wiring 4 front speakers

[paulie74]

Hi all! Could be a silly question, but, Is it ok to wire in an extra pair of front speakers, putting the speaker cable into the head unit that is already powering my 2 dash speakers? So i have 4 speakers at the front and 2 at the back. Will I loose the good sound or wattage?

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[>>SQL<< 10+ year member]

No it is not ok

You will lower the ohm load to 2 ohms on the head unit which will most likely cause it to fail quickly.

You need a 2 ohm stable amp in order to run 2 sets of speakers in the front

 

[paulie74]

Thank you. I have limited knowledge! A 2 ohm stable amp?!

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

actually, the question is dependent on what speakers you are talking about. if you want a woofer in teh door and a mid/tweeter in the dash, then yes, you can do this if you provide a passive crossover. at a minimum, you'll have a high pass crossover on the dash mid/tweet. a low pass crossover is desired for the door woofer to prevent phase interference. in general, you don't want speakers to have overlapping response. choosing crossover points and slopes is important, as well as taking the resulting phase shift into consideration. a 12dB/oct and 18dB/oct crossover will have a 180deg phase shift around the crossover frequency. it's usually best to use the same slope for the low and high pass crossover points. if not, you may need to adjust polarity to keep things in phase.

so before anyone can answer your question, we need to know what speakers you are installing. make/model.

most amplifiers are 2 ohm stable in stereo mode - meaning they are rated to be able to power a 2 ohm load. when you wire a pair of 4 ohm speakers in parallel, the combined load is 2 ohms. you always want to know what impedance load you are presenting to an amplifier (hu or external). buying an external amp would allow you to power 4 front speakers and 2 rear speakers with increased volume and clarity (compared to a head unit).

 

[Sleeklsc 5,000+ posts]

Or you could delete the rear speakers and extend those wires in the door.

 

[paulie74]

I have a long van so I need them all!!

 

[>>SQL<< 10+ year member]

If you are looking for a louder system I recommend a small 4 channel - MB Quart is a good value brand

and new speakers all around

You can do that for around $300