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Car Speakers for Home Theater Frankenstein (1 Viewer)

An Unlucky Shot

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John
Hey, This is my first thread and I was hoping I could tap into you alls knowledge. I'm designing my own desk and am planning on placing the speakers inside the desk. I figured that in order to extend the life of the desk, it would be best to use car speakers because of their uniform sizing (making it easy to replace them without losing the desk) and clean look. Now, I selected some car component speakers. I also picked out a normal home audio sub. I'll also be using a normal home theater receiver. My question pertains to wiring this set up correctly. Obviously since the car speakers have 4 ohm resistance, I need to wire them in series. In order to have surround sound, I figured I could wire a speaker with a tweeter in series to create the needed 8 ohms. The component speakers come with a crossover, is wiring this as simply as receiver-->tweeter-->crossover-->speaker? Also, I've heard that having the tweeter facing you can sound bad. True? My other dilemma is that car speakers are always sold in pairs. I only need the car speakers for the left, center, and right channels. Which, unfortunately, as you math stars figured out, does not add up to an even number. Wouldn't doubling up on the center speakers be best? Now how would I wire two speakers and two tweeters to create an 8 ohm load? Can I wire a speaker and tweeter in series and then a pair of those in parallel? Does a thin plate of aluminum provide adequate magnetic shielding? Or do I need something more fallout shelter-esque? I assume that the sub causes no problems and that I can add normal home speakers to the receiver for the rear speakers without any issues as well. Did I miss anything? If you made it this far, thanks for reading the whole post.
 

gene c

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Gene
Wiring a 4 ohm woofer and tweeter in series will give you an 8 ohm load but adding the crossover anywhere in the line will cause the crossover to act upon both speakers (don't ask me how) so the woofer will sound like a bad tweeter. Wiring two 4 ohm coaxial car speakers will work (again, don't ask me why) but I wouldn't recommend that either. Go to parts express and look at the Dayton DC130-8 5 1/4" woofer (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=295-301) and DC28F-8 tweeter (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=275-070). The woofer is the same size as a car 5 1/4" and they are both 8 ohm. Add a Partsexpress two-way crossover (http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-142) and for about $150 you have two proper 8 ohm two-way speakers. Use two of the 4 ohm drivers (DC130-4) in series for the center channel. They have many other woofers and drivers to choose from. For uniformity look for a driver with a 4 3/4 inch cutout. The DC160-8 is the same size as a 6 3/4 inch car speaker. Another cheaper option is to buy a pair of Polk Monitor 30's (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290200) and a CS1 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290210) center speaker, dis-assemble them and mount them in the desk. About $140 + shipping for all three. But neither option will sound as good as using proper home theater speakers in their own enclosure.
 

An Unlucky Shot

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John
The crossover is two way. I assume then that the real way to wire this set is having the crossover feed out to the speaker and tweeter in parallel. Is that correct?
 

An Unlucky Shot

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John
Alright, I know most people are not a fan of using 4 ohm speakers with an 8 ohm receiver. But what is the best way to make a surround sound setup work with the 4 ohm speakers? Receiver-->crossover-->4 ohm resistor-->tweeter crossover--> -->4 ohm resistor-->speaker (parallel) Is there a better way to match impedance without doubling up on every speaker?
 

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