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8ohms from 2 8ohm drivers

flameworker

flameworker

Guest
Jun 15, 2014
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Landenberg, Pennsylvania
Disclosures
one day....
#1
I have a 410 4ohm, and a 210 4ohm, I want to use the same mono amp (can be used at 2ohms) and I'm trying to figure out how to balance the load by wiring the 210 to 8 ohms.

It has 2 8 ohm drivers, the drivers in the 410 are 4.

Is there any way to wire 2x8 ohm to get 4? Maybe adding another driver?

This might not be necessary, the 410 speakers are rated 175w and the 210's to 300w.

So maybe it would be ok to push the 210 twice as hard?

I have considered adding a 5" driver to the 210 with a crossover. *(removed the tweeter, not a fan)

Aguilar SDK-10-4 (Db410 drivers)
Eminence Delta 10 8ohm.

Now I understand why people grumble about mixing.
 
#5
flameworker said:
I know that much, I feel like I can do it with resistors in place of drivers, but I'm having trouble finding out exactly what kind of resistor.

I considered using drivers with the motors removed as resistors, I don't know what affect that would have.
Click to expand...

To repeat: No magic to be had and no free lunch. If you use resistors no point in using both cabs. Resistors soak away power with NO acoustic output, you'll need at least 200 watt and should use 400 watt resistors.
 
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#7
Ah, I figured there had to be a reason I couldn't find information on how to do it. I found these 200 Watt dummy load resistors,Invalid Link Removed

Oh well, I guess I'll just use the cabs separately, til I can swap out the 210 drivers for 16 ohm ones. Might as well get all 6 the same, see if I can recone a 101140 to 16, all matchy matchy, I know there are parts for 4 and 8, and ampeg uses 101140 32's, plenty of blown 101140s around
 
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#8
Out of curiosity, how hot do the dummy load resistors get? Those are intended for testing amps right? I'm wondering how much heat energy an amplifier is putting out if the sound was heat instead.

Warm to the touch, or like really hot?

Purely academic, I'm not going to do it,promise, i only have 450 watts, I'm not going to waste them on that.
 
#11
flameworker said:
I know that much, I feel like I can do it with resistors in place of drivers, but I'm having trouble finding out exactly what kind of resistor.

I considered using drivers with the motors removed as resistors, I don't know what affect that would have.
Click to expand...
You could do that I suppose, but it's a silly idea. Why would you want to use half your amp's output to heat up a resistor? As to your original statement, you say, "It has 2 8 ohm drivers ..." Then you say, "Is there any way to wire 2x8 ohm to get 4? Maybe adding another driver?" If the 210 has two 8-ohm drivers it's a 4-ohm cab (as you said). If that's the case, there's no way to wire it to get 8 ohms if you're "... trying to figure out how to balance the load by wiring the 210 to 8 ohms." If you connect the cabs as they are right now the speakers in the 210 will get twice as much voltage as the ones in the 410. You can do it, but when the 210 starts to fart, you need to turn it down.
 
#16
flameworker said:
I know that much, I feel like I can do it with resistors in place of drivers, but I'm having trouble finding out exactly what kind of resistor.

I considered using drivers with the motors removed as resistors, I don't know what affect that would have.
Click to expand...
Don't use resistors. All you would be doing is throwing away power by converting it to heat. There is no way to use a resistor to get more power to a speaker. Also, I don't know what you mean by "using drivers with the motors removed as resistors", but if you send significant power through a naked voice coil it will become a fuse and blow immediately.
 
#17
flameworker said:
I have a 410 4ohm, and a 210 4ohm, I want to use the same mono amp (can be used at 2ohms) and I'm trying to figure out how to balance the load by wiring the 210 to 8 ohms.
Click to expand...

Try your cabinets first and see how they sound together. You never know, with cabinet efficiencies being different, they might balance out.

Otherwise, you're fighting a loosing battle connecting these cabinets. Towards the academic pursuit, you might be interested in checking this out. Better to sell one and get a matching cabinet or use them separately. People do use speaker motors as dummy loads. You can buy them from Weber
( Link Removed [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]) for example. My Groove Tube Speaker Emulator has one and it works well for recording. The power handling is limited. An inductive load is close but still not the same as a real speaker that is reacting to pushing air.
 
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#18
The two step process is very simple.
  1. Put your two 4 ohm cabinets up for sale in the classified section
  2. Use proceeds to purchase two 8 ohm cabs
Also keep in mind that mixing a 2x10 and 4x10 cab of the same impedance generally won't lead to great results. Each speaker in the 2x10 will be getting twice as much power as those in the other cab, meaning they'll hit their limits before the speakers in the 4x10 break a sweat.

Assuming the drivers in the two cabs are similar-ish, that is.
 
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