Ok you guys RULED for my last question, I went in 2 days from being ready to incorrectly install 2 amps to asking specific questions about fusing relays...I really appreciate all the help, now i'm helping a friend of mine who's just getting into modding her RS.

She's got coaxials and a HU already, and she "wants tweeters". She has no sub. I'm thinking a better altnerative would be to amplify her speakers, but if she insists on the tweeter route, I have to ask: Is there any possible way to wire 4ohm tweeters w/4 Ohm speakers and still achieve 4 Ohms? If you do it in series you get 6, and parrallel you get 0, right? 0 sounds odd, which is why i'm asking. If i gotta use crossovers, is she just better off spending the money on an amp? I think she is, but i'm not sure...

thanks!

Vandy

when you wire any two resistive loads both equilling 4ohms in parallel you get a totall resistance of 2ohms. in series its 8ohms. of course, that doesnt take into account the frequency-dependance of resistence, but thats a whole other thread, lol.

in order to add on another set of tweets, youll need an additional set of outputs, wether its from an amp or headunit. if you run a new set of tweets inline with an existing channel (say, for example, in-line w/ the coaxials) its going to sound like complete dogshit. in otherwords, the tweeter is more efficient than the midrange, so the volume will be limited by the thermal and mechanical output of the tweets, meaning the coaxs will only get up to maybe 1/3 of thier potential before being limited by the god-awful sound being eminated by the tweets. i dont know if that makes sence or not, but basically i mean this: if you add on a set of tweets, you need some way to control thier output.

enter the L-pad. go to www.partsexpress.com or any other electronics supplier to find them. they are basically a volume level that runs inline with the speaker wire. it allows you to attentuate the tweets to match the speakers they are running in-line with. if she decides she absolutly MUST have some extra tweets, then invest in an L-pad.

the next problem (that i briefly mentioned earlier) is the total resistance presented by the additional tweets. assuming all of these speakers are being run off of the headunit, you will HAVE to wire them in series. running them in parralel will produce a total load of 2ohms, too low for the headunit to handle. now there IS an argument here that the L-pad will allow the HU to run under a 2ohm condition, but im not going to get into that, id rather you be safe than sorry. back to what i was saying: you must run the coaxs and tweets in series. that means the total output from the headunit will be decresed to the coaxis because the tweets are "demanding" as much power as them in the cicuit. so even if you added another set of tweets and ran an L-pad inline, you would most likely have to turn the L-pad down all the way in order to achieve a listenable balance in the system, meaning the headunit would be turned up all the way to achieve a reasonable SPL output from the entire system. in the end, you would gain next to nothing from the extra tweets, and end up spending a bit of money and a lot of time in the process.

if there were another set of channels to work w/ (either by eliminating the rear speakers and using the headunit outputs or adding an amp), you eliminate all the difficulties i described before. once the tweets are run independantly, you have complete control. i would not necissarily recomend this course of action though, but it is feasable if she wants insane amounts of treble that wont fuck with the rest of the system (the coaxs), lol.

in the end, its not at all worth it. if she MUST have some extra hi-hat action, she should invest in a small amp (a cheap one will most certainly do), an amp kit, a set of extra tweets, and a passive crossover set at around say...3.5-4khz or so. or, she could eliminate the rear speakers, get the high-pass crossover and a set of tweets, and use the headunits rear channels to pwer the tweets. that way she could fade front/rear to adjust the level of the extra tweets.

damn! thank you again! Ok so if she's looking to improve her sound, do you think I should reccomend an amp or just tell her to invest in components? I think i'm just gonna have to figure out what she wants to spend and go from there, what'll probably happen is she'll say "oh" and then "well ok no big deal" and then ask about a turbo :shrug But hey, one more girl that falls under "eclipseHeads" works for me, esp. since all my boys either drive hondas or mustangs :puke ...


Would she notice enough of a sound quality diff. with an amp if her speakers are just mid-market pioneer 2way and 3ways?

"Would she notice enough of a sound quality diff. with an amp if her speakers are just mid-market pioneer 2way and 3ways?"

that depends. ive noticed great results when amping pioneer coaxs, as you get some extra power and an adjustable crossover (so you take out a little bit of the bass and turn the speakers up louder without hitting the mechanical limits of the driver, LOL). however, if youve got a newer headunit, it might have 90% of the features you get with an amp and relativly high power, so it might not be worth getting an external amp. i would NOT recommend buying a component set to run off of the headunit. many of them REALLY need some power to sound good, plus they are generally more inefficient than coaxis, menaing you need more power to really get any volume out of them.

what kind of sound is she looking for? thats probably the most important question here. ;-)