wiring two speakers, you
have two choices as to final
impedance: double or half
the impedance of each.
So, let’s look at a decoder that
likes 8 ohms, but will toler-
ate 4 to 16 ohms. If you are
really lucky, the speaker size
you planned on will be avail-
able in a 4-ohm version. Since
LokSound has designed their
decoders for a 4-ohm target,
there are more and more 4-
ohm speakers showing up in
the DCC shops. That’s great.
Wire two 4-ohm speakers in
series and you have 8 ohms,
as shown in (7). Note that the
connection between speak-
ers goes to the marked termi-
nal on one speaker and the
unmarked terminal on the
other. This is how the speak-
ers are wired in figure 5. Don’t
worry; there is a capacitor
between the two speakers
instead of a wire, as the older
decoder needed a capacitor.
Modern decoders would just
use a wire.
If you cannot find a 4-ohm version of your desired speaker,
then use an 8-ohm version and still wire them in series. This
will give a 16-ohm load that is usually better for the decoder.
8: Two speakers wired in par-
allel – the final impedance
will be half the speaker rat-
ing – 8-ohm speakers yield a
4-ohm load.
8
