Defining nominal impedance


A speaker says it is 4, 6, 8 ohms nominal impedance. I'm trying to understand the word nominal in this context.

Wikipedia defines nominal impedance as the lowest value after resonance.

Q1: What is reasonance?

Q2: My amp has both an 8-ohm post and a 4-ohm post. For a 6 ohm speaker, is it better to go with the 4-ohm or 8-ohm post? Or will it depend on the amp and so I should experiment with both?

~Jim

128x128jimspov

Showing 1 response by timlub

Hi jimspov,
    You'll need to try both.  Any speaker has a huge impedance peak at the resonance of each driver and most have some significant dips afterward. So according to Wikipedia, that should mean its lowest dip, my experience is that Nominal should mean, "where the speaker spends most of its operating range in"....
Either way,  depending on where the dips or peaks are at, Your tube amplifier will most likely sound better on one tap or the other. I suspect that you'll hear it right away.  I hope this helps,  Tim