speaker installation

[willranger]

I have six factory speakers out of 1995 Taurus. These are the rear speakers. I want to install all six of them in my 2007, E350, 15 passenger van. For now all I have is the factory radio but plan to upgrade to an aftermarket system. Will this work? most cars/trucks have two small speakers and two large speakers. How will six large speakers work?? I'm not interested in blowing out windows etc. Thanks

 

[DjDom]

Don't bother using the factory speakers. And they won't work on the factory headunit, cause you'd be splitting the wattage of 1 channel across 2 speakers.
So if the stock radio puts out 16 watts RMS, you'd be sending about 8 watts to each speaker.

6 Speakers doesn't sound different than 4 in a stereo configuration. It just gives you more coverage in the car.

 

[willranger]

Coverage is just what I was looking for. So my concern is the hook-up. I'm thinking that all is needed is to keep the same polarity for all speakers.

 

[97exploder19]

Use an aftermarket amp for all the speakers. Much easier

 

[DjDom]

Keeping the polarity on the speakers will work, but you'll lose volume, greatly lose volume. The best bet would be to run a multichannel amp and run the speakers off it.

If you split 4 channels into 6, that means you're going to run 2 speakers off 1 channel. Like I said before, you'll split the power/volume.

That means, 2 speakers in the car will be louder than the other 4.

After all that, it's not worth it, unless you want to add 4 more speakers. Then get a 4 channel amp, run 2 speakers off each channel. So 4x2=8.
If the amp is a 1000 watt amp, that gives 250 per channel, you'd be giving 125 watts per speaker in an 8 speaker set up.

The stock headunit puts out 16 watts rms. That means you're giving 8 watts per speaker.
Big difference!
Also, running too many speakers on the factory amp can blow the amp from stress.

 

[willranger]

Wow. Much more to this than expected. The van only came with an Am/Fm unit so I will be replacing it. It seems like I will need an amp also. Normally do amps work with speakers in pairs? 2, 4, 6, 8 etc.? I'm not looking for a high power system just something to make the speakers work. I haven't searched but a 100 amp booster would be top of the line for me. I don't want to buy any speakers if I don't have to. Hopefully my collection will work.

 

[DjDom]

Best choice is a 4 channel amp.
And try to pair the speakers based on their type.
If you have 2 of the same speakers, run them off the same channels if possible.
You can split a 4 channel to power 8 speakers.
Or, you could get a 5 channel amp, that way you an run the speakers and add a subwoofer if you want to later on.

 

[willranger]

thanks a million for all of the info.

 

[DjDom]

thanks a million for all of the info.

No problem.
Hopefully it works out for you. Feel free to bug me if you have any more questions or need more info.

 

[Nixthebomb]

Just make sure that your ohm load is correct whatever route you go. You don't want to overload the amp's capability, that'll blow it real quick. Say you take 2 4ohm speakers and kept the polarity the same to go to 1 channel, you would then be a 2 ohm load, so if you do plan on using a 4 channel amp or even off a headunit keep that in mind. If you go with a 4 channel amp that is stable for 2 ohms, that usually increases power for that channel, so you could have all the speakers at almost the same volume

 

[DjDom]

Just make sure that your ohm load is correct whatever route you go. You don't want to overload the amp's capability, that'll blow it real quick. Say you take 2 4ohm speakers and kept the polarity the same to go to 1 channel, you would then be a 2 ohm load, so if you do plan on using a 4 channel amp or even off a headunit keep that in mind. If you go with a 4 channel amp that is stable for 2 ohms, that usually increases power for that channel, so you could have all the speakers at almost the same volume

Oh wow, thanks for adding this. I actually forgot about ohms when explaining this to him.

 

[willranger]

Thanks for the info. I will research the stats on those speakers to see what ohms they are. They all came out of Taurus cars. I have until December to finish this project. My main thing is not to buy new if possible. I prefer takeing salvage stuff and making a good product.

 

[DjDom]

Thanks for the info. I will research the stats on those speakers to see what ohms they are. They all came out of Taurus cars. I have until December to finish this project. My main thing is not to buy new if possible. I prefer takeing salvage stuff and making a good product.

Door speakers are 4 ohms. Putting 2 door speakers together makes it run in 2 ohms.

Only in ohms can 4+4=2..

You'd have to look into it and research ohm load.