Can Car Audio Speakers Go Into A Guitar Cabinet?

[sjaguar13]

I am having a hard time getting 6 inch speakers. Can I get the car speakers to use in my amp?

[Maiden69]

Not really, well it all depends on the resistance, car audio is usually 4 ohms and guitar amps depending are 8-16 ohms depending on brand... It will make the Amp run hotter and burn up in time.

[Primal]

So build your own amp!

[monkey69962000]

anyone know where i can get a 1 watt 1 ohm speaker for my mini mini amp. Radio shack sucks and doesnt have it.

[lovekraft]

You can use car audio speakers with no problems so long as you account for the impedance difference. Since most are 4 ohms, as Maiden69 mentions, you'll have to either use a 4 ohm output from your amp or wire two speakers in series to get an 8 ohm load. Whether they sound good or not is a matter for debate.

[sjaguar13]

The only 6 inch speakers I can find, even pro audio is 4 ohms. Well, the Radio Shack ones are 6.

[lovekraft]

Do a search for the Eminence Alpha 6A - not much bottom, but no 6 incher's gonna give you very much bass. Handles 100WRMS at 8 ohms, should be around $40 or so.

[ansil]

jensen makes nice car audio speakers.. acording to my source the older ones i had were actually car speakers and made by the same compnay. one thing also to consider is not onoly the wattage and the ohmage. but think about this. only certain car speakers were designed with the correct abmount of throw. ie the amount of swing the speaker can handle most audio speakers for home and car were designed to mover very little. personally my favorite tricki is to take two car 12" speakers and hook them up with two ev's or other 12" speakers. they make the cabinet very resonant. and despite the failure rating most people give with using car audio speakers i ahd a cabinet for five years that saw 7 days a week at least 3 hours a day of play time from a 100watt head. at half voluem and its still working to the guy i sold it too.. so i would say they can take a beating.

[jefm]

I was to understand that audio speakers handle distortion differently...

In a car you avoid distortion...so the speakers operate clean right to the limit....then distort like crap and burn out

The speakers designed for use with amps distort earlier than the limit and take a bit more abuse....they're meant for playing an instrument through it instead of reproducing the sound exactly....

Also the bandwidth is often lower in instrument speakers....they don't usually need much

Just what I've heard.....it could be hooey

[sjaguar13]

The head unit amp thingie (you know what I am talking about) is 80 watts at 8 ohms. On the back, it has an external speaker jack and that says don't go lower than 8 ohms. What kind of speakers do I need? I am liking the Eminence.

[Gorecki]

The head unit amp thingie (you know what I am talking about) is 80 watts at 8 ohms. On the back, it has an external speaker jack and that says don't go lower than 8 ohms. What kind of speakers do I need? I am liking the Eminence.

You haven't said how many holes you have to fill with 6" speakers which factors in considerably.

Also, 6 1/2" is far more common then 6" for car audio.

Also, Mark II You can get Jensen 6" Fender Champ replacements from http://www.srs-webstore.com/music/jensen_m.htm

Or http://www.cedist.com/new/scripts/silverwa...m=P-A-MOD6-15-4

[Maiden69]

The head unit amp thingie (you know what I am talking about) is 80 watts at 8 ohms. On the back, it has an external speaker jack and that says don't go lower than 8 ohms. What kind of speakers do I need? I am liking the Eminence.

If this is truely a 80W amp I think you need a bigger speaker than an 6", I would suggest getting a Eminence 12" (8ohmn) or a pair of 10" (4 ohmn ea run in series), and build your own open back (or close if you want, just a little more complicated,ie.. nees thiele small parameters to tune the cab) cabinet. It's not that difficult and with the wattage that you have should be able to get a decent sound out of either combo of the speakers listed. (my GX65 had a single 12 and it sounded good with only 65Watts)

Before doing this make sure that your amp is 80w RMS, and not 80w peak-to-peak which will be about 40w RMS...

[68 lost souls]

I have another little question to do with car speakers and amps.

I was wondering if it would be possible to connect say a mini amp or something like that to a car stereo. Im saving money for a VW van and want to have a built in amp for road trips. Any thoughts?

[Maiden69]

I have another little question to do with car speakers and amps.

I was wondering if it would be possible to connect say a mini amp or something like that to a car stereo. Im saving money for a VW van and want to have a built in amp for road trips. Any thoughts?

Get an auto specific amplifier... save you the trouble... HERE

If you mean a guitar amp, Crate sells one that's 12 VDC here,

[sjaguar13]

The head unit amp thingie (you know what I am talking about) is 80 watts at 8 ohms. On the back, it has an external speaker jack and that says don't go lower than 8 ohms. What kind of speakers do I need? I am liking the Eminence.

You haven't said how many holes you have to fill with 6" speakers which factors in considerably.

2.

[68 lost souls]

It will have a car amp probably but I want to be able to connect my guitar to the cars stereo so If I get a battery powered mini amp which cost about $50 here and figure out how to connect it to the stereo It can go as load as the car stereo?

Im not sure if you understood me properly.

Anyone have any advice for this?

[Hotrock]

I was to understand that audio speakers handle distortion differently...

In a car you avoid distortion...so the speakers operate clean right to the limit....then distort like crap and burn out

The speakers designed for use with amps distort earlier than the limit and take a bit more abuse....they're meant for playing an instrument through it instead of reproducing the sound exactly....

Also the bandwidth is often lower in instrument speakers....they don't usually need much

Just what I've heard.....it could be hooey

Thats was my understanding. Infact I'm prety sure that's right.

Something to do with the end of the throw. I'll have a look tonight if I remember.

[Maiden69]

It will have a car amp probably but I want to be able to connect my guitar to the cars stereo so If I get a battery powered mini amp which cost about $50 here and figure out how to connect it to the stereo It can go as load as the car stereo?

Im not sure if you understood me properly.

Anyone have any advice for this?

This was done on MTV Pimp my Ride" they connected a little preamp to the auto amplifiers via a a/b audio switch, so a will be the radio or head unit and b the guitar pre amp. For pre amp you can even use one of those itybity Pandora Box, or any one that has a headphone out, since this is as close to line level as youare going to get... It's just like plugging to your computer to play or record, just keep the volume down. The reason why the speakers distort is because most car stereos use Woofers or Subwoofer depending on the set up and the frequenzy response is different from the guitar speakers. Also magnet size and other factors. But if you keep it down to civilized volume, you shouldn't have too much trouble... I don't know about the battery powered mini amp one (this is what you are talking about) but a Pandora Box or any other multieffect one will be better because you can simulate cabs and all the other stuff is useful to.

[Gorecki]

The head unit amp thingie (you know what I am talking about) is 80 watts at 8 ohms. On the back, it has an external speaker jack and that says don't go lower than 8 ohms. What kind of speakers do I need? I am liking the Eminence.

You haven't said how many holes you have to fill with 6" speakers which factors in considerably.

2.

That being the case, you could get two of the 6" Jensens and wire them in series (they're 4 ohm which will be 8 ohm in series) and you're good to go.

[sjaguar13]

The head unit amp thingie (you know what I am talking about) is 80 watts at 8 ohms. On the back, it has an external speaker jack and that says don't go lower than 8 ohms. What kind of speakers do I need? I am liking the Eminence.

You haven't said how many holes you have to fill with 6" speakers which factors in considerably.

2.

That being the case, you could get two of the 6" Jensens and wire them in series (they're 4 ohm which will be 8 ohm in series) and you're good to go.

Do I want the speakers to be more than 80 watts at 8 ohms or less than 80 watts?

[Gorecki]

Do I want the speakers to be more than 80 watts at 8 ohms or less than 80 watts?

Technically you'd want more.

The wattage rating on a speaker is how much it can handle at its ohm rating. In theory, using more wattage 'could' damage the speaker. But this rating is also based on 'clean power'. I've never seen a guitar amp produce its watt rating as clean power because the way they fudge the numbers. Especially Solid State amps.

Generally a 100 watt SS head really will only produce about 25 watts of clean power or even less.

80 watts of continuious power out of a guitar amp would be painfully loud do to a guitar's limited frequency range.

Also, since the speakers are rated at 4 ohms, run in series means their wattage capacity would double.

A good example of all this is it's very common to use 100 watt Marshall head (or more) through 30 watt Celestian Green Back speakers.

[Maiden69]

A good example of all this is it's very common to use 100 watt Marshall head (or more) through 30 watt Celestian Green Back speakers.

See that you are refering to the Green Backs, not all speakers are created equal, you could easily find that a Jensen rated at 100w will start to break up before the green back... So don't get a cheapo because you will regret it.

[sjaguar13]

The speakers I found are the cheap ones: "Power handling is 100 watts per speaker, impedance is 8 ohms"

Eminence: 75 watts per speaker at 4 ohms.

The speaker thing I was reading said it was better to have more power than your speakers can take. The speakers draw the power they need. If they are drawing more power than the head is producing, something blows up. I would actually need something higher than the peak watts of the speakers. Another thing I found said they should be matched as close to possible. There were 50 watt speakers in my amp, but they blew up.

[lovekraft]

The speaker thing I was reading said it was better to have more power than your speakers can take. The speakers draw the power they need. If they are drawing more power than the head is producing, something blows up.

No, you should match them as closely as possible, but always make sure your speakers can handle all the power your amp can put out. You can run a 50 watt head with a 100 watt cabinet, but a 250 watt head will blow speakers in the same cabinet if you crank it up, especially if you use a lot of bass and distortion in your sound. Using underrated speakers is like Russian Roulette - odds are something is going to die. If your amp is rated 80 watts peak, you're going to need two 4 or 16 ohm speakers rated for at least 40 watts each.

[Maiden69]

If your amp is rated 80 watts peak, you're going to need two 4 or 16 ohm speakers rated for at least 40 watts each.

Here it is, enough said!