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A change of speaker impedance; is it possible?

Recently I've been troubled by a heretic idea. In most of the cases the 1-broadband driver speakers (horns etc.) have higher impedance (of 16 or 8 Ohms). The two-way speakers and a large portion of the three-way speakers - 8 Ohms, and the 4-way - usually 4 Ohms. The more the drivers - the lower the impedance. So is it possible to change the impedance of the speakers? With my extremely limited (11 grade) knowledge of physics I would give an answer that is - Yes - by attaching one more resistor of 4 Ohms to the 8-Ohmer and the 8-Ohmer will perform like a 4-Ohmer. However I am sure that many limitations exist. The drivers, the filters, the crossovers etc. are probably designed to work in a specific impedance regime. So is it such an option, of course, without affecting the performance of the speaker?
nikmilkov
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,670 posts
 
Using a resistor to do this is going to waste power.
vapor1
107 posts
 
Short answer - no it's not possible. Even if resistors didn't eat up power turning it into heat, possibly even catching fire if used how you suggest ... it's impossible to add a resistor in front of or after an existing network and not have it change the Frequency Response.
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
Bad idea.

Not sure I understand the motivation to lower impedance as a whole. It's not the impedance that defines performance but, often, the performance decides the impedance. I'm gonna get flamed for oversimplifying.

That being said, if a resistor was placed parallel to the speaker and crossover, as a whole, it should not affect the crossover. If you were to reduce or raise impedance of any individual driver after the crossover, that would dramatically change the way the crossover functions.

Then, you have to consider wattage rating on the resistor.
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