Amp/speaker wiring, series vs parallel help please

[nautiques4life]

Electronics rookie, even worse with stereo, just got 2 single can polk 6.5s from a friend and am looking to add the tower speakers to existing system defcon IV, wanted to run it by all you stereo geniouses out there. First let me say, I know its not gonna be an amazing stereo, the components were either given to me or came with the boat, some day I'll be able to have sweet wetsounds or whatever, just not today, today I've got to work with what I've got.
That being said here's what I got...

Stock Clarion Amp running the tower speakers
Clarion 480
RMS 80x4
Peak 160x4
Bridged 230x2
Minimum Impedence Bridged 4

Tower Speakers (6x; 3 per each bridged channel)
Polk MOMO MMC650
Freq Resp 43 Hz-25KHz
Normal Impedance 4 ohms
Power Cont. 80 w
Power Peak 180 w
Effic 90 dB

(Not sure if any or all of the specs are important so I just put up whatever I found on the internet to save the guroos some time in not having to look it all up.)

My plan now is to bridge the amp; having the left 3 speakers on channels 1-2, and the 3 right speakers on channels 3-4. My plan was also to run them all in parallel, mostly beacuse that is how they are already wired in the nautique cans, so it just made sense to do it that way; and then I could just splice the wires where they come out of the tower and not effect the exixting wiring. If needed I could re-wire the speakers within the enclosures in series, but figured I'd ask all of you before I did. Also not sure if its important but each of the speakers is wired with the external cap thing, just FYI in case that's significant somehow.

I drew a quick sketch of my plan to help clarify my thoughts, if anything is unclear please let me know. I'm sure ohms and imped are important, I just have no idea what they mean and would really appreciate someone looking over my numbers. Also not sure if its important but the housings are 2 single cans, and 2 double cans- for a total of 6 speakers. Thanks soooo much in advance, I really appreciate everyone's help.

[74green]

I believe each of your speakers have a 4 ohm impedance.

3 in parallel would be 1.3333 ohms
3 in series would be 12 ohms

2 in parallel = 2 ohms
2 in series = 8 ohms

I have always either ran my amps at 2 or 4 ohm per channel.

Given your setup. If it were me I would run your speakers off all 4 channels.
Channel 1 – 2 speakers in parallel or series (parallel at 2 ohm will give you more power! If your amp is 2 ohm stable)
Channel 2 – 2 speakers in parallel or series
Channel 3 – one speaker
Channel 4 – one speaker

[nautiques4life]

My only hesitation for adding the extra two single can speakers that way is the fact that I would have to re-run all the wires through the tower. If everyone is in agreement i'll do it that way- I'm the amature here. Thanks.

[Mikeski]

If the 480 is dedicated to the 4 stock tower speakers should be wired in series to the APX480 bridged into 2 channels. This will yield 80 watt/speaker RMS.

No great way to wire a single 480 into 6 four ohm speakers.

I would confirm they are wired as I suggest above then add a 280 dedicated to the other pair. Not the easiest solution but probably the cheapest.

[nautiques4life]

Thanks Mike, I really appreciate your help. I agree completely that buying a new 280 would be the cheapest but not at all the easiest solution. Any ideas for how to do it without re running wires tbrough the tower?

[hourglass]

i know you can run 6 speakers off the 4 channel, but i would call david at earmark. he is one of the most knowledgeable and nicest guys around.

[nautiques4life]

I agree, from what I've seen on here David can figure anything out. Hopefully he'll chime in before I rewire my tower. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

[Mikeski]

The way to wire 6 speakers to a 480 is simple. Parallel 2 pairs of speakers to channels 1 and 2, dedicate channels 3 and 4 to the other pair. This works well for the boat where you do not need that much power and you do not need balanced output. It will also work OK on the tower but I would actually prefer just keeping 4 evenly balanced well powered speakers versus this wiring configuration on a tower. Tower speakers need lots of power. Just my $0.02

[nautiques4life]

Well after great thought and lots of riding/partying without tower audio (eventhough there are 6 speakers up there), I was talked into buying a friend's Rockford Fosgate 600x2 amp. I've been told its 2 ohm stable and that its gonna give me not ideal, but more power to each speaker than the other amp- most importantly, no re-wiring of the tower.

Here's my concern, i did a little (very little) research on how to calculate ohms, and by my crappy math, I am getting my resistance as 1.33 ohms per channel- which unless I get to add the left ant right channels up for a score of 2.66, my 2 ohm stable amp isn't gonna work without some re-wiring. (I'm embarrased to say I don't know if 2 ohms stable applies to the added resistance between both channels or if each channel has to be greater than 2). Either way I'm thinking if I wired the 2 speakers in the joined can in series rather than parallel that'd my system would be 2.66 ohms per channel which my amp would probably prefer.

Please chime in any way you can, I'm a total rookie and its very possible everything I am thinking is wrong. I'd just really like to get this all figured out, thank you everyone in advance for your help and time.

[gride300]

go to www.bcae1.com they have calculators in the sections to calculate ohms, volume, watts, etc.

[Mikeski]

A buddy of mine has one of those Rockford Fosgate amps to his Deafcon V's, it shuts off all the time. So much so that he put his 8 ohm Evids back up on his tower. I would not run that amp bridged into 2 ohms.

[nautiques4life]

thanks mike I def needed to hear that. What about running them in series, think the amp would be more stable if I increased the ohms?

[74green]

Speakers are resisters

So for Parallel

Method 1
1/[(1/R1)+(1/R2)+(1/R3)+(1/RX)] = R equivalent (total resistance in ohms)
Where X is the number of resisters. RX = ohms. So in your situation R1 = 4 ohms, R2 = 4ohms and so on,

Method 2, can only be used for two resisters (or speakers) in parallel
(R1*R2)/(R1+R2) = R equivalent

Series - is just the sum
R1+R2+R3+RX = R equivalent

So here is what this gives with 4 ohm speakers...

3 in parallel would be 1.3333 ohms
3 in series would be 12 ohms

2 in parallel = 2 ohms
2 in series = 8 ohms

[EarmarkMarine]

With six identical 4-ohm tower speakers rated at 60 watts each, run the left three in series and the right three in series. Parallel the two sides for a final 6-ohm load. Bridge that 600 watt (rated at 2-ohms stereo) amplifier into mono. You'll net about 500 watts. That's almost 50 percent more power than the speaker's collective rating which is probably acceptable in consideration of highpass operation. Just go easy on the clipping. No worries about stereo since a horizontal line source of six speakers will have zero perceivable separation in any case.

David
Earmark Marine

[Nordicron]

A buddy of mine has one of those Rockford Fosgate amps to his Deafcon V's, it shuts off all the time. So much so that he put his 8 ohm Evids back up on his tower. I would not run that amp bridged into 2 ohms.

Hey just wondering if this is the newer t600-2 that you guys are talking about? or an older model Rockford. I tell you guys i've been out of the car audio business along time but back in the day(early 90's) Rockford was the stuff! Kicker was like k-mart stuff! That old punch 45 was amazing!