Car speaker/home stero question

[Knight Wraith]

OK. Just to make things interesting, I have some old speakers I salvaged from a dead Oldsmobile. I am planing on building a couple of speaker housings in the shape of tombstones in order to hide them in plain sight.

What I need to know is how will the speakers handle being used with a home stereo unit. I have a great stereo system that I have being using in years past, but it is a big challenge to hide. Using the speakers from the car in place of the ones that came with the unit (after camouflaging them of course) should hide them nicely but I don't want to damage the stereo unit and I'd rather not lose the car speakers either.

I hope that made sense. And if there is something around here on the forums that address's this issue feel free to direct me there :)

[hedg12]

The biggest issue you run in to by using car stereo speakers is the impedance. Ordinarily, car stereos use 4 Ohm speakers, while home stereos use 8 Ohm speaker systems. If you have a good quality stereo and only plan to run 2 speakers (one per channel) it should handle the lower impedance OK, as long as you're not cranking the volume too high. If you want to run 2 speakers per channel, you could wire them in series (run a wire from the + connection on the stereo to the + on one speaker, then run a wire from the - on that speaker to the + on the next speaker, then another wire from the - on the second speaker to the - connection on the stereo) and you'd be fine.

[berzerkmonkey]

I gotta say that I ran two car speakers off of my Yamaha receiver a couple of years ago, and had no problems whatsoever. I didn't have them blasting, mind you, but they did great for graveyard sounds.

Last year though, I got a set of the outdoor rock speakers from BJ's at end of season for like $30. DO IT if you get the opportunity. The camouflaging is done for you and they work great.

[Knight Wraith]

OK. That helps out a bit. I'll have to run some tests and see how they work. Once I get going I'll post some info on the actual build process over on the prop board.

[Knight Wraith]

Been forever since I've been here but finally an update on my project. Here's the link to the how to thread. http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php?p=554687#post554687

[Ryan Wern]

Like hedg12 was saying, the impedence (ohms) on the speaker is most important so you don't fry your receiver. the lower the imedence, the more load the speaker places on the the receiver, for example (1) 4 ohm speaker would be a harder load to drive than (1) 8 ohm speaker. Also, car speakers, especially stock ones like with what you are dealing with a) sometimes have weird impedences, like 6 ohm, and I've even seen 2 ohm and 10 ohm. B) They can handle very little power. If there is a wattage rating on the magnet, that is MAX power, or the amount of power the speaker can handle for a 1 second period without blowing. Most stock car speakers handle around 12 watts max, older cars had even crappier ones that handle around 5 watts. Another thing to consider is that stock car speakers, like many home speakers, are made with PAPER cones and do not fare well in damp environments. They turn into oatmeal if they get rained or or left in the fog for any length of time. On the positive side, if you are dealing with 4 ohm speakers, you can wire them in parrellel and hook up quite a few speakers to 1 receiver without exceeding the factory specs. I will post a diagram, it's easier than explaining it. At the end of the day, I'd consider purchasing some Wal-Mart car speakers and using them if you are dead-set on using car speakers. A pair of Pioneer 6 x 9's from Wally World would sound way better than four 5 1/4" stock speakers from an Oldsmobile.

[Ryan Wern]

Wire this way for Right and Left sides. Wasn't sure if you are using surround sound or not, but it doesn't matter, this still yields 8 ohms per channel

[stagehand1975]

I have fried a home stereo before using car speakers.

I took a class in high school that taught me this. If you wire 2 8 ohm speakers in parallel you get 8 ohms. If you wire 2 4 ohm speakers in series then you get 8 ohms. Also remember if you are using high power speakers then you need to use heavier wire. If you use an under rated wire you will change the ohms and make that stereo work harder. If you have a 10 watt speaker at 4 ohms, that same speaker is not 10 watts at 8 ohms. I don't remember the calculation.

[Ryan Wern]

On the positive side, if you are dealing with 4 ohm speakers, you can wire them in parrellel


Correction, I meant to say SERIES. Too many thoughts going on in my head at once!