thinkin of doin a project for the hell of it. i wanted to know if i would hurt my amp if i hooked up a 4 ohm midrange driver from my car in series with a 8ohm driver, if hat would hurt anything. im figurin i'll make some surround speakers, see if the effect is nice or not.

 

the more i think about it i dont think it will hurt the amp at all its just I have never wired two differently ohmed speakers like such. wanna know about anything before i do.

 

It would be an easier load for your amp to drive 12ohm versus 4 ohm.

The 8 ohm will drop more voltage though, and if they have the same sensitivity, the 8 ohm will be louder.

and if your using passive crossover your crossover point will change.

 

You could try something like this

http://home.earthlink.net/~kantack/surround2.htm

I dont know how it would work in a car though

 

[ October 25, 2003, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: Herooftheday ]

 

The few times that I have mixed different impedance drivers and ran them in series, the driver with the LOWER impedance was louder. The lower impedance means that it doesn't take as much power to get it moving. I will say the opposite, the 4 ohm will be louder.

In regards to frequency response, you cannot isolate the woofer from the midrange. IE you cannot use independant crossovers for either speaker - that's a draw back of series.

I am not sure of this, but I think that the "chain is only as strong as the weakest link" applies to frequency response. IE if the Mid cannot play below 200hz, I don't think that the woofer will be able to either because the 200hz and lower electronic signal will not pass freely through both drivers - but this is speculation only.

 

Thats interesting..typically when you wire a 4 ohm in series with an 8 ohm the 8 ohm is louder (all things being equal) Because the 8 ohm drops more voltage.

In parallel the 4 ohm is usually louder because it draws more current.