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Wetsounds rev 8 question


Twitch02x

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Why does the magnet on my rev 8 speaker say 8  ohm??

does the combination of the mid bass driver plus the horn drop the ohm load down to the advertised 4 ohms??

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Youve got three components wired together to make it work. Mid-bass driver, compression driver and finally the cross over. Wire all together, you get final nominal pod impedance of 4 ohm.  

Edited by MLA
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1 hour ago, Twitch02x said:

Why does the magnet on my rev 8 speaker say 8  ohm??

does the combination of the mid bass driver plus the horn drop the ohm load down to the advertised 4 ohms??

You're only viewing the nomenclature of the tweeter motor that is stacked at the rear of the midbass motor.

The 8" midbass driver impedance is 4-ohm. Typically a horn loaded compression driver (the tweeter) is 10 dB more sensitive than the midbass driver that it is mated to. Wetsounds wants to make a tower speaker that is intensely loud and projects a great distance but they also want to have balance for better sound quality. So rather than using separate resistance to attenuate the tweeter in order to have more balance, they instead choose a tweeter voice coil of the correct impedance to achieve more balance without additional parts. Less heat. Less wasted power. A better and more balanced sounding speaker. To obtain those goals in the Rev8 they mated a 4-ohm midbass with a 8-ohm tweeter.

The midbass driver and tweeter are wired in parallel. However, since the speakers do not play the same frequency range due to the passive crossover, you do not combine the two impedances as you would in the normal paralleled circuit. A 4-ohm midbass and 4-ohm tweeter combine for a 4-ohm speaker (versus 2-ohms). A 4-ohm midbass and 8-ohm tweeter also combine for a 4-ohm speaker. We're not talking DC resistance here. The impedance of any speaker will vary greatly with frequency. An overall nominal impedance is usually given that is actually closer to the minimum impedance.      

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You stumbled on an important part of the speaker's design. Worth mentioning is that a byproduct of the above Wetsounds design approach is that it can positively impact how clean the amplifier performs. For example, if you are correcting an inequity between a midbass and tweeter with resistors, you are adding an unnecessary element. While resistance is a crucial element in creating motion and sound in any loudspeaker, a separate resistor outside of the speaker has no audio output. And, if the amplifier is working harder to heat the resistor which is dissipating power via conversion to heat, then the amplifier is having to deliver more current without benefit of more sound output. The closer an amplifier operates to its current limit, the more audible distortion it creates. Namely IM, intermodulation distortion, which is the most offensive type. Thus, any passive component in a speaker design that consumes power and wastes power is counterproductive. Some necessary external components, such as crossover elements (capacitors & inductors), will have a slight insertion loss. That’s in large contrast to a resistor, or resistive circuit, that might be consuming and wasting half the power going to a driver. Less wasted amplifier power ultimately equals louder and cleaner output levels. Will a couple of resistors substantially change the entire system? Not likely, but if you combine enough of the right design choices in any product it will add up to a big difference.         

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17 hours ago, David said:

You're only viewing the nomenclature of the tweeter motor that is stacked at the rear of the midbass motor.

The 8" midbass driver impedance is 4-ohm. Typically a horn loaded compression driver (the tweeter) is 10 dB more sensitive than the midbass driver that it is mated to. Wetsounds wants to make a tower speaker that is intensely loud and projects a great distance but they also want to have balance for better sound quality. So rather than using separate resistance to attenuate the tweeter in order to have more balance, they instead choose a tweeter voice coil of the correct impedance to achieve more balance without additional parts. Less heat. Less wasted power. A better and more balanced sounding speaker. To obtain those goals in the Rev8 they mated a 4-ohm midbass with a 8-ohm tweeter.

The midbass driver and tweeter are wired in parallel. However, since the speakers do not play the same frequency range due to the passive crossover, you do not combine the two impedances as you would in the normal paralleled circuit. A 4-ohm midbass and 4-ohm tweeter combine for a 4-ohm speaker (versus 2-ohms). A 4-ohm midbass and 8-ohm tweeter also combine for a 4-ohm speaker. We're not talking DC resistance here. The impedance of any speaker will vary greatly with frequency. An overall nominal impedance is usually given that is actually closer to the minimum impedance.      

That was a very clear explanation !!  Thanks. Now I need to go order some of these bad boys !

Steve B.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am sure this board knows this but David and Odin from Earmark are incredibly helpful and know their stuff.  They are also great to buy products from; great prices with incredible customer service and support.  I bought quite a bit of stuff from them when I redid the stereo in my MasterCraft.  It's great to see them here.  I have to keep my credit card in my wallet though as my wife said "no mods for 18 months".  I just hope the '17 Wet Sounds stereo revision is all it is cracked up to be.  

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50 minutes ago, Lees23 said:

I am sure this board knows this but David and Odin from Earmark are incredibly helpful and know their stuff.  They are also great to buy products from; great prices with incredible customer service and support.  I bought quite a bit of stuff from them when I redid the stereo in my MasterCraft.  It's great to see them here.  I have to keep my credit card in my wallet though as my wife said "no mods for 18 months".  I just hope the '17 Wet Sounds stereo revision is all it is cracked up to be.  

Lees23,

Thanks. You'll have to scratch me off your list since I retired several (nearly 4) years ago. Odin Mattes (Earmark Marine on-line & Earmark Car Audio in Plano, Tx.) and Joe Parker (Earmark Car Audio & Marine in Lewisville, Tx.) are the new owners since I retired and are doing an outstanding job. You won't find two people in mobile electronics with greater experience or knowledge than these two.  

I still enjoy the marine audio subject (actually just about any audio subject).  

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1 hour ago, David said:

Lees23,

Thanks. You'll have to scratch me off your list since I retired several (nearly 4) years ago. Odin Mattes (Earmark Marine on-line & Earmark Car Audio in Plano, Tx.) and Joe Parker (Earmark Car Audio & Marine in Lewisville, Tx.) are the new owners since I retired and are doing an outstanding job. You won't find two people in mobile electronics with greater experience or knowledge than these two.  

I still enjoy the marine audio subject (actually just about any audio subject).  

I knew you were retired but are still extremely helpful and your former coworkers have been just as helpful to me.  Thanks for all you do here.  

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