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Help, wiring 3 speakers?


boleiro

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anybody out there know how to wire three 3 drivers in parallel, or even if you can? I want to add a 15" driver to 2 12" drivers in a 4x12 cab. the 12's are 8 ohm each. i haven't bought a 15" driver yet since I don't even know if this is possible. i want the speaker load to be between 4 and 2 ohms. any info would be much appreciated.

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yes, you can wire three speakers in parallel, just wire all the +'s together to one side of the jack, and all the -'s to the other side.


If the 15" was also 8 ohms, you would have 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 = 3/8

so the final load would be 8/3 = 2.67 ohms



what IS the ohmage of the 15?

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Originally posted by boleiro

anybody out there know how to wire three 3 drivers in parallel, or even if you can? I want to add a 15" driver to 2 12" drivers in a 4x12 cab. the 12's are 8 ohm each. i haven't bought a 15" driver yet since I don't even know if this is possible. i want the speaker load to be between 4 and 2 ohms. any info would be much appreciated.

Of course you can. A made a couple of cabs a while back for two nu-metallers with 2x10"s and a 15". I used 16 ohm 10"s in parallel for 8 ohms there and connect the 15" (8 ohms) in parallel with them. 4 ohm total cab impedance. If they had wanted an 8 ohm total, I'd have used 8 ohm 10"s in series with each other for 16 ohms and then connected them in parallel with a 16 ohm 15". This way, the pair of 10"s collectively should get about the same amount of power as the single 15".

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Originally posted by boleiro

i thought so. so, if wired in parallel, would it be the speaker ohm rating (8) divided by the number of speakers (3) = 3.2 or whatever? can you wire three speakers in parallel?



After a quick bit of research.. you are going to need a parrallel/series wiring setup. The 2 12's will be wired in series parrallel to the the 15.. I think that would be the best way...

Here is a mspaint:

21215.JPG

Although.. I dont know if that gives you a 16 ohm load or an 8 ohm load? :confused:

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Originally posted by trey85stang

After a quick bit of research.. you are going to need a parrallel/series wiring setup. The 2 12's will be wired in series parrallel to the the 15.. I think that would be the best way...


Here is a mspaint:


21215.JPG

Although.. I dont know if that gives you a 16 ohm load or an 8 ohm load?
:confused:




that's an 8 ohm load.

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Originally posted by boleiro

i don't have the 15" woofer yet. I wanted to find out what i needed before shelling out the cash. so i could use a 8 ohm woofer with the other 2 ohm drivers to get the desired result?

 

 

if you have all 8 ohm speakers, you will end up with 2.67 ohms

 

 

if you buy a 16 ohm 15", you will end up with 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/16 = 5/16 for a total load of 16/5 = 3.2 ohms

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Originally posted by mamberg

if you have all 8 ohm speakers, you will end up with 2.67 ohms



if you buy a 16 ohm 15", you will end up with 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/16 = 5/16 for a total load of 16/5 = 3.2 ohms

Not if you connect the pair of 8 ohm speakers in series. That'll give a combined 16 ohms. Parallel that with a 16 ohm 15" and you have an 8 ohm total load.

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you are right tlb, I was still talking about all parallel.



just so you can figure it out yourself, the formula for speakers hooked up in series is R1 + R2 + R3 +............. = R(total load)
for parallel, the formula is 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3 +.......... = 1/R(total load)


in the diagram above, the speakers labeled 8 are hooked up in series (in +, then from - to the other +, then out with the other -), and the woofer (16) is hooked up in parallel with them (+ to +, and - to -)

If you have both series and parallel wiring in one system, figure the series loads first, then use that number to figure the parallel sections.



If you understand this, that's all there is to hooking up speakers and finding the total load.

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thanks for the great info. hard to find this stuff out. so if i get the 16 ohm driver, i need to wire the 2 12's (8 ohm each) in series and then wire those in parallel to the 15 driver (16 ohm) to get the desired speaker load. okay, so how do i do that. just one more answer. thanks again. at least i know what to get. i know how to wire them all in parallel. but i would prefer the 3.2 speaker load of in series wiring.

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Originally posted by boleiro

thanks for the great info. hard to find this stuff out. so if i get the 16 ohm driver, i need to wire the 2 12's (8 ohm each) in series and then wire those in parallel to the 15 driver (16 ohm) to get the desired speaker load. okay, so how do i do that. just one more answer. thanks again. at least i know what to get. i know how to wire them all in parallel. but i would prefer the 3.2 speaker load of in series wiring.

 

 

look at the diagram I posted to get an 8ohm load.

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Originally posted by boleiro

thanks for the great info. hard to find this stuff out. so if i get the 16 ohm driver, i need to wire the 2 12's (8 ohm each) in series and then wire those in parallel to the 15 driver (16 ohm) to get the desired speaker load. okay, so how do i do that. just one more answer. thanks again. at least i know what to get. i know how to wire them all in parallel. but i would prefer the 3.2 speaker load of in series wiring.

Read my first post if you want a 4 ohm overall load. You'll have to use 16 ohm 12"s and an 8 ohm 15".

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