I agree with all of the above, including Newbee. That is, the "typical" installation will have the speakers connected to a tap that is equal to or lower than the nominal impedance of the speaker. That can vary though depending on how accurate the nominal impedance of the speaker was rated and / or the actual impedance taps of the transformer itself.
It is quite possible that a tap that is higher in ohmic value may sound better with a given speaker. In such a case, the only real potential drawback that i see is that distortion may be a tad higher, damping factor slightly reduced and / or tube life might be shortened slightly. That's because the slight impedance mismatch will end up pulling more current through the tube than if a lower impedance tap was selected. Even then, i don't see this as being a major concern so long as on isn't consistently wailing on the throttle of a tough to drive speaker. The bottom line is that one should experiment in such a situation, but be careful and use common sense. Sean
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It is quite possible that a tap that is higher in ohmic value may sound better with a given speaker. In such a case, the only real potential drawback that i see is that distortion may be a tad higher, damping factor slightly reduced and / or tube life might be shortened slightly. That's because the slight impedance mismatch will end up pulling more current through the tube than if a lower impedance tap was selected. Even then, i don't see this as being a major concern so long as on isn't consistently wailing on the throttle of a tough to drive speaker. The bottom line is that one should experiment in such a situation, but be careful and use common sense. Sean
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