ive searched far and wide, high and low, but no cigar. i dont have an ohms meter so i cant tell what the actual rating is. however...

since both the rear door speaker AND rear panel speakers are both 8 ohm speakers, i can only assume theyre wired down to 4ohms. my questions are these:

which speaker pair makes the actual connection to the head unit? the rear door speaker or the rear pannel speakers?

second question: are the rear speakers amplified at all?

what about the front? aside from teh owners manual, i dont have much to go on. the second question is vital, as i want to know if they are indeed driven by an amp, will it do 2ohms in stereo mode?

like i said, ive searched far and wide, but cant get a definitive answer.

also, what about the size of the rear deck speakers? some people said 6x9's fit, while others say a 5x7 is a better fit.


many thanks!

 

The rear speakers are wired in a parallel. That's why they're 8 ohm speakers and brought down to 4 ohm. So technically all the rear speakers are amplified.

 

are they ran off an actual amplifier is my question then. they sound a bit too loud for being driven off the deck by itself. i mean the bass quality, for stock speakers, is really good.

 

I'm pretty sure just about all 850's have an amplifier somewhere. Although I would not be surprised if the HU has a decent amplifier built in as well.

 

guess ill tear out the plastics under the steering wheel and glove box tomorrow. if there is one, id like to get the model #, call up the volvo dealerships here and find out the specs on the amp and see if its capable of 2 channels @ 2 ohms.

 

You couldn't find any specs on it?

 

i havent even located the amp, if one is even present. im assuming one is because 1) i have little experience with double DIN recievers. bigger size = potential for bigger internal amplification and 2) the bass response from the speakers seems a bit louder vs a standard deck. i have a kenwood excelon kdc-x693 in my brick that, even with the bass all the way up, doesnt get as loud as the stereo in my 850.

 

If it has an amp it will be mounted like right behind the radio.
Did your radio have a big round din plug plugged in to the back?
If not then you do not have an amp.

Also my wifes car does not have an amp. Mine did and hers sounded a ton better than mine. It was louder and crisper than mine.

 

i have no idea. the radio is a double din but i havent looked behind it. i havent even looked up on how to dismantle the front plastics properly so i dont break anything. i DO know that they have a weird screw pattern on the top and i had to go out and buy a bit for my drill.

 

Woah. You don't have to remove anything to take the unit out. There's two tabs on each side of the radio, you push those in, they pop out, you pull and the whole thing slides out. No dash dismantling.

 

i was wondering what those things were for!

thanks!!!

 

Good thing you found out before you started ripping the dash apart. That would have been bad.

 

not so much, but i do hate putting things back togeather when there was no need to take it apart to begin with.

in regards to my speaker wiring question:

if i were to putchase a set of 2ohm 6x9's for the rear deck and a set of 2ohm 5 1/4"'s for the doors, i could just reverse the wiring on the 6x9's and that *should* run them in series, correct?

since theyre 8ohm right now and run in parallel, reversing the last 2 wires *should* give me the ohm rating im wanting (4), correct?

 

they're 8 ohm and since in parallel become 4 ohm. I don't think you want to be putting any 2 ohm speakers in there.

I don't get what you mean reverse the wiring?

 

what i mean is, on the rear deck speakers, reverse the positive and negative wiring. this *should* wire them in series instead and *should* produce a 4 ohm load.

 

1 ohm loads - total load = .5 ohms
2 ohm loads - total load = 1 ohm
4 ohm loads - total load = 2 ohms
6 ohm loads - total load = 3 ohms
8 ohm loads - total load = 4 ohms
12 ohm loads - total load = 6 ohms
16 ohm loads - total load = 8 ohms
The impedance decreases. The equation is
Total Load = (S1 x S2) / (S1 + S2)
Where:
S1 = the impedance of Speaker load # 1
S2 = the impedance of Speaker load # 2
Pretty much you just divide the impedance in half-2 8ohms loads give you 4 ohms.



1 ohm loads - total load = 2 ohms
2 ohm loads - total load = 4 ohms
4 ohm loads - total load = 8 ohms
6 ohm loads - total load = 12 ohms
8 ohm loads - total load = 16 ohms
12 ohm loads - total load = 24 ohms
16 ohm loads - total load = 32 oh
The impedance is additive. Add up all the
loads to figure out the total load value.
Add up all the series loads:

So essestially you were correct with your assumption. When you reverse the leads and ultimately make the set-up a series configuration, you need to add all speaker impedances together. 2+2 will give you...4
HTH.