Speaker wiring question

[06yfzduner]

If i run the wires from two sepearate speakers(4ohm) to the same bridged channel on my amp which will ba 4 ohm load will the speaker act like they are wired in parallel and drop the the load to 2 ohms?

[moombahighrider]

Yes, it will be a 2 ohm load if the speakers are connected in parallel. Be sure your amp is 2 ohm stable in bridged mode, a lot of amps are not.

[06yfzduner]

thats what i thought, the amp is a jl m700/5. I may be better off just running the speakers to their own channel and sacrificing a little power to the speakers

[mmandley]

thats what i thought, the amp is a jl m700/5. I may be better off just running the speakers to their own channel and sacrificing a little power to the speakers

The amp can handle a 2ohm load if you just leave it as is, wire the 2 speakers together and plug that to 1 channel, you will get more power from the amp then on a 4ohm but not hurt the amp.

Why do you want to bridge it?

[06yfzduner]

The speakers im talking about are kicker hlcd's and want the highest power i can get to them

[mmandley]

The speakers im talking about are kicker hlcd's and want the highest power i can get to them

Ohh ok then you wont like this answer LOL. I wouldnt run them on a 700/5 of any kind due tot he amount of work the Sub side is doing and now your going to demand that from the reg amp side. Im not a fan on mixing a tower and sub combo.

I would look into another amp for my tower. Thats my thoughts though, you gotta remember its worse to speakers to starve them of power then over power them. You dont give them the reccomended power and your asking for them to blow early due to lack of power.

[moombahighrider]

The other thing to think about is that the speakers will sound better with the amp at 4 ohms than at 2. Even if an amp can push 2 ohms, you sacrifice some sound quality by doing so. I would stay at 4 ohms until you can get an amp that will give you the power you need at 4 ohms, jmo.

[06yfzduner]

The amp will push 75w x 4 at 4 ohms and 300 w to the sub i thought that would be plenty of power to the towers

[mmandley]

Are you running the KM6500.2? they are 200 RMS meaning you need close to 200 as a minimum. HLCD speakers take a lot of power.

[06yfzduner]

Yes, the package came with 4 speakers and i was under the impression that each speaker was 100w rms or 200w rms a pair

[moombahighrider]

Is this your only amp in the boat? If not and you can dedicate the four channels to the tower, I would bridge the amp and run 200w at 4 ohms to each tower speaker. Otherwise, I'm with mike- start looking for a solid amp to dedicate to the towers. They typically need some good power to do what they do best.

[06yfzduner]

I have a jl m600/6 running 6 polk in cabin speaker. The 700/5 runs the four towers and my sub. That was my plan to bridge the amp and hook two speakers to one bridged channel with seperate wires to each speaker ... make sense ?

[mmandley]

it makes sence, but you cant do it. I think the Kicker set up is designed to wire the speaker and horn together making your 4ohms. Im not positive as im not as savy with that speaker setup.

If the JL will bridge to 2 channels then you should have enough power off that amp for the tower. Then run the 700.5 cabins and sub. That amp can handle it, lots of people use 700.5s for sub cabin combos. Wire bow to front amp channel, wires the 4 cabins 2 each to left and right rear channels as a 2ohm load the amp will work fine.

[moombahighrider]

What mike said. So, if you don't want to replace one of your amps (I'm sure you don't), you could do this:
Use the Amps as mike suggests. Bridge 4 of the 600/6 channels to make 2 sets of outputs that will give you 200w rms @ 4 ohms- connect one speaker to each of these bridged outputs. Then keep the remaining two outputs un-bridged (75 watts rms @ 4 ohms) and run the remaining pair of tower speakers off of it. You will have a power imbalance between all four speakers, so it's not ideal, but it will work. Are all four kicker hlcds identical? Maybe the two with power could be for wake boarding and the other two aimed more for surfing? Just an option to work with what you got.

[philwsailz]

The speakers im talking about are kicker hlcd's and want the highest power i can get to them

Yo-

Phil from Kicker here.

First off, when wiring a KM6500.2 horn in parallel with a KM6500.2 mid, the resulting load is still 4-ohms. The crossovers on the back of the horns and the midrange drivers take care of that. You will show 4-ohms to a bridged 4-channel amp per side.

Second, I agree with Mike, I prefer to see a dedicated tower amplifier. It is not that the 5-channel amp might work for a while, but you really tax the power supply running subs and towers of an amp, way more so than if the 4-channel section of the 5-channel amp were driving in-boats.

Third, while HLCDs are efficient, using less power for a given output than a typical coax, we all know that we WAIL on our tower speakers, and clipping distortion will take out a HLCD driver more quickly than over-powering. I have found I really like 250 RMS a side out of a tower amp for these. A Bridged Kicker IX500.4 is a good example. Warmly over-powering a set will be better than grossly under-powering a set.

These guys are steering you right to use the 700.5 for sub and in-boats and use the other amp for the towers, bridging 4 channels of the 6-channel amp down to two to run your Kicker KM6500.2 tower system. Wire one horn and one mid to each side of the bridged set. You will have two channels of the 6-channel amp left open, but don't worry about that. Those two channels could even be used to do something different in the future.


You really will be happier getting your tower speakers off of the amp that is also driving your sub. The result should be better power supply management and greater headroom.

Basic system setup for KM6500.2
* BASS BOOST OFF
* Crossover set to HI PASS
* Crossover freq. set to 150 - 200 Hz (the higher 200 Hz setting handles more power)


Holler here or PM if you have further questions, or if I get busy and don;t track this thread, PM me and tell me to get off my backside and respond... :)

Have fun!
Phil
Kicker

[EarmarkMarine]

I really like what Phil had to say about equally distributing the speaker load between the two amplifiers...not only in consideration of the impedance load but in consideration of which speakers and zones normally get worked the hardest. The power supply of an amplifier is the restriction. Running half the amplifier down to the lowest permissible impedance load still gives you a little headroom and thermal stability. Strapping the entire amplifier (all channels) down to the minimum load is like running at red line all the time. So you are not as likely to find a weak link in a more balanced configuration.

David
Earmark Marine

[06yfzduner]

deleted sorry.

[06yfzduner]

I have six polk mm651um cabins, the 600/6 amp will bridge to 200x3 at 4 ohms. the 700/5 will bridge to 200x2 at 4 ohms and 300 at 2 ohms for the l7 10". Maybe this well help a little