Mixing Motley Speakers....

[soundchaser59]

I have 4 orphan speakers, all 8 ohm, but each one is a different wattage rating.

25w Greenback G12M
30w G12H
50w SilverBell
75w G12T75

I have two 2x12 cabs to fill. I have a 50 watt amp and a 100 watt amp.

How should I pair these speakers? How do I wire two speakers of different watt ratings to be sure I dont blow the smaller speaker??

I read some things on the web that said speakers wired in series, the power will distribute proportionately according to each speakers load. 25w gets 1/4th the power, 75w gets 3/4ths the power......

But speakers wired in parallel, then the power is distributed equally......75w gets half the power and 25w gets half the power. Bad news for the 25w if I use the 100 watt amp.

Is this correct?

 

[soundchaser59]

Well, I've since found out why this is not correct...... speakers do not behave exactly like resistors.

Given 2 (or 4) 8 ohm speakers, the wattage should end up equally divided among them. 4 speakers, 100w amp, each speaker will dissipate 25watts. So dont use any speaker rated less than 25 watts in that cab. 2 speakers, 100 watt amp, dont use any speaker rated less than 50 watts.

Or, looking at it the other way, if I put a 25w and a 75w in the same cab, both 8 ohms, each one will get 50watts of power.......bad news for the 25w speaker!

The one "problem" i'm left with now is this: I will have an odd 16 ohm speaker in with all the 8 ohm speakers, and I will have to put an 8 ohm and the 16 ohm together in the same cab. Does this mean the 16 ohm speaker will dissipate 2/3rds of the power?? If both speakers are rated at 50 watts, but one is 16 ohm, then the 16 ohm speaker will get 66 watts....not good.

Am I getting warm, here???