Page 1 of Ohms, a question.

I am running speakers that vary between 6 and 8 ohms. Therefore, should I tell my amp to work at 4 or 8 ohms.?

Thanks,

Pee.

It really (really, really) makes no difference unless you intend running your amp at full volume all the time on a really (really, really) loud movie.

Even then it`ll probably make no difference.

If you must have an answer, go for the 4 ohm setting.

I`m more than happy to explain the logic behind all the above (in fact I`ve done it on a thread somewhere on this site). I should warn you that in the past when I`ve done that it`s killed the thread stone dead. So, this time I`m holding back to see if someone else wants to join in :)

Yep, I am happy for you to explain to me. And, why 4 over 8 ?

Pete.

Technically speaking, if you set an output to a certain Ohms setting, then using a load (ie speaker) which is less than the setting will cause an overload of the output.

So, using 8 Ohms setting means you can wire anything from 8 Ohms upwards and your amp output will not be overloaded. However, the sound will become quieter the higher the Ohms get.

If you use the 4 Ohms setting, then you can use anything from 4 Ohms and upwards.

So in this case, the 4 Ohms setting is preferred as it can handle both 4 Ohms and 8 Ohms. The 8 Ohms will, technically, give you less sound as the impedance is double the 4 Ohms.

Hope this helps
Sultan