8 8ohm speakers to a 4ohm load? help needed.

[poor_gear_whore]

I'm trying to wire an 8x10 for a friend. Cab needs to be 4 ohms. It's loaded with 8 ohm speakers. Anyone have a wiring diagram? I think I should be able to wire 2 sets of 4 speakers in parallel and then put those two sets in series for a total of a 4 ohm load, but I'm not 100% sure. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[beans-on-toast]

(8+8) || (8+8) || (8+8) || (8+8) = 4Ω


+ = serial connection
|| = parallel connection

 

[Steve Dallman]

Two sets of 4 in parallel and wire the sets in series. That works.

 

[poor_gear_whore]

Awesome! Thank you.

 

[will33]

Imagine it as being a pair of 8ohm 410's, then parallel them together. Should have a DCR reading between 3 and 4 when you're done.

 

[Vince Klortho]

You have two options and both of them have been described previously : A) series pairs and all pairs in parallel OR B) parallel pairs and all pairs in series. The primary difference will be what happens if one speaker fails. With option A, if one speaker fails its mate in series will stop working also. With option B, if one speaker fails all of the others will continue playing. If the cabinet is one that is constructed SVT-style with pairs of speakers in separate chambers then I think option A would be best because it has a safer failure mode. If one speaker in a chamber fails the other speaker in that chamber will likely follow its mate in short order if it continues to play. I think it is safest for it to just stop playing. If the cabinet does not have separate chambers then the decision is less clear for me but I would probably choose option A in that case too.

 

[beans-on-toast]

For a graphic, here is option A [ (8+8) || (8+8) || (8+8) || (8+8) = 4Ω ]. +1 and -1 is for a speakon connector.

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[poor_gear_whore]

That is exactly what I needed. Thanks a ton.

 

[tony89merc]

So "Hypothetically" would this work if one wanted to build a "Franken Cab" with say 12 10's..... I was just wondering what that would sound like...

 

[beans-on-toast]

If you built one like in the example above but with twelve tens, it would come out to 2.7 ohms. Why stop at twelve, even better would be sixteen tens, two 810 cabs, at four ohms each. A SVT can take 2 ohms so you could connect them both. Two 810 cabs would sound twice as good as one 810 cab.