

Check my install in the 996TT DIY section of this site.

Have fun!

Obrigado, Luis! Great advice. I checked out your system, it rocks.... you've got some serious scratch tied up in that, must sound awesome.

Thanks again,

Todd