What does switching back of amp from 8 to 4 ohms do?


I have three speakers including a center and the left and right are connected to 4 ohm jacks on the back of the 600 W mono blocks i have.
I have a Multi channel amp that has 250 W and only have the center connected to it. The switch on the back of this app can toggle between four and eight Ohms.

If I change the switch on the back of the multi channel amp from 8 to 4 Ohms how will things be impacted?

Will volume levels be reduced? Impact to sound quality? Good idea?

I use 4 ohms for the main speakers as I was told it would be better since I have more than enough power to drive them. Not sure what difference it makes

Thought changing the center speaker to 4 might be good to be consistent with the left and right speakers

jumia

Czarivey, Great answer but the very last sentence confused me.

I was told changing to four ohms, since my speakers explore below eight ohms, is helpful when the lower range is used by the speakers. Not sure how the speaker is wired within the speaker to accommodate four and eight ohm settings. I guess it's a design way for channeling more power to the lower end of frequency range which Impacts sound level. Using McIntosh amplifier with transformer.

 

Inside speaker is inductive coil that expands and contracts when voltage is applied to move the driver. The DC resistance of voice coil is extremely low almost to the point of short circuit. Therefore lower frequencies require a lot larger power.

Thank you again
Fascinating response, with the DC resistance of the voice coil being low I would expect lower power needed.  Why is more power needed? 
 

 

All wrong answers so far. Loudspeaker impedance is never one raw number, the word we use is nominal impedance. In most cases you could use the 8 ohm taps or the 4 ohms taps. Most of us try both and use the one we think sounds best. There are exceptions with loudspeakers that have very low impedance points. If you have a loudspeaker that dips well below 4 ohms, you'll pretty much want to use the 4 ohms taps but that question seldom comes up because it's rare to see hard to drive loudspeakers hooked up in a multi-channel system. 

@russ69 you said all the above answers are wrong but don't say how, I'm curious if you want to back that up.