Sensitivity question


I need a little help in trying to understand some basic concepts with speaker sensitivity. I understand that an 8 Ohm speaker rated at 88db (or less) can be a little hard to drive---and 6 Ohm can be harder. I get that----but on some small British speakers, they can be 86db but rated at 10 Ohm. So my question is this: is a 86db, 10 Ohm speaker hard to drive or not? Can I run them with a 23 wpc Class A amp? Thanks in advance.

bluorion

Showing 1 response by clearthinker

We  mustn't confuse or obfuscate these two factors even though both determine whether a given amplifier will drive a give speaker satisfactorily.

Resistance, ohms, of a speaker is the main determinant of how hard it is for the amplifier to drive it without distortion.   A statement that a speaker 'is' say 8 ohms is a subjective judgement of the lower ohm areas of its impedance curve plotted against frequency.  A 4 ohm or less speaker will need an amplifier with a stiff power supply, not merely large but, more importantly, not weakening when asked to drive a low frequency at a low resistance.  The amplifier's output in watts is not the most important issue here, although high power amplifiers tend to have big strong power supplies.

The dB measure of a speaker is how efficient it is - how much sound you get for each watt put in.  83db is very low.  You need a lot of watts to drive it to high sound levels.  Conversely a 100dB speaker is very efficient and a few watts will drive it very loudly.