Series Connections:
As the picture shows, connect the positive wire to speaker A's positive terminal, connect a wire from speaker A's negative terminal to speaker B's positive wire, and then connect the negative wire to the negative terminal of speaker B. You could continue this string for as many speakers that you have available, however, it may not be very practical.
The impedances add in a series connection. If speaker A equals 8 ohms and speaker B equals 8 ohms, the total load is A plus B, or 16ohms. If you string three 8 ohm speakers in series the net impedance will be (3X8) 24 ohms.
Parallel Connections:
Speakers are wired in parallel by hooking the positive terminals to positive terminals and negative terminals to negative terminals.
If all of the speakers have a common impedance, you can simply divide the common impedance by the total number of speakers to get the net impedance.
Examples:
Two 8 ohm speakers wired in parallel will have a net impedance of (8 divided by 2) 4 ohms.
If you have three speakers, each at 8 ohms, divide 8 by three to get a total impedance of 2.66ohms
Series/Parallel Connection:
Consider the S/P 1 connections. Again we'll assume that each speaker's impedance is 8 ohms. Speaker A is connected in parallel to speaker B and together they make up a network equal to 4 ohms. Speakers C and D are also connected together in parallel and also make a network equal to 4 ohms. Now, the two networks are connected in series to give us an 8 ohm output.
Now consider the example labeled S/P2. Assume that each speaker is 8 ohms. Speakers A and B are wired in series to make up a network that equals 16 ohms. Likewise, speakers C and D make up a series network equal to 16 ohms. Now network A/B is connected in parallel to network C/D. The result is a net impedance of 8 ohms out.
Remember: Impedance cannot be measured with an ohmmeter (multi-meter) as it is frequency dependant. Measurement of a voice coil is static resistance and will be about 50 to 75% of impedance spec.
Initial Publish Date: April 7th 2025
Published by Tyler Rowe