Pro Audio Asylum

Posted by Chrisssssssss (A) on May 27, 2006 at 20:22:51

In Reply to: good point. i thought of that............ posted by ocd on May 18, 2006 at 18:29:55:

Hey there

If you use an 8 ohm speaker in a Car environment, the amps in a car are designed to be used for speakers that are 4 ohms. By using 8 ohm speakers, the amps will almost half their output in watts. Therefore for example sakes you have an amp that is wated for 50 watts per channel into 4 ohms, by hooking that same amp to an 8 ohm load the amp will only be putting out 25 watts.

On the same note, some car amps are capable of being "2 ohm stable" which means that the amp will be able to push speaker loads of 2 ohms (2 speakers wired parallel on the same output channel) thus doubling it's rated power. This is usually only found in the case of higher quality high current amps, because at 2ohms, your amp will be working harder, getting hotter, and using more input energy (volts and amps) therefore also putting a higher stress and demand on your car's electrical system. The amps that are 2 ohm capable are specifically designed for that purpose and usually found in mono-block subwoofer amps. Few are even designed to work at loads of 1 ohm, even half ohm!! This gives the ability to add more woofers, which adds more overall cone surface area, which results in more bass and output watts from the same amp. This is especially useful in competitive sound off type scenarios with regards to overall output (decibels/Sound Pressure Levels). This gives a bit of an edge because the classes are rated by total system watts and this will result in more output from the amps listed power resulting in being able to compete lower classes. Kinda a legal cheating in a sence.

I know that this may be a bit off topic, but hey I was on a bit of a roll...

To make a long story short if those monitors are rated at 8 ohms, then you would only going to get half the amount of power that your amps is actually capable of producing, thus resulting in lower volumes. Not an ideal situation, at least in this regard. I'd say stick with car drivers, because they are specifically designed to operate within specifications for a car system. Not only for the ohms and power thing, but also as someone else mentioned is the operating environment with regards to temp and humidity changes. Also car speakers are specifically made to work in an infinite baffle type of mounting (non enclosed box - ie: doors, trunk, etc...) whereas the drivers from your monitors are specifically designed around their specific enclosure. If you change these parameters it will completely change the acoustical characteristics of the speakers. This of course only matters if you were planning on removing the raw drivers from their enclosure and remounting or installing them somewhere in the car.

In conclusion, although they will technically work... but not optimally. It will not wreck anything, but not something that I would recommend. Keep em at home.

-phew!!-

Chris