HSE Trident speakers

Just purchased a used set of HSE trident speakers. There isn't much information on them out there. Some people on here made good comments about them but other than that cant find anything. If anyone knows much about them such as RMS wattage or why the company went under that would be great. The enclosure has 4 8" speakers and two horns. The speakers are sealed to the enclosure so I couldn't pull them out. Mainly I was trying to find out what size of amp I would need.

Didnt have any luck finding anyone that seemed to know anything about this enclosure. So I decided to break the seal, pull one of the speakers out and then just reseal it to the enclosure. Found out that the 4 speakers are Eminence Beta 8a's and the two horns are Eminence ASD1001's. The speakers are each rated 225 watts RMS at 8 ohms and the horns are 50 watts RMS at 8 ohms. There are two speaker terminals and two speakers and one horn are wired to each. So each terminal has 500 watts RMS of speakers wired to it. The 8 ohms is throwing me off on finding an amp. I want something where I can get the full power out of the speakers but I dont want to blow them or hurt them by under powering them. Should I be looking for a 4 channel amp I can bridge and run at 1000 watts x 2 at 4 ohms or is it ok just to run 500 watts x 2 at 4 ohms? Also any amp suggestions would be great. Thanks

If the two 8-inch drivers are in parallel, which is almost certainly the case, then the nominal impedance is 4-ohms. Since the 8-inch woofers and horn tweeters address different bandwidths and the crossover elements raise the impedance outside of their respective bandwidths, the horn tweeters will not impact the impedance beyond the nominal 4-ohms. For similar reasons you would not sum the power handling of all drivers, just the two 8-inch drivers. So power handling is 450 watts.
With a 4-ohm impedance you would run a two-channel amplifier, but not a single bridged four channel amplifier. A Wetsounds SD2, an Arc Audio KS600.2, a JL Audio HD750/1 (a monoblock), or perhaps dual bridged 4-channel amplifiers that operate in that power class would work well.

I have a Trident box and it sounds great.....not as loud as newer wetsounds but plenty loud enough to hear!!!

I believe my amp is an Arc audio 300.2

If in doubt, take an OHM meter to each set of binding posts.

Thanks a lot!! That cleared up a lot of confusion I had with it! I'm glad I asked before I decided to just choose an amp.

Originally Posted by chpthril

If in doubt, take an OHM meter to each set of binding posts.

Good call. But don't get confused if reading the DCR is not the same as the impedance. You'll often find that the DCR is a bit lower than the nominal impedance.

I ride with Jim Aikins who designed and owns HSE. I'll pass this along in case he has yet to see it.

David hit it on the head. They should be 4 ohms per set. That makes finding amps a lot easier.
Nice find though, not as fancy looking as some current setups, but I sure bet they get the job done just fine. They'd look great on a black tower.

Originally Posted by phathom

David hit it on the head. They should be 4 ohms per set. That makes finding amps a lot easier.
Nice find though, not as fancy looking as some current setups, but I sure bet they get the job done just fine. They'd look great on a black tower.

Thanks! I definitely cant complain since I was able to pick them up for only $150. Excited to get them hooked up for this summer!

Originally Posted by warrenbn

Thanks! I definitely cant complain since I was able to pick them up for only $150. Excited to get them hooked up for this summer!

150 bucks? You should be feeling guilty.

Originally Posted by warrenbn

Thanks! I definitely cant complain since I was able to pick them up for only $150. Excited to get them hooked up for this summer!

Did you at least give the seller lube?

Not sure why David recommended against a bridged 4 channel amp. I was much more active on this forum when this setup was new. The most common configuration was paired to an ARC Audio 300.4 with two channels bridged to each pair of speakers. This setup would yield 600 watts X 2 channels giving optimum performance. I would also recommend the system be run in hi-pass with the crossover set at 80 to 100hz. The beta 8's don't like to play much below that but they can scream when they are set up correctly. If you search the archives you may run across the old speaker test Grant and I did. It included my "homebrew" HLCD setup that was very similar to the components used by HSE. I used a 4 x 200W amp on my setup (old Hifonics Zues) and it was easily heard at the end of the 80' rope.

Originally Posted by mikeski

Not sure why David recommended against a bridged 4 channel amp. I was much more active on this forum when this setup was new. The most common configuration was paired to an ARC Audio 300.4 with two channels bridged to each pair of speakers. This setup would yield 600 watts X 2 channels giving optimum performance. I would also recommend the system be run in hi-pass with the crossover set at 80 to 100hz. The beta 8's don't like to play much below that but they can scream when they are set up correctly. If you search the archives you may run across the old speaker test Grant and I did. It included my "homebrew" HLCD setup that was very similar to the components used by HSE. I used a 4 x 200W amp on my setup (old Hifonics Zues) and it was easily heard at the end of the 80' rope.

Good catch Mikeski. I had 2-ohms on the brain at one point and never looked back. So yes, that needs correcting for anyone else that was confused by my statement. A bridged 4-channel amplifier is fine for two 4-ohm loads.

Hi David,
Looks like you got a great deal on an HSE box and by the style of grills it appears to be one of the first ones made. The comments you have received definitely steer you in the right direction and due to the efficiency of the speakers you have many choices on amps. I had a JL 300.2 and they performed well which is on the low end of the power.

Good luck with your install.

Originally Posted by mikeski

Not sure why David recommended against a bridged 4 channel amp. I was much more active on this forum when this setup was new. The most common configuration was paired to an ARC Audio 300.4 with two channels bridged to each pair of speakers. This setup would yield 600 watts X 2 channels giving optimum performance. I would also recommend the system be run in hi-pass with the crossover set at 80 to 100hz. The beta 8's don't like to play much below that but they can scream when they are set up correctly. If you search the archives you may run across the old speaker test Grant and I did. It included my "homebrew" HLCD setup that was very similar to the components used by HSE. I used a 4 x 200W amp on my setup (old Hifonics Zues) and it was easily heard at the end of the 80' rope.

Haha ya the guy pulled them off a Malibu he had just bought. Said he had little kids and didn't need to listen to loud music, so I gladly helped take them off his hands after making sure all the speakers worked. I ended up going with a Rockford Fosgate p1000x4d. With it bridged it puts me at 500w x 2 @4 ohms. Im also adding a 10" sub on each side of the engine bay to play the lows. I'll have to see if I can find that post that your talking about!