Impdence Question


In experimenting with an unusual loudspeaker enclosure for which only a certain high-end car speakers fit the design criteria, there is concern about their low impedance damaging the amplifier. Driver impedance ranges from 2.8 ohms to 3.4 ohms. Will this do harm? And if several speakers are used in a 5.1 surround setup, does this increase the load and the chance of damage?

If the low impedance is indeed risky, is their any means of raising it perhaps by placing something in the chain (other than wiring a pair together for series or parallel operation)?

Thank you in advance.
silas

Showing 1 response by shadorne

I tend to agree with Duke - the electrical aspect of wiring up two woofers is not such a big deal.

To me the issue is the problem of precise driver matching and the backwave acoustic coupling in the box and the fact that two small woofers with two small voice coils rarely perform like a big bad boy woofer with a massive 4 inch VC. For starters the big VC is going to dissipate heat much more easily due to the larger surface area. The other issue is lobing - by separating the drivers spatially then you run into this problem at lower frequencies than a single driver - this can cause a reduction in reflected energy at certain specific frequencies.
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