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Impedance question

I have a pair of Acoustat 1+1s that are nominally 4ohms. Along with them I have an RH Labs subwoofer (RB 3p?) with a single 12" woofer and a high pass crossover that feeds the panels. This set up, while vintage, is very pleasing to me and I've never considered replacing it. The soundstage is amazing.

I'm driving them with an ARC VS-110 amplifier with outputs for 4, 6 or 8 ohms. I'm currently using the 6 ohm taps thinking that the sub with crossover would affect the impedance. When I first got the VS-110 I was concerned about stepping down from my previous solid state amps but the ARC really makes it all sing when I turn up the volume. 

I'm thinking of swapping down to the 4 ohm taps but am curious as to why 4 ohm vs 6 ohm would matter. Also what affect I would expect from doing the swap? 

Thanks much!

Happy listening.

 
 
 
musicfan2349

Showing 2 responses by larryi

larryi
4,233 posts
 

Just try the other tsp.  You are not going to hurt either the amp or speaker.  I don’t know about the specific impedance curve of your speakers, but generally speaking, the 4 ohm tap would minimize frequency response changes from speaker impedance interactions, but at the expense of reduced power delivery to the speaker.

By the way, i had a similar setup many years ago—the 1+1’s with a pair of Kinergetics subwoofers.  But, back the I did not run tube amps.  This was a nice sounding setup.

larryi
4,233 posts
 

I take it that the subwoofer is a passive subwoofer?  It still would be the case that you could try any of the taps to hear the result and not worry about harming anything.  The supposedly wrong tap often sounds the best.

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