Installs Speaker Ohm and Wiring

[cj12]

Hello
I am running some speakers and I am wanting to wire 4 JBL Control 23 speakers at 8ohm and 50W each to one channel on a amp and do the same thing on the other side with 4 more speakers. Does this sound doable? I have never had to figure out ohms for speakers before. I am wanting to hook them to a Behringer mixer/amp. I was thinking in wiring them in a line like the drawing I made. Will they work like that or should I run each speaker back to the amp? Also what gauge of wire should I use for a 75' run?

 

[David Ashton]

I doubt the amp will like the 2 ohm load you put on it, best to wire the speakers in series parallel to get back to 8 ohm load, the thicker wire the better, I would use 2.5mm cable, whatever gauge that is.No need to run back to the amp, just a waste of money and extra resistance.

 

[museav]

First, you can wire the system as stereo and run all the channels panned center, but someone will almsot inevitably try to run it as stereo so if someone can't hear something on one side that might be one of the first things to check.

The amp in that mixer amp is rated at 160W per channel into 8 Ohms and 300W per channel into 4 Ohms. The Control 23 is rated at 50W Program and a nominal 8 Ohms. So wiring four speakers in series as shown with the resulting 2 Ohm overall nominal impedance and 75W+ per speaker is not a good idea.

What you need to do is for each channel wire two speakers in parallel and then wire those in series with another two speakers wired in parallel. Or two speakers wired in series then wired in parallel with another two speakers wired in series. Both of those result in a total load to the amplifier of 8 Ohms nominal, which your amp will support and provide 40W per speaker, which is within the speakers' power handling capability.

No need to run back to the amp, just a waste of money and extra resistance.

With an 8' ceiling it is not as much of an issue but it is usually much easier to test, verify and/or modify a series-parallel speaker system if all the speaker wiring is run back to a terminal strip at the amp and the series-parallel wiring occurs there. If it allows changing or adding/deleting speakers without having to replace the wiring just once then the initial investment may pay for itself.