Members polarnewfie Posted March 22, 2008 Members Share Posted March 22, 2008 Help, this might not be in the right spot , but I am not too skilled with electronics and need some help. I am a musician who practices on my own by playing to my Ipod that is blasted out over loud speakers in my garage. I had a set of speakers that were not good enough for my amp and they blew (I knew it would happen, just got as much life out of them as I could). I have a sony 500 watt amp and a friend just gave me a set of Wharfdale speakers. I am sure these have the capacity I need to hear over my drums, BUT the resistance isn't compatible. The amplifier states I need to use 8 ohm speakers, but the speakers are 4 ohm. This sets off the "protection" safety factor on my amp and it shuts down. NOW MY QUESTION IS: Is there a switch or something that I can buy to put inline with the speaker wire that will increase the resistance of the speakers to allow it to be used with my amp. I am on a tight budget so I cant buy different speakers or a different amp right now. So can anyone suggest anything to me? As I said , I dont know too much about this stuff, and I know that this is probably the best place to ask. You guys definately know your stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6ftabovsealevel Posted March 22, 2008 Members Share Posted March 22, 2008 Not too many good options here unfortunately. In theory you could add a big 4 ohm resistor to the input on each speaker making an 8 ohm load, but that's a huge waste of energy (half of the wattage would be disspated as heat, not sound) and could have other effects on the sound that is actually produced. By the numbers, wiring the speakers in series would give an 8 ohm load that could be run off 1 channel. But some people will argue that series wiring for multiple speakers isn't a very good idea either, even if they are the same make & model. It works, but may sound like crap. Also, you'd only be getting one side of the stereo signal if you ran two speakers off one channel. You could solve that part if your amp can be bridged or otherwise run in mono. The only thing that would completely solve this would be some sort of transformer which, if you could find them, would probably cost just as much as a new set of speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members polarnewfie Posted March 22, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 22, 2008 Thanks , at least I know now. Maybe I'll find someone around my hometown to trade for an 8 ohm set. Who knows. But seing as how I was given the speakers from an ex guitarist from a former band, and I didn't have to buy them that its not too bad a loss. Too bad to me, these were really good speakers. 8" plus mid/tweeter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6ftabovsealevel Posted March 22, 2008 Members Share Posted March 22, 2008 If you can get your hands on some 8 ohm speakers that would be the simplest answer, but maybe somebody will come along with another option that I'm not aware of. Isn't Yellowknife one of the spots those ice road trucker guys run through in the winter? You must be freezing your ass off about now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members polarnewfie Posted March 22, 2008 Author Members Share Posted March 22, 2008 Yup, Yellowknife is the base where they all congregate before heading up the ice road. I was up on the ice road last week hunting and got pretty lucky. It was a lot colder a month ago. The temps up on the Ice road hit -52. I couldn't shut my Jeep off for more than 10 minutes. It is supposed to be -6 tomorrow. I cant wait, I may have to take out the shorts. Thats like tropical weather for us at this early part of the year!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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