Difference in ohms

[oni]

I've got a Panasonic deck in my 89 e30. it states the speaker impedance range is 4-8ohms.

do all the speakers have to have the same impedance ratings? could I have my fronts as 8ohms and my rears both as 4ohms?

thanks

[Jean]

They don't have to match, but they might play at different volumes (relative to each other), but you'll just have to use the fader.. if anything I would use 4ohms upfront and 8 rear...that way you might get more power to the front stage instead of rear.

[Garageaholic]

I thought that the rear speakers need to be less impedence because they are further away from the driver, therefore needing to be slightly louder.

[oni]

no.

typically you want to set the fader a few steps to the front. You want the music soundstage to be infront of you, not behind you.

i'd prefer to keep the 4ohm speakers in the rear, as they are part of a componant set. The front 8ohm speakers are higher.

the reason i ask, is because my deck has been getting extremely hot and it clips at 1/3 the volume. Proceeds by going into "protection" mode and shutting off. in addition, with the keys removed from ignition the deck continues to draw power and over heat. No sounds are coming from the deck.

[StereoInstaller1]

Shitty install.

Did you run new wires, or use the fader bullshit from the factory?

You do NOT want to use 8 ohm speakers in front, you can't hear the fucking fronts in an E30, the rears drown them out...why would you want to make that worse?

If anything, use 4 ohm in front, 8 ohm in back...or better still, no rear speakers at all.

Luke

[oni]

Shitty install.

Did you run new wires, or use the fader bullshit from the factory?

You do NOT want to use 8 ohm speakers in front, you can't hear the fucking fronts in an E30, the rears drown them out...why would you want to make that worse?

If anything, use 4 ohm in front, 8 ohm in back...or better still, no rear speakers at all.

Luke

not my install, im just trying to fix the mess that came with it for as little as possible.

im not sure if the deck was wired in the "fader". There's is a speaker fader button on the dash, next to the emergency signals.

the 8ohm speakers are much clearer at the higher frequency then the 4ohm speakers. I think the 4ohm speakers are from a premium sound system in the e30, without the tweater.

The front's appear to be stock e30 325i speaker.

[oni]

here's what im looking at.

[StereoInstaller1]

OK, so here is the deal.

You NEED to rewire all 4 speakers ASAP. Your deck is running the factory amp, which is a pile of doo-doo.

You need to find a set of "Premium" tweeters AND a set of aftermarket passive crossovers.

Go find parts. Buy wire. You need about 50 feet of 18GA normal speaker wire, about $10 at WalMart.

You will be impressed how much better your car sounds.

Luke

[Jean]

the 8ohm speakers are much clearer at the higher frequency then the 4ohm speakers.

That's wrong, but I think you are comparing a midrange/tweeter combo to just midrange but then ohms have nothing to do with what you are hearing..

[AndrewBird]

here's what im looking at.

Wow. Someone actually did a pretty good job wiring it all. Granted, they wired it incorrectly, but at least it's clean.

[oni]

well, this originally had the NON-premium sound system in it, with the fader on the dash.

since i posted, i've been able to source out premium speakers for the front and back, including tweaters. so i guess I should stop trying to save this kludgie mess, and re-run wires for each speaker.

on the premium system, does someone have a picture of how the tweaters are wired to the woofers in the kickpanels upfront.

[oni]

Wow. Someone actually did a pretty good job wiring it all. Granted, they wired it incorrectly, but at least it's clean.

matching this up to the wiring guide online, it seems to be correct.

can someone shed somelight on what is wrong here?

[StereoInstaller1]

Oni, let me see if I can help you understand what is wrong with your install.

First, try to disregard what the wiring diagrams tells you about audio wiring in these cars...things have changed since 1989.

Look at the aftermarket deck you show there....notice how the speaker positive is the only output wire being used? You need to use both positive and negative wires to get the full potential of the decks built in power.

Your car has an amplifier in the trunk. The amp is located behind the trunk liner, behind a metal brace, screwed into a bracket, near the antenna.

You need to remove it, it is junk. Your deck has not only more power, but better power, too.

Run new wires!

Luke

[DaveSmed]

If your car is definitely not a factory amplified car, an easier way might be to move the yellow/brown wire from ground and connect it to the green/black wire from the headunit, and move the blue/brown wire and connect it to the purple/black wire from the headunit.

After you do that, disconnect and tape up the yellow/brown and blue/brown from each front speaker and run two new wires from each speaker to the headunit. Saves a good bit of time pulling everything apart and running new wires.

Verify the lack of amp though, I think most late cars came with them and some may have had a fader depending on the installed headunit.


If you do have an amp, all that adds is the need for four additional splices to the above instructions.

[oni]

I've run new rear speaker wires, so that solves that.

Can someone confim the non-speaker wires are wired correctly?
Yellow to red/brown = Constant Power
Red to purple/white = Switched Power
Black to brown = Ground

I've got a set of premium speakers I want to plug into the front, should I make my life simpler and run new wires to those two speakers? Once that's done, which wires and how should I connect the tweeters to the mids? where's the crossover?

Here's what I see.