8\" 4-ohm speakers?

[Matty]

Does anyone know a source for these? I'm sure Jaycar used to stock them. Now the only thing I can find on their website is 8-ohm... (they are doing a bloody cheap runout on the old high-power 8-ohm 8-inch polycone units at $40 each!)

[muzzy66]

Did you want a 8\" coaxial (i.e. mid and tweeter in one unit) or midrange/woofer only?

[Matty]

woofer only, if they exist, or a split. The closest I can find is this kit which is only US$200.

[bigdog]

Bit of a compromise Matty, but you could have a look in your local repco for the VDO Dayton 8\" three ways. I paid *cough $20 cough* for a pair on sale a few weeks back . With a crossover added you'll get a significant bass boost for bugger all And they bolt straight in, they're poly cones so they will handle some moisture and they are labelled Phillips on the back. 100wrms handling power - not sure what the bass driver would handle with the crossover though, so best not got too crazy. Worth a punt I reckon... They sound a lot better than stock without a crossover using stock wiring and head unit too.

[Matty]

will check it out BD.

[Okibi]

I got some frol Altronics years ago and never used them. Think they're sitting in the garage at home.

They have a bling bling silver coating on part of the cone.

[Garry]

Matty, I was originally going to use the Jaycar ones but they had stopped stocking them when I was looking and there was only 1 left in the country, which wasn't much help. I found the VDO 3 way ones from Repco so I thought I'd give them a run, but I bodged them up to use the midrange but not the tweeter and then used the stock tweeter. They weren't to bad, a big improvement over the stock setup. BD's crossover idea would be a better option though. They screw straight in using the original mounting holes in the door.

I've since changed to the Clearwater ones from the US and they were better again. The base is a lot tighter and overall they are clearer though I found the tweeters a little bright. I did a few adjustments and they sound fine to my ears now.

[muzzy66]

For an 8\" i'd go with a Peerless HDS series if you intend to run two-way.

These have phenomenal midrange performance for an 8\" speaker, whilst still producing solid bottom end - yet are dirt cheap at around $200 a pair.

They are used primarilly in high end hi-fi systems but sound equally impressive in car installations.

A legitimate match for speakers well beyond twice their price.

All you need then is a set of tweeters

[SileNceR]

Muzzy - can you use these with the stock tweeter and crossover? How do they go with an amp designed for 4ohm (I assume being for HT use they're an 8ohm speaker?)

[Brad]

JL Audio make several good 8\" woofers.

W1 - 98mm deep http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_subs ... ries_id=28


W3 - 118mm deep http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_subs ... ries_id=27


and the grand-daddy of them all, the W7 which I somehow don't think will fit in a door. at 173mm deep. http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_subs.php?series_id=1

[Brad]

Muzzy - can you use these with the stock tweeter and crossover? How do they go with an amp designed for 4ohm (I assume being for HT use they're an 8ohm speaker?)

If you wire an 8ohm driver into a bridged amp, you'll be getting the sum of the 4ohm power rating of each amp channel. So, lets say you have a 4x25w amp (4ohm). Bridging two channels across a 4ohm load will see 2 ohm per channel, and with a good amp you could see up to 120w per channel, being 240w in total into that 4 ohm load. An 8ohm driver though will see 4ohm per bridged channel and provide only 50w per channel.

Unless you are going to be wiring up multiple subs onto one bridged amp, forget 8ohm.

Most amps can only go down to 2ohm per channel, although years ago there were some Soundstream amps affectiontly named 'cheater amps' which could go down to 1/4ohm. So although they were rated at something silly like 2x5w (4ohm), at 1/4 ohm bridged they put out around 500w