Loudspeakers and Speaker Stuff

Trim panel removal tool Step 1: Installing the 12v Power Wire In your amplifier wiring kit, generally a red in color wire is the longest one, which is the 12v power wire. You need to pass the wire through the firewall.

The higher the amperage rating of the circuit, the larger the wires need to be in order to avoid excess heat that can melt wires and cause fires. The proper circuit size, as indicated by amperage, is determined by several factors, including the planned load on the circuit, the number of outlets or light fixtures, and the length of the circuit.

One thing I learned pretty early in life is that speakers are not meant to be wired together in a haphazard manner. In fact, whenever you plan to connect more than two speakers to a two-channel amplifier — or more than four speakers to a four-channel amp — there are a few things to consider, not the least of which is the amps ability to handle low-impedance loads. Ignoring the basics is like playing Russian roulette with your amplifier: If youre lucky, itll drive the speakers without incident; if youre not, the amp will fry.

The great thing about a multiple-speaker hookup is that once you master only two basic wiring procedures — “series” and “parallel” — the world is yours to conquer. When you know how many speakers youre going to use and the impedance driving capability of your amplifier, youll be able to select a wiring scheme that will deliver the best sonic and electrical results.

In some cases, it may not be one procedure or the other but a combination of the two that works best. Speakers in Series The essence of series wiring is really quite simple: When speakers are connected in this fashion, load impedance increases — the more speakers, the higher the impedance. The most common reason for wanting to raise impedance is to lower acoustical output, as in the case of rear-fill or center-channel speakers.

Speaker output declines because the amplifiers power output decreases as the load impedance increases. While you can connect any number of speakers in series, try to keep the total equivalent-load impedance for each channel below 16 ohms, since most amps are not designed to handle higher loads.