OHM's?

[Frogstar7055]

OK I have a nice Sony head unit.
I have shot stock speakers.
The Sony is 52w 4ohm,a lot of the speakers I'm looking at (Infinity) are 2ohm.

As my knowledge of non 4x4 related things is a little light what am I looking for in speakers.

 

[Muadeeb]

Gut reaction is that you'll probably, most likely, should be OK, but I would feel better looking for 4 ohm speakers. What's the head unit?

 

[J Everett]

Ohms are a measure of resistance. An amplifier, in this case the one in the head unit, will be stable down to a threshold resistance, often a exponential of two. But their power is rated at a certain resistance, even if they are capable of going lower. So your headunit is rated at 52 watts (peak) per channel if each channel has a resistance of 4 ohms. That's just where it is rated. Somewhere in the specifications, it should have a stability threshhold. It will say stable at 2 ohms, 4ohms, etc. If you crank the power with too little resistance, the amp will burn up. Add more resistance, and the power output (actually the amount of power that gets converted to sound) reduces, meaning the system is less efficient. So you want speakers wit hthe lowest resistance that the amplifier can handle. Lower resistance = louder output, up to the point where too little resistance can damage the amp.

With the model number, we should be able to find the lowest stable resistance rating of your head unit, but if I had to bet, I'd say it's 4 ohms per channel. :tunes:

 

[robcarync]

There are plenty of 4 ohm speakers out there to choose from...but 2 ohms generally work if you really want them.

Ohms is the resistance to flow of electrons through the electrical components. For the same voltage, decreasing the ohms, increases the current (amperage) and power (watts). Having a lower resistance speaker just means you need to make sure your amplifier (or in this case, built in amp in the head unit) is still capable of handling the load.

Comments above about efficiency are true too. High resistances = more heat generated and more "work" to run the speaker. If you are running them off stock speaker wiring and not running an external amplifier (head unit only), I'm not sure there is a huge gain to be had, if the head unit can run 2 ohms.

For what its worth, I just went through a stereo and speaker upgrade in my wife's car. I got some Rockford Fosgate Prime 165-S component speakers for 60 bucks. 6.5" speakers...and they are killer. I am getting the same speakers for my truck too. They are 4 ohm too, so less confusion with sizing everything appropriately.

Going expensive or high end on speakers isn't really necessary unless you are going to amp them with an external amplifier to take advantage of the increased power handling capability.

 

[Frogstar7055]

Yes the Sony head unit is 4ohm.
Just bought some Sony speakers,not trying to "build" a system just want to get rid of the damn buzzing speaker...lol

 

[robcarync]

Do you know if any modification is needed in the Xterra door speakers? I was curious because for my wife's Kia, the hole in the door had 3 screws instead of the standard 4 that most after market speakers use. Also, there is often times interference between standard after market speakers and window glass when it comes down (if the magnet sits too far back).

For my wife's car, I had to gut the stock speaker and fabricate an adapter out of it. I am wondering if I will need to do something similar for the Xterra.

Also...my wife's car started off as just getting rid of the buzzing speaker. A few hundred dollars later, it turned into a decent built up system...lol.

People that mod, always like to mod

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

When I did mine I just gutted the front Clarion speakers from the factory RF system and mounted the new speakers on it. You'll see that they stick out about an inch? And with that there's not much room door otherwise, so I used that. And reading on the forums I'm not the only one...