Front Speaker Bass Blockers - Why I removed them

[plipnoggen]

@plipnoggen
I just discovered this thread as I am planning on doing the audio upgrades.
One of the things that has been throwing me off with amp research is how to deal with the front speakers being wired in parallel, and this looking like 2 Ohms.

Then I read your thread about rewiring them in series and I thought not only will it help me solve that problem but might even sound better.

One thing I haven't found yet: HOW. Do you have a bookmark or anything saved that I can refer to on how to change those from parallel to serial?

Thanks!

So, the short answer to your question is this video, starting at 6:20


The longer answer though is that I have since made some different changes but didn't update this thread.

I ended up finding the front speakers a bit too "wimpy" when wired in series. What I have changed over to instead is that I found some more power efficient 6.5" speakers to put in the kick panels, and I shifted the dash speakers back to being wired in parallel. So far, Ive been pretty happy with this change. My working hypothesis was that with the stock power amp, if the 6.5" speakers are pulling too much power, it results in almost nothing other than treble making it up to the 4" (when wired in parallel). By moving to more power efficient 6.5's, it seems to allow a more full range to make it to the 4" speakers.

I'm not a sound engineer... but after reading and watching a few other things on this subject, this is where I landed and it seems to be working pretty well. I prefer it to the wimpy sounding front when wired in series.

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[Brian_B]

The answer to a lot of these questions really depends on which speakers you install, what amp you are using, and what sounds good to you.
There is no one universal “sounds good” answer, it’s different for everyone.

 

[jgauthier]

So, the short answer to your question is this video, starting at 6:20


The longer answer though is that I have since made some different changes but didn't update this thread.

I ended up finding the front speakers a bit too "wimpy" when wired in series. What I have changed over to instead is that I found some more power efficient 6.5" speakers to put in the kick panels, and I shifted the dash speakers back to being wired in parallel. So far, Ive been pretty happy with this change. My working hypothesis was that with the stock power amp, if the 6.5" speakers are pulling too much power, it results in almost nothing other than treble making it up to the 4" (when wired in parallel). By moving to more power efficient 6.5's, it seems to allow a more full range to make it to the 4" speakers.

I'm not a sound engineer... but after reading and watching a few other things on this subject, this is where I landed and it seems to be working pretty well. I prefer it to the wimpy sounding front when wired in series.

Thank you! I haven't watched that video yet!
I'm concerned about driving 2 ohms and over loading the wiring or the amp itself.
So I am trying to find a workable solution (multi-channel amp that drives 2 Ohms, and 4Ohms)

 

[jgauthier]

The answer to a lot of these questions really depends on which speakers you install, what amp you are using, and what sounds good to you.
There is no one universal “sounds good” answer, it’s different for everyone.

I have another thread that I started trying to figure some of that out.
My current challenge is figuring out how to deal with 2Ohms in the front, 4Ohms in the back and a 2Ohm subwoofer preferably in 1 5 channel amp. Otherwise, I go series in the front, and it's 4Ohms in the front, back and 2Ohms for the subwoofer.

 

[Brian_B]

I have another thread that I started trying to figure some of that out.
My current challenge is figuring out how to deal with 2Ohms in the front, 4Ohms in the back and a 2Ohm subwoofer preferably in 1 5 channel amp. Otherwise, I go series in the front, and it's 4Ohms in the front, back and 2Ohms for the subwoofer.

Most amps allow you to adjust the gain per channel - so if one channel is running 2 ohms and another 4 ohms, you just turn the gain down on the 2 ohm channel until it sounds balanced with the 4 ohm channel.

It's very common in automotive systems for different channels to have different impedances, because a lot of cars do exactly what the Bronco does.

That is also exactly what I'm doing in my 5 channel amp - I have 2 ohms up front (2x4Ohm in parallel), 4 Ohms in rear, and 4 ohm sub (2x2Ohm in series). Gain on the Front channel is set to roughly half of what it is for the rears for them to sound balanced sitting in the front seat. Part of that is the 2 ohm vs 4 ohm thing, and part of that is because front seat / front speakers are just gonna sound louder.

My particular amp (Kenwood) is rated for 2-4 Ohm outputs. My speakers are all coax and have built-in filters on them, so no external band passes are needed. Even if there were, my amp has an optional internal band pass filter I could use, per channel. I've tried both methods, and decided that neither sounded better.

I won't claim that it's audiophile level sound - certainly you could do better, but I'm happy with it for the budget I used on it.

 

[jgauthier]

@Brian_B Thanks! That makes sense. I appreciate the insight. I also just want it to "sound good" for a reasonable budget.

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