Speaker/Amp Impedence Interface.......


What happens, sonically speaking, when you have a speakers with substantial droop, say from 6 ohms to 2 ohms at 100 hz and an amp which has a substantial rise in out put impedence at the same frequency?

What happens when you have the same degrees of rise and droop but they are at different frequencies?

Anyone have any thoughts on this issue?
newbee

Showing 2 responses by newbee

Thanks for the responses. Now time for the dumb question! Would a rise in output impedence from an amp which resulted in a loss of damping as suggested by both Sean and Tom cause a loss of control of the bass driver resulting in a loss of apparent bass or would the lack of definition in the bass give it an apparent (as opposed to real) boost? Or would the tonal response remain flat, just less defined?

On a slightly, but I think only slightly different issue -
I have been listening to a medium powered PP tube amp. (As background I also have on hand three high powered PP tube amps).
The speakers I am testing have a nominal 4ohm impedence but I know nothing about its actual curves and how low or where it droops or spikes. It has 4ohm taps. My high powered amps drive these speakers to my great satisfaction, however when connected to the smaller amp the upper midrange up thru the high end gets quite ragged (the bass is OK). Would you consider this evidence of a probable impedence mis-match between the speakers and the amp, or are their other issues I'm not considering? BTW the sounds I'm referring to were always at medium levels - they didn't seem to be the result of overdriving the amp in any obvious way. As I read your comments above I would think that it was an impedence mis-match problem. The amp I'm referring to is a very popular one, often tested, and no one else has mentioned this as being a problem for them. Thanks...........
Tom, thanks for you comments...now for a laugh at my expense! The speakers I was using were 4 ohms nominal and I never thought to do the obvious, try the 8 ohm taps. Shouldn't really work right? Well the bass is a little softer but the mids and highs smoothed out considerably. Very servicable now! Again, thanks.....