Speaker amp compatibility issue

[Moohaumed]

I've been looking around for a detailed guide on matching up my speakers with an amp and a sub, with no success, so I've decided to post around on a few forums to see if I can get any good advice.

I have a pair of Pioneer TS-A1682R 280W 4Way Speakers. Sensitivity 91dB and an Ohm rating of 4. I have a buddy that is looking to sell his Cerwin Vega EXL 350W 2-channel amp with a 10" sub. It has an RMS power range of 110-175W. Will I be able to hook up my speakers to this amp with the subwoofer, and if not, does anyone have any recommendations for what kind of amplifier I should be looking for? Any information is very much appreciated.

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[SethPhillips 5,000+ posts]

use tha amp to run the sub. and run the 4 ways off the deck's power..

no way you will be able to run a 2 ch sub, and mid's/highs

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

no way you will be able to run a 2 ch sub, and mid's/highs

If the sub's 8 ohms there is, but nobody ever does it.

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

I've been looking around for a detailed guide on matching up my speakers with an amp and a sub, with no success, so I've decided to post around on a few forums to see if I can get any good advice. I have a pair of Pioneer TS-A1682R 280W 4Way Speakers. Sensitivity 91dB and an Ohm rating of 4. I have a buddy that is looking to sell his Cerwin Vega EXL 350W 2-channel amp with a 10" sub. It has an RMS power range of 110-175W. Will I be able to hook up my speakers to this amp with the subwoofer, and if not, does anyone have any recommendations for what kind of amplifier I should be looking for? Any information is very much appreciated.

Yes, this is possible, if the sub is 4 ohms. It is called tri mode operation. You must add 2 High Pass crossovers (one to each of the 4 ways speakers), and one Low Pass crossover to the sub. You can get them from Parts express or most electronics stores.

Tri-Mode Speaker Connection: Tri mode speaker connection is a configuration in which a subwoofer is bridged onto the amplifier and stereo speakers are connected independently to the left and right channels. In the diagram below, the larger speaker is bridged onto the amplifier. The smaller speakers are connected in a stereo configuration. Note that there are no crossovers. Simple first order crossovers will be shown in the following pages. This is only to show the connections between the speakers and amplifier.

If you add a passive crossover to each of the 4 way speakers (HP @ 125 hz) then add another passive crossover to the sub (LP @ 125 hz), then you can run a 4 way from the Left & Righ channels, and mono bridge the sub.

As long as you use passive crossovers after the amp, the amplifer will only see a 4ohm load on the L & R above 125 hz, and a 4 ohm load mono bridged, below 125 hz.

Tri-mode with different types of speakers: In the previous diagrams, it was assumed that all of the drivers were woofers. All of the speakers were directly connected to the amplifier (no crossover components). If you use passive crossovers (capacitors or coils), the system will be able to drive more speakers without increasing the effective load on the amplifier. If the 'stereo' speakers in the previous diagram are 4 ohms each and the bridged speaker is an 8 ohm speaker, the amplifier will be loaded to its maximum safe load (the amp is 2 ohm stereo or 4 ohm mono stable). Using passive crossovers, the 'stereo' speakers could be 2 ohms and the bridged speaker could be a 4 ohm speaker and the load would still be a safe load. Without the crossover components, the amp would 'see' a 1 ohm stereo/2 ohm mono total load.

For this next example... If the passive crossover has a crossover point of 150 hertz and the crossover components are connected as follows:

The high frequency speakers will not load the amplifier below 150 hertz and the low frequency speakers will not load the amplifier above 150 hertz. In the real world, the point where the high and low pass speakers stop being a load on the amplifier is not as abrupt as this and there is actually an overlap of frequencies where both high and low frequency drivers are a load (albeit an ever decreasing load) on the amplifier. There is no single point in the audio spectrum where both the high frequency and low frequency drivers present their rated impedance to the amplifier.

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