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speakers


Matt

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Posted

something that has sparked off in my mind, with thanks to a friend asking me why, is that why are 1ohm 2ohm speakers harder to drive than 4 or 8ohm???

 

going by my knowledge in electronics, usually the higher the number - higher the resistance hence harder to driive, but coming to speakers has got me dumbfounded.

 

caan anyone point me to a place where it is explained or explain for me?

 

Matt.

Posted

Very basically (apologies to the pedants - this is incredibly oversimplified), an amplifier amplifies voltage.

 

So for an ideal amplifier, if you decrease the impedance (rather than resistance) of the speaker load, and the output voltage were to remain constant, the current flowing would increase inversely (ohm's law). And the output power would increase inversely with the square of the impedance. So you half the impedance and quadrouple the output power.

 

So, for this ideal amplifier, you decrease the load impedance and get more power out.

 

 

But for a real amplifier, you decrease the load, the output current increases, the amp reaches it's limit, things start to clip, the amplifier overheats, and.....

 

Bruce.

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