4 ohm speakers at 2 omh

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

I installed new door speakers on the OEM amp. On the back of the OEM speaker it said 2 ohms(50w). My new speakers, imagine l61-2 are 4 ohm. And they honestly sound horrible. Which is weird because they have such good reviews.

Is this because they shouldn't be run at 2 ohm, and I'm under powering them?

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[maylar 10+ year member]

4 ohm speakers on a 2 ohm amp is fine, except the power will be lower. But I don't think that's your problem.

Speaker sound is totally dependant on the installation. Sometimes putting aftermarket speakers in factory locations can sound awful, if the OEM install is lame. My Buick had plastic sealed boxes stuffed with fiberfill for the front speaker mounts and when I put Morel Maximos in there they sounded terrible. You need to look carefully at how the speakers are mounted. Take pics of inside your doors and let us see them.

 

[quackhead 10+ year member]

as maylar stated, you took out speakers specifically designed for that installation. You take a close look at most OEM speakers and wonder WTH? It is just a matter of creating the right conditions for your aftermarket drivers....happens every day.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

yep. in addition, you may find yourself turning up the volume to get as loud as you want, which results in a lot of distortion from the factory amp.

first, fix the install. the installation of the speakers is key.

second, aftermarket amplification is recommended in your case. the OEM amp is not ideal for aftermarket speakers of any kind.

what makes car audio challenging is that you take raw drivers and then incorporate them into an enclosure. the enclosure, aiming, mounting, seals, etc. all play an important role.

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

The speakers didn't fit in the OEM location. So I cut some mdf rings and glued them together with construction adhesive, they are about 1.75 inches thick. Then I drilled and counter sunk them, and used 3 self tapping screws to secure them to the sheet metal door panel. It seems like they are on there pretty good.

Behind the speaker it is not sound deadened, and its just a open hole into the door panel. Ill try to get some pics.

Yeah the OEM amp is not ideal. I have a JL XD 400/4 class D amp one the way, and will be installing as soon as possible.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I installed new door speakers on the OEM amp. On the back of the OEM speaker it said 2 ohms(50w). My new speakers, imagine l61-2 are 4 ohm. And they honestly sound horrible. Which is weird because they have such good reviews.
Is this because they shouldn't be run at 2 ohm, and I'm under powering them?

The amplifier should have no problems running at 4ohm, or 8 ohms, if you need that. However, when you double the impedance, then the RMS wattage is halved. HAT Imagine woofers IMO really need 60-100watts to work best. In any case, give them some time to break in. One frequent issue with these is that their tweeters lack attenuation and play louder than what some people like in stock tweeter locations. This can be fixed by running them active, bi-amp, or buy a set of used HAT Unit or HAT Clarus crossovers to run with the imagines.

Note that the writing on the back of your old speakers gives no indication how many wattar RMS does your car amplifier provides. It could easily be something like 20-30watt range at 2ohm, and so about 10-15 at 4ohms.

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

Alright rookie mistake here guys. OEM woofer and tweeter have their own wires coming from the amp. I installed the new speakers with the stock wiring, but I ran the new tweeter through the crossover on the woofer. So I don't think I'm getting full range signal to the woofer, so the tweeter is not playing much sound!

I will be hooking up the tweeter to OEM tweeter wiring, and I think thats where the big problem is! Also putting some dynamat in the doors if it ever stops raining!

Thanks for all the input, and I will post some pics to see what you guys think of the install. When I get my hands on a camera, might just use the laptop camera, it kinda ***** though.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

ah. yea, oem integration can be a challenge. running new wire is a good way to prevent issues.

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

Problem solved! lol The speakers sound great, now I can't wait to get my new amp. Tweeters are quite bright tho.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Alright rookie mistake here guys. OEM woofer and tweeter have their own wires coming from the amp. I installed the new speakers with the stock wiring, but I ran the new tweeter through the crossover on the woofer. So I don't think I'm getting full range signal to the woofer, so the tweeter is not playing much sound!

I don't think this will sound good. If it sounds good, it will be by sheer luck. The issue with HAT Imagine tweeters is that they require a very high crossover point between woofers and the tweeter. People who run active, usually crossover the woofer and tweeter at around 5,000-6,000Hz. This is an unusually high crossover frequency. Most aftermarket speakers as well as the factory ones use a lower crossover frequency between the woofer and tweeter. However, if you high pass the HAT Imagine tweeter at a lower frequency it might sound harsh. Preferably, you should find out how to send a full range signal to the speakers, wired as directed in the manual, with tweeter connecting to the back of woofer. The next important thing is to run good amount of watts to these speakers. The woofers could handle a 100watt RMS amplifier easile. The next "stage" is to run active, with time alignment, and level match the woofer with tweeter.

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

Yeah I've got a JL XD 400/4 class D amp on the way. Will be installing as soon as possible. What do you think of this amp? Good power and quality?

Will be using it to power the HAT speakers up front, and OEM speakers in the rear.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

If you run separate wires to the tweeter, be sure to either use the HAT crossover cap (mounted to the woofer), or an external 2.2 uF capacitor to cross over the tweets. As mentioned above, the Imagines crossover at 6000 Hz which is pretty high.

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

Thanks for the heads up. I've just faded 75% of the sound to the rear for now. Just for the next week until my new amp gets here.

Would minimal sound playing through them be ok for now? Im just thinking it will help break in the speakers so I can crank it when the new amp is installed.

 

[Kevinl 10+ year member]

I dont know what vehicle you have but i never got good sound out of my imagines until I gave them a real amplifier. the jl should serve you well

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

Yeah I've got a JL XD 400/4 class D amp on the way. Will be installing as soon as possible. What do you think of this amp? Good power and quality?Will be using it to power the HAT speakers up front, and OEM speakers in the rear.

Not a bad amp at all, just a bit of a rip off. That's JL for ya though. I really thought it'd at least have active capable crossovers.