Mini-System Question plz help newbie

[Vegita]

I have a mini-system in my room that came with two speakers that connect to the back of the deck through bare wire.

I have another old mini-system that is not in use, so I used two of the speakers from that system and jammed the wires from those into the "holes" (for lack of a better word) on my current system.

It works, sound comes out through all four speakers.

What is the effect of this? Is this bad? Will each speaker now be half as loud?

As you can tell I'm a total newbie at this.

 

[av_phile]

I don't know how you "jammed" those speakers into those "holes" but I would guess you had the second pair of speakers from your old mini connected in parallel to the current ones. And whether they are in phase or not, you effectively HALVED the impedance as seen by your current mini system. That can be a non-issue for some amps that can handle low or difficult loads. But I would guess those mini compo speakers are 4-6 ohmers to begin with and putting them in parallel just might hasten the demise of your mini-compo. Power is essentially doubled, assuming the amp design and power reserves can hack it, but distributed over 4 speakers.

Well, just don't play too loud and monitor the heat coming out of it. Training a fan over your mini compo amps will help.

 

[Vegita]

Yes I believe they're in parallel. Would it help any to tell you the specs of the system? Anyway, this is it: http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=172354&navigationPath=32100n32101

Yeah I will think about putting a fan to suck the air out the back or something...

 

[zumbo]

I doubt it will take it very long. You could take one of each speaker, tie the + of one to the - of the other. Then take the + from one, and the - from the other one & jam in the left hole. Then, do the same on the other side. This will allow your mini system to live for a while. But, you will probably find that it sounds better with just one pair.

 

[Vegita]

I doubt it will take it very long. You could take one of each speaker, tie the + of one to the - of the other. Then take the + from one, and the - from the other one & jam in the left hole. Then, do the same on the other side. This will allow your mini system to live for a while. But, you will probably find that it sounds better with just one pair.

Ahhhh so I could wire them in series... Yes I think I will do that.

And the effect of wiring them in series is that one set will not be as loud as the other?

 

[zumbo]

You will have two sets. Left two in series. Right two in series. They will half the power. So say your unit is 50wpc, each speaker will get about 25 watts. Or more correctly, each set will share 50wpc. The way you have it now, the unit is trying to produce 100wpc.(theoratically)

 

[Vegita]

Yeah, that's what I had in mind. So I'd just need to buy some speaker wire because the positive and negative ends of each speaker are stuck together until the very end.

BTW, how do I connect speaker wire? Can I just twist it and put a heatshrink/electrical tape over it? Or do I really need to solder it?