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4 ohm 8 ohm

Hello,

I have a ASL aq1003-dt that is running a pair of 4 ohm JM Reynaud twins (mk2). I had someone suggest the other day that I hook the speakers up at 8 ohms (I have 4, 6, and 8 ohm outputs on my amp) instead of the speaker rating of 4 ohms. Why would I do this? I was commenting on how I wasn't getting enough sound of the speakers and was considering upgrading when this was suggested. What do you guys think? -Todd
todd_olson
twl
3,251 posts
 
I don't think that is a good idea.

Use the 4 ohm tap.
gwoodall
4 posts
 
Use the 4 ohm tap. You run the risk of damaging your speakers otherwise. You can run 8 ohm speakers on the 4 ohm tap without any danger. They just won't play as loud.

Gene
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Try it. No damage. For a given signal input you will get more volts out to the speaker from the 8 ohm tap up until the point where the amp runs out of current capability. The amp will be capable of fewer watts with this impedance mismatch, but it might play louder.
jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
Eldartford is correct; driving the speakers from any tap will damage neither the amp nor the speakers. The voltage delivered to the speakers (and the sound-output level) will increase with each step up the impedance taps, but the amp still won't deliver more than the same amount of power.

So you'll get more volume up to a point, which seems to be what you want, but listen carefully--the system will sound different from each tap.
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