Re: [FWDLK] Radio Speakers

In a message dated 5/9/2017 2:04:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, mml-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

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)
> >
> >