This is probably a very stupid idea but want to know if this would work.
Anyone know if this is already done.

 

I think most home speakers run 8 ohms,and car ones at 4 ohms,so I would say no,but someone might come along and correct me!

 

As above ^^^^^

Can be done by dropping the correct resistor value across the terminals.

 

Home speakers are not designed to take the harsh conditions that a car provides - moisture, hot/cold cycles, moisture, and a bit more moisture too. It'll kill 'em.

Chucking a resistor across the terminals is a bad idea. Whilst it'll drop the impedance that the amp drives to 4 ohms, it'll mean that half the power is being wasted in heat by the resistor. If you're putting 50W into the combo, that means that the resistor will be dissipating 25w as heat, which is some ask of a resistor - most common resistors are rated for .5W, not 25W.

Amps playing into an 4 ohm load will, generally, generate half the power that they would do into a 4 ohm load. You could put two sets of 8 ohm speakers in parallel to give the amp a 4 ohm load but again, unless you know the speakers will take the environment, don't do it.

Cheers,
Nick.

 

That is the best advice, don't do it !!!

 

A long time ago, I used to run a pair of Wharfdale floorstanding speakers in the boot of my mark 2 golf GTi. Side by side they were a perfect fit for the boot floor pan, so they didn't move around at all. They were driven by an in car amp, an american Corcorde 50.2, and my source was the sony professional walkman via its line output. Sounded really quite good. Sounded even better when i moved the tweeters up front. These wharfdales were large cabinets with 12 inch woofers, 6 or 7 mids and soft dome tweeters. One thing to consider is that the efficiency or sensitivity of domestic speakers is often a lot lower than in car stuff. If I was cutting the car up or doing custom cabinets I would have used in car speakers for the peace of mind and longevity issues; I only ran that setup as I was a skint student with a spare set of speakers.

 

As above, although I'd add that it won't harm your HU to drive 8 ohm hi-fi 'speakers rather than 4 ohm car ones, they'll just be quieter (by about 3dB).


If you have any amplifier or aren't bothered about maximum volume then you could do it. Another issue is that car speakers are often designed for less than ideal enclosures (think doors etc.), and so are more tolerant of it. If you're using hi-fi ones, its probably best to keep them in their original enclosure (as above).

 

I just tried my B&w p4 floorstanders in my bedroom and they are mated to an Arcam alpha 9 amp and alpha 8 player, i was sitting 2 foot away with the volume only 1/4 of the way around and was deafining. I don't want to imagine sitting in the scooby with these. These speaker are listening speakers, not to be used for making your ears bleed. Bad idea.

 

To be honest they would be wasted because of the small amount of space.

 

Most HiFi speaker cabinets are made of chipboard, not a good idea inside a car!!

Why not buy the proper car audio kit, if it is fitted correctly and proper attention made to the install a good ICE system can sound as good ,if not better than a home hifi system, plus the fact it will stand the conditions inside the car.

I had some Acoustic research component 6 x 9's, mids & tweets the sun baked the6x9's & mids so much that the rubber suspension went hard and cracked, so imagine what it would do to a speaker that is not designed for in car use.

Another warning is thieft, my mate many years ago had a huge pair of hifi speakers in the boot of his Rover SDi, someone thiefing scumbag smashed the rear window and nicked them, don't know how they managed to carry them as they weighed a ton EACH. You can install in car audio with a degree of stealth, so prying eyes don't see it