Newer Speakers? Different Ohms, Watts, WHAT?!

[TobeyWan]

I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a GE 3-5252 A at a Goodwill. The goal of giving it a new life led me to this forum. I have taken much of it apart for a good cleaning. I realized that I have some newer speakers the same size that could be fun to use as an upgrade.

The original speakers are labeled: 8 Ohms, Nom.2W, Max 4W.
The "new" speakers are labeled: 4 Ohms, 20W Nom., 100W Max.

What kind of boomboxery is necessary to make these speakers work?

 

[Reli]

The lower the Ohm rating, the more power they will pull out of the amp. So it will probably be louder and bassier at an earlier point on the volume knob. But if you crank it too much you might damage the amp. Depends if the amp is rated to tolerate 4 ohms.

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

Any amp that is designed to power 2 watt speakers (4 watts max) is going to be pretty small and extra weedy.
Stressing that amp with lower resistance 4 ohm speakers isn’t a good idea IMHO. Those new speakers won’t really wake up when powered by a low powered amp so it’s a bit of a waste.

They really need around 15-20 watts RMS per channel to be properly driven.

 

[TobeyWan]

Great start! So we've ruled out the hook it up and see what happens method. Thank you both for the insight.

Is there some sort of AMP component chip thingy that could bridge gap between the old components and the new speakers?

 

[Reli]

Any amp that is designed to power 2 watt speakers (4 watts max) is going to be pretty small and extra weedy.

Unless they used the same amp (or even the entire main board) from one of their higher-priced boxes, and paired it with 8 ohm speakers to make it sound less powerful. Kind of like how Chevy used to put the same 350 in the Corvette and Camaro but deliberately made the Camaro's engine more restrictive.