Members twotimingpete Posted April 26, 2009 Members Share Posted April 26, 2009 my amp has a toggle on the back to accept different types of speakers. 4ohm, 8oh, or 16ohm. the stock speaker is 8. makes me wonder what difference the ohm rating of a speaker makes? if you put in an 8 ohm or 16 ohm speaker, since I can accept either, what difference does it make? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Armchair Bronco Posted April 26, 2009 Members Share Posted April 26, 2009 Tonewise, it doesn't make any difference. A 16-ohm speaker connected to a 16-ohm jack will sound the same as an 8-ohm speaker through an 8-ohm jack. But you do need to match the impedances carefully. If you have an 8-ohm cab, you should really only connect this to an 8-ohm output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EllenGtrGrl Posted April 26, 2009 Members Share Posted April 26, 2009 Speaker and speaker cabinet impedance is measured in ohms. Most amps (with the exception of some older Marshalls), don't have problems with being hooked up to a speaker or speaker cabinet that has a higher impedance than the amp's output impedance (for example, the amp's [speaker] output impedance is listed as 8 ohms, and the speaker or speaker cabinet has an impedance of 16 ohms). BUT, amps do have a problem being hooked up to a speaker or cabinet that has a lower impedance than the back panel speaker jack lableing (or manual) specifies, due to the fact that your amp might electrically see this below specified impedance as a short circuit. Short circuits can blow output transformers in tube amps, and burn out final tranisistors and ICs in solid state amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mike42 Posted April 26, 2009 Members Share Posted April 26, 2009 think about a water pump, pumping into a big tank. But this particular pump needs to maintain a fairly precise amount of pressure to work effectively. Say for the sake of the argument, it needs to pump through a 8" pipe to maintain just the right pressure. If you go to a smaller pipe there's too much back pressure, and the pump could burn up. If it pumps into a larger pipe, there's not enough back pressure, and it could "run away" and be destroyed. A lot of amplifier circuits need to pump their output into just the right amount of "back pressure", (ohms) to work efficiently and safely. Not a perfect analogy, but it's in the ballpark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dannosuke427 Posted November 2, 2013 Members Share Posted November 2, 2013 Hey Mike, If it gets any clearer than that, I haven't seen it. Thanks very much for the explanation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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