I made a Ruby amp today and I hooked it up to 2 computer speakers like the ones in the Ruby project posted the other day, and one 3 inch TV speaker. I like it a lot but it's super quiet. I'm wondering about the speaker wiring. All of them are wired in series. The computer speakers are 4 ohm but I don't know about the TV speaker. Anyway, is there a proper way of wiring them that will give more volume?
I plan on constructing a small Tweed-ish case tomorrow!
If you wire in series, the resistance adds up, and the higher resistance for a driver on an amp the less power it gives up, generally.
Is there a way I can determine the wattage of a speaker? I've tried looking up spec sheets on these speakers but I can't find anything.
With small speakers made for big production runs the chances of finding data is pretty slim. I would just assume that things are "close" and leave it at that. I wouldn't try that same tactic with a situation involving any real power though.
On the wiring, check your TV speaker with a meter. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a high resistance speaker. While 8 ohms is the "standard", I've seen lots of 32 ohm speakers in similar environments. Try to use any series/parallel speaker combination you can to get the resulting value to be as close to 8 ohms as you can for maximum output power.
Take care,
-Peter
So 8Ohm is nominal? The cab on my Sovtek is 16. Does the ohm rating affect the frequency response?
Thanks all,
The resistance of the speakers won't affect the frequency response, but giving the 386 a 8 ohm load will keep it happy. If you go lower than 8 you will have a little more power, but the 386 won't be too happy about that. ;)
Take care,
-Peter