amp wiring

[rjgaumer]

hi there, one of my amps is 225 rms x2 at 2 ohms. the amp is 2 ohm stable. what is the best way to wire it to 4 tower speakers that are 200 watts each 4 ohm.

thanks

[MLA]

Good news: One pair (2 speakers) wired in parallel (+ to +/- to -) to each amp chnl. This will give you a 2 Ohm load at the amp so it will deliver it's rated 225 watts rms. Not so good news: That 225 gets divided by the 2 speakers wired to each chnl. So basically, your speakers that are rated at 200 watts rms will be receiving 112 watts. In general, that 225 watt spec is also more then likely at 14.5 volts, so that number is likely to drop when the engine is off and the battery voltage drops.

What speaker are you powering?

[Brianinpdx]

RJ -

Shouldn't be to hard for you.... Suggest you:

On the power side let's make you use 4awg power and ground run directly to the battery / or distribution block. If going to a block, make sure you have zero gauge from the block back to the battery.

On the audio side it sounds like you have a good match power/ speaker wise. Your going to want to parallel the speaker pods up at the top of the tower. (piggyback the ++ and the --). You will want a good 12awg speaker cable if powering 4 pods.

Gain wise, make sure you don't bounce the mid bass cones off the grills. If so, reduce gain and or boost cossover point. Don't forget proper fusing for your amplifier.

Any trouble hit us up here!

Cheers,

-Brian
Exile Audio

[rjgaumer]

mla, they are 200 max. 100 rms. there are 4 of them.

brian, that sounds great. thank you

[rjgaumer]

brian, so the + from one channel will go to the + on one speaker. then from the - on that that speaker it goes to the + and the next. then from that 2nd one the - goes to the - on the amp?

[MLA]

mla, they are 200 max. 100 rms. there are 4 of them.

brian, that sounds great. thank you

Well that changes things a bit ;) 100 watts rms is a perfect match then :cool: I assumed that was 200 watts rms and not 200 watts when lightening strikes :p

[MLA]

brian, so the + from one channel will go to the + on one speaker. then from the - on that that speaker it goes to the + and the next. then from that 2nd one the - goes to the - on the amp?

Wire one speaker on one side to the amp, then wire the 2nd speaker on that side to the first speaker that's wired to the amp. + to + and - to -. Then repeat with the other pair on the other side of the tower.

[rjgaumer]

look like someone found the smiley button! haha ^^^ so if i just twist the 2 +'s together and the 2 -'s together for each pair and plug them into one channel each im good?

[MLA]

look like someone found the smiley button! haha ^^^ so if i just twist the 2 +'s together and the 2 -'s together for each pair and plug them into one channel each im good?

let me ask this, is the tower already wired, or will you need to fish it?

[MLA]

look like someone found the smiley button! haha ^^^ ?

Didnt realize it was lost :rolleyes: ;) :razz:

[Brianinpdx]

This should help....

http://www.bcae1.com/spkrmlti.htm

[rjgaumer]

Wow that's an awesome link Brian! Thank you.

Mla, I will be wiring the tower

[cab13367]

look like someone found the smiley button! haha ^^^ so if i just twist the 2 +'s together and the 2 -'s together for each pair and plug them into one channel each im good?

Yes, but that means u will be running 4 pairs of speaker wires thru the tower which is not easy to do. Just wire one speaker to the amp then wire the second speaker to the first, connecting the positives to each other and the negatives to each other. Then do the same for the other channel and other pair of speakers.

[cab13367]

brian, so the + from one channel will go to the + on one speaker. then from the - on that that speaker it goes to the + and the next. then from that 2nd one the - goes to the - on the amp?

No, that is series wiring.

[MLA]

Wow that's an awesome link Brian! Thank you.

Mla, I will be wiring the tower

Rj,

There are a couple ways to skin this cat, but since your tower currently has no wire at all, here is how I would approach it.

Since you are going with 2 speakers, you will, in a sense, have a pair on the port side of the tower and a pair on the starboard. I would run two 12ga speaker wire pairs up the tower from the amp to the tower, or visa-verse if its easier to pull the wire down the tower to the boat. This can be done with two runs of traditional 2 conductor speaker wire, or a single run of double-insulated 4 conductor, point being, you will need a + and - for each side.

At the amp, you will have 4 wire ends, 2 + and 2 - and the 2 chnl has 2 + and 2 - terminals, so each end has a home. At the speakers, wire one speaker pair to one speaker on one side, then just electrically connect the 2nd speaker on that side to the 1st, matching the + and -. Repeat the same for the other side.

Now, there are lots of ways to physically do this, but the important part is to get two speakers on one side connected + to + and - to -.

If you speaker enclosures and clamps are such that the wire fishes through the clamp, then you will need to fish a jumper from speaker #2 through the tower to where the wire for speaker #1 pops out. From there, make you connections.

If the wire connections are on the enclosures, then you have a couple options: you can drill 4 holes in the tower, same as above, and pretty much do the same. Or, you can drill 2 holes in the tower, so you have one between each speaker pair. From there, you can simply jump speaker #2 to speaker #1 that is wired to the amp. Or, you can split off the 12ga that runs to the amp, and have a short piece of wire running to each enclosure.

Split-loom conduit or mesh flex-loom will dress up an exposed wiring. Gel filled heat shrink works well for sealing splices. Clean the burs out from any holes drilled. Either use a snap-bushing or grommet in the drilled holes, or at least feed enough of the loom into the hole that is adds another layer of protection to the wire.

Again, there are lots of ways to to do this, just make sure its electrically done correctly.

[cab13367]

Nice write up MLA.

RJ,

Not sure what boat you have but on my LSV, I was able to run ALL the wires inside the tower. The only exposed speaker wire I have is where it goes around the front leg pivot.

See the link below which shows how I did it.

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?t=12976

Al

[rjgaumer]

i have an xlv. so are the any cons about only wiring 2 sets of wire for the 4 speakers? it will be a total of about 800 watts. so 400 through each.

[cab13367]

i have an xlv. so are the any cons about only wiring 2 sets of wire for the 4 speakers? it will be a total of about 800 watts. so 400 through each.

Not as long as u use adequately sized wire. I run an Exile Harpoon amp rated 1000W rms (so 500W per side) and don't have any problems. I'm running high quality 12 ga wire.

[MLA]

i have an xlv. so are the any cons about only wiring 2 sets of wire for the 4 speakers? it will be a total of about 800 watts. so 400 through each.

With two 4 Ohm speaker wires in parallel on each chnl, your amp will be delivering 225 watts rms (continuous power) per chnl. So you will be perfectly fine with 12ga speaker wire.