- If you are sticking with the factory OEM transistor radio, then it would be easiest and safest to use a factory rated speaker (probably 4 ohm impedance, and likely no wattage rating available, since they were pretty low in power)
- If you want louder and higher fidelity music, then you’d move up to an aftermarket stereo system and select speaker(s) that are appropriately matched for that set up (2, 4, or 8 Ohms, with 100, 200, 300 watt ratings)
- The radio/amplifier generates the power (wattage) which is the main thing that determines loudness. Factory radios are very low wattage (5 watts or less).
- Ideally you want a speaker that is not only compatible in impedance (ohms) but has the appropriate power HANDLING capacity (watts)
- In old cars, its only when you start using non-factory, high powered stereos and amplifiers that you start talking about “100 watt” or “200 watt” speakers
- You don’t get any louder sound out of a "high wattage" speaker UNLESS YOU ALSO have an associated high wattage radio/amplifier
- The discussion below about ohms (impedance) and pushing different power levels to the speaker is related to the fact that when there is an impedance rating mismatch, the amount of power that makes it from the radio to the speaker is impacted, (its sort of like the speaker either allows more power or resists more power from the radio amplifier) which affects the loudness.
- If there is too much “draw" or too much resistance from the speaker, it can cause problems in the radio if the circuitry is not designed to tolerate the extra power drain or heat or whatever-weird-electrical-characteristic happens when the wrong speaker impedance is present
- As stated below, low power radios like the original transistor models in a ’59 dodge might not be impacted much if you move from a 4 to 8 ohm speakers (overheating, etc.) But I worry about old electronics…especially since transistors were not as good quality as they were later. They used selenium-based components back then which I understand can burn out easier.
There’s also a whole other area of “speaker efficiency” or “speaker sensitivity” ratings (measured in dB) that affects how loud a speaker can be at a given wattage and impedance. Its all about how much power the speaker needs in order to to move (vibrate) the paper cone and reproduce sound. Some need less power than others. That discussion is usually limited to audiophiles who are trying to squeeze out as much sound as they can at a lower wattage in a home sound system.
Ok, So if the speaker is set up for 8 ohms (seems to be the
consensus) what wattage can I hope to push through the speaker (not looking at
blowing the doors off, but don't want to over/underpower the system). Is
200 watts or more too much? How does wattage impact a tube-type
radio (what is too much)?
Does it matter if the speaker is dual-cone, coaxial,
etc?
Thanks. This is uncharted country for me.
Larry (Akron)
Date: Tue, 9
May 2017 12:59:25 -0500
From: Steve Lacker
<lackersg@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Mopar Mailing List
<mml@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Radio
Speakers
Message-ID:
<CAD4PAiGT0ZmGibkMeeXp9cGuoJ5zoaEr7hrBq+GQCTskyAaD=Q@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type:
text/plain; charset=UTF-8
At low power like stock radios, 4 or 8 ohms
won't usually make much of a
difference. The radio can always push the most
power into the speaker its
matched for- if its an 8-ohm radio and you hook
up a 4-ohm speaker, you
won't get as much power into the speaker and so the
volume will be a little
lower (and there'll be a little more heat in the
amp itself since it will
be trying to push more current than its designed
for, but at 1-5 watts of
output it doesn't matter much). By the same token,
if the output of the
radio is 4 ohms and you hook up an 8-ohm speaker, the
volume will be lower
also- in this case because the amp cannot generate
enough voltage swing to
push full power into the 8 ohms. There's usually
not much risk to the amp
in this case, until you get to 10s of watts where
the higher voltage could
damage the output stages.
The one caveat
I'd point out is that if that '59 has a vacuum tube radio,
all bets are
off. Vac tubes required a transformer on the output, and the
speakers could
have a lot of different impedances depending on how the
transformer was
wound.
On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 8:37 AM, cdcooke--- via MML
<mml@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Basically the lower the ohm
value of the speaker, the higher watts the amp
> can push to
it.
>
> IE if you have an 8 ohm speaker and the amp pushes 100
watts to it, if you
> drop that to a 4 ohm speaker the amp can then push
200 watts to the
> speaker.
>
> With a bone stock AM radio,
I would just go with what is commonly available
> which should be a 4
ohm speaker today. Most everything is 4 ohms for auto
> speakers anyway.
That factory AM radio won't push enough power to be of
> much concern
anyway.
>
> On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 5:17 AM, ALIENVOICE--- via MML
<mml@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> > I want (need)
to replace the dash speaker in my 59 Dodge (5x7), but need
> >
to know what ohm the AM radio will support. Appears most
modern
> speakers
> > are much higher ohms than the older cars
and I'm not up-to-speed on how
> > that
> >
works.
> >
> > Ideas?
> >
> > Larry
(Akron)
> >
> >
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