HELP PLEASE - Boat Tower Speaker Wiring
rsharp2000
Posts: 11
I am wiring 4 MM651UM speakers on my boat tower and powering them via a Clarion 480XM 4-channel amplifier.
I have outlined the 4 options I see for configuring these components in the pic below and thought option #4 serial/parallel config would be best since:
1) Stereo imaging not really an issue for tower speakers.
2) only requires a 2 wire harness from tower to amp.
3) only requires 1 bridged channel (via bridging channels 3 & 4) & leaves channels 1 & 2 open for current bow speakers.
4) this config would also produce most available volume/power to speakers.
BUT when I power up this system the output volume of these 4 speakers is barely heard - NOT what I was expecting at all! I have 2 Polk MM650 speakers in the bow individually connected to channels 1 & 2 in standard stereo mode and these can be heard just fine. I obviously have got something wrong w/ the series/parallel config or my thinking for Option #4 outputs but can't figure out what !!??
I wired the 4 speakers in series then parallel and have the resultant single + wire connected to ch3+ on the amp and the - wire connected to ch4-. I have the amp channel 3/4 mode set in mono (if I switch to stereo I get nothing at all) and all filters off. Gain was left midway just like channels 1/2 for bow speakers. I could easily go to 8 wire harness & just hook up all 4 tower speakers in straight-forward stereo mode and move bow speakers to unused deck speaker outputs (Clarion CMD 04 head unit) - but really thought this parallel/serial config would be best trick way to maximize this setup.
Thanks in advance for ANY/ALL help GREATLY appreciated to resolve this for me!
I have outlined the 4 options I see for configuring these components in the pic below and thought option #4 serial/parallel config would be best since:
1) Stereo imaging not really an issue for tower speakers.
2) only requires a 2 wire harness from tower to amp.
3) only requires 1 bridged channel (via bridging channels 3 & 4) & leaves channels 1 & 2 open for current bow speakers.
4) this config would also produce most available volume/power to speakers.
BUT when I power up this system the output volume of these 4 speakers is barely heard - NOT what I was expecting at all! I have 2 Polk MM650 speakers in the bow individually connected to channels 1 & 2 in standard stereo mode and these can be heard just fine. I obviously have got something wrong w/ the series/parallel config or my thinking for Option #4 outputs but can't figure out what !!??
I wired the 4 speakers in series then parallel and have the resultant single + wire connected to ch3+ on the amp and the - wire connected to ch4-. I have the amp channel 3/4 mode set in mono (if I switch to stereo I get nothing at all) and all filters off. Gain was left midway just like channels 1/2 for bow speakers. I could easily go to 8 wire harness & just hook up all 4 tower speakers in straight-forward stereo mode and move bow speakers to unused deck speaker outputs (Clarion CMD 04 head unit) - but really thought this parallel/serial config would be best trick way to maximize this setup.
Thanks in advance for ANY/ALL help GREATLY appreciated to resolve this for me!
Post edited by rsharp2000 on
Comments
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Make sure that the connections between the speakers in series is Positive to Negative.
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... here is a better drawing ... I have checked that series connections are positive to negative ... am guessing amp may not be set correctly ... should amp be set to mono for channels 3/4 if I am trying to run the series/parallel off bridged 3/4 channel? or is that too much to expect from the one channel?
... or am I better off just using the 480 amp to power the tower? bridge amp and run two 651's in series? this gives 230W RMS @ 4 ohms, .5% THD - which would be 115W/spkr but will this be okay at higher volumes?
... or can I get adequate clean power to them by wiring two 651's in parallel and running each pair off 2 separate channels? = 115W @ 2 ohms, .2% THD - but this is only 57.5W per speaker - is that too low? -
I'd go with #1. The rest will only yield about 57.5 watts/speaker.
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i concur
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... wouldn't option #2 (speaker pairs in series to 2 bridged channels - turn 4-channel amp into 2-channel bridged amp) provide 115W/speaker @ 4ohms each?
... was just worried whether .5% THD w/ this option (vs .05% or .2% of other options) could be an issue at high volumes - and if this config might be more likely to blow these speakers - since these are tower speakers and will be loud most of the time.
Thanks guys! -
sorry. 1&2 should be the same. The amp would see the 8ohm load as 4 ohms/ch so it should be 80+80=160 into and 8 ohm load(two 4 ohm loads in series splitting 160 watts between them, so 80 watts/load"speaker").
