I'm needing to replace the pc speaker from an IBM 5160 as the cone is damaged. The problem is that most pc speakers are Around .25w to 1w and 6ohms.
The back of mine says, 8omh and 6w. Will something with a lower wattage like 1w still work or will I need to find something closer?
6W definitely seems like a lot, I will let others chime in on that.
I don't know what eBay et al inventory you see, but for me, the supply of ready-made PC speakers seems dried up, to the point I am putting them together with parts from DigiKey:
SP570308-1 (speaker)
0050579204 (connector)
2196811225 (black pre-crimped lead)
2196812225 (red pre-crimped lead)
If you're putting the speaker in the plastic housing in your XT, you also have to make sure the diameter of the speaker "root" is right to slide into that housing. On the one I linked above, it is 22.2 millimeters. The last few pre-made ones I got on ebay were too big for that in some other cases I have that use such a housing.
Matrolisk wrote on 2025-08-31, 18:00:The back of mine says, 8omh and 6w. Will something with a lower wattage like 1w still work or will I need to find something closer?
8 Ohm is a standard speaker impedance, but as jakethompson1 already said, 6W seems way too high for a typical 2" or 5cm speaker, as commonly used in PC-compatible systems (including the original). I suspect a decimal dot went missing on the print, and it is supposed to say "8 Ohm, 0.6W" instead. You should be fine with a 0.5W or 1W speaker.
