i notice that the stock harley speakers on my 09 streetglide are 2 ohm...........and i notice that the aftermarket speakers that i have seen are 4 ohm. what would happen if i used a set of 4 ohm in place. is there a way to make 4 ohm speakers work

 

I can't say if they will work or not as I've got limited knowledge as far as electronics go. But someone will chime in here shortly that's more knowlegable than me. I've got aftermarket 2 ohm speakers in mine. I believe that you can use 4 ohm speakers, but it takes more watts to drive a 4 ohm than it does a 2 ohm. My understanding is it takes twice the power of a stereo to drive a 4 ohm than it does a 2 ohm, so they would work, you'd just have to turn your volume up louder to get the same amount of volume. Again, I'm no authority on this, and I could be wrong.

 

Take a look at J&M Rokker speakers, they are 2 ohm. I love mine!

 

Jeff is correct.
4ohm speakers will work, but the output power will be decreased.

 

I put the HD Boom Speaker ( No Amp ) set on my 2009 FLHTCU and I think they sound great.

 

4 ohms will work fine as Jeff said. Look around on here (classifieds) for some used J&M speakers to fit your ride, they come with a lifetime warranty. I've seen a few pair floating around as of recently. Would be a better investment than 4 ohm speakers IMHO.

 

Just to be clear ,,,,,

any amplifier that has a MINIMUM impedance rating of 2-ohms, will accept a speaker that is 2-ohms or GREATER, ((4, 8, 16 ,,, as high as 32 ohms if you want)), but as Iron Cross indicated, the higher the impedance, the less power ((watts)) will be able to flow thru the speaker ,,,,

but do NOT use a speaker LESS that 2-ohms like some of the Harley brand speakers which are rated at 1-ohm (((only the lord knows why ?!?)) ,,,,,,

good video here for complete explanation HOW-TO configure/wire 2, 4, 6 or 8 speakers on your Harley Bagger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJj7C...4LpftUbhq26J9L ,,,,,, ,,,,,,

 

There's some good answers and advice here. Anything LARGER than 2 Ohms and you'll be fine. You're pushing power from a head unit to speakers, not pushing power out of a generator to loads. Impedence matching (i.e., making sure you have equal resistance on both sides of the circuit, which is what your ohms represent) is critical with energy draw to maximize it, but in a scenario like this, its no big deal. You'll likely just have to crank your volume up a little more to get the same effect or "loudness".

 

Sorry to revisit an old thread but it was the closest i found:
Could I upgrade my head unit to the Sony dsx-ms60 and keep my 4 hd boom audio 2 ohm speakers without issue? no amp just head unit to speakers.

 

I wouldn't take my word as gospel, but following one of the earlier points made in the thread regarding not using speakers with lower impedance than the headunit, the Boom! Audio speakers are only 2 ohms whereas the Sony DSX-MS60 says it's rated at 4 ohms. Looking on Sony's website it says speaker impedence 4-8 ohms.

I'm sure one of the actual stereo gurus could give you a better answer and it will probably turn out that I am as wrong as can be.