Speaker Impedance Questions

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JohnnyCNote

JohnnyCNote

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I have a question about speaker impedances and tone. I've noticed a lot of amps have outputs for 4, 8 or 16 ohm cabinets. I'm familiar with how two 8 ohm cabinets will yield a 4 ohm load when connected in parallel, for example. What I'm curious about is what difference using an 8 ohm load vs. a 16 or a 4 ohm load as far as the tone goes. I know it affects the power output from the amp, but is there any advantage to using one load over another?
 
He said LOAD

Beavis-Butthead-p21.jpg
 
There is a difference. A higher impedance will also increase damping factor. This will mean more control over the cones, effectively making the amp/cab system sound tighter. There are a lot of variables in the equation when we are talking about multi driver cabinets, though. In most cases, 4 (or more) driver cabs have a combination of series (which results in a higher effective impedance load) and parallel (which results in a lower effective impedance load) connections in order to arrive at the final impedance that is desired. The parallel connection allows for superior damping. SO, if you wanted the absolute tightest possible sound from commonly available guitar speakers, a 16 ohm driver in a single driver cab would be best case scenario. There are ALWAYS trade offs, though. I won't bore you with the finer details of how proximity effect causes certain frequencies to be boosted in multi driver systems, thereby making 2 or 4 driver cabs have more apparent low frequency response. There is no simple answer if you are trying to figure out the "best" way...
 
Thanks for the replies! I'm not looking for anything definitive, since things rarely work that way with musical equipment anyway. I've often thought that with a high impedance load, the amp would be run a higher volumes without being as loud. It would be a lot like using a power brick to soak up excess volume. I'd imagine that could add a certain type of compression to the sound . . .
 
JohnnyCNote":365numfs said:
I have a question about speaker impedances and tone. I've noticed a lot of amps have outputs for 4, 8 or 16 ohm cabinets. I'm familiar with how two 8 ohm cabinets will yield a 4 ohm load when connected in parallel, for example. What I'm curious about is what difference using an 8 ohm load vs. a 16 or a 4 ohm load as far as the tone goes. I know it affects the power output from the amp, but is there any advantage to using one load over another?
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There is no difference in tone between different speaker Ohms.The options are simply for convenience.
 
ronjhoser":fe2yq69y said:
There is a difference. A higher impedance will also increase damping factor. This will mean more control over the cones, effectively making the amp/cab system sound tighter. There are a lot of variables in the equation when we are talking about multi driver cabinets, though. In most cases, 4 (or more) driver cabs have a combination of series (which results in a higher effective impedance load) and parallel (which results in a lower effective impedance load) connections in order to arrive at the final impedance that is desired. The parallel connection allows for superior damping. SO, if you wanted the absolute tightest possible sound from commonly available guitar speakers, a 16 ohm driver in a single driver cab would be best case scenario. There are ALWAYS trade offs, though. I won't bore you with the finer details of how proximity effect causes certain frequencies to be boosted in multi driver systems, thereby making 2 or 4 driver cabs have more apparent low frequency response. There is no simple answer if you are trying to figure out the "best" way...
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Dude, you completely missed the guys original question... :no:
 
It was still informative. Do you have anything to add?

Thanks . . .
 
Damping factor =/= QFC or quality factor of a cabinet whether its sealed or ported. Cabinets have tuned .707 or F stop frequencies which are controlled by tuning with ports or by sealed construction cu. ft. design. The speaker QSC =/= impedance. QSC is what comes into play with the cabinet design and the tuning of your guitar. but in no way is it referenced to impedance directly. Absolutely zero relation to impedance which is a vector force in the imaginary plane in relation to resistance. the phase angle relationship is what throws it as a vector because of the magnetic properties of how a transformer stores energy and act as a pole. impedance differences exist only for max power transfer when loads are matched. nothing more. nothing less. Completely different topic and un-related alltogether.
 
Not a problem - glad to answer your question! No BS and straight to the point. It relates heavily to Engineering, to explain it mathematically would get complicated quickly; i did my best to summarize it for you without going into more detail.
 
I get the impression you're an engineering student (or at least were at one time) . . .
 
I started out in electrical engineering, but I lost interest in math. Of course, that makes it a bit difficult to have any success in the subject. I used to be a math/science type in high school, but it all seemed to change when I got to college. I finally got a BA in Russian, not that it's a marketable skill, but it was easier (for me) than trigonometry was . . .
 
JohnnyCNote":1mtnvvap said:
It was still informative. Do you have anything to add?

Thanks . . .
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Yeah, go buy 4 8-Ohm V30s - you can train them to make milk shakes.
 
glpg80":2wrfxk3n said:
King Crimson":2wrfxk3n said:
JohnnyCNote":2wrfxk3n said:
It was still informative. Do you have anything to add?

Thanks . . .
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Yeah, go buy 4 8-Ohm V30s - you can train them to make milk shakes.
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:lol: :LOL:

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:rock: she kinda reminds me of rihanna with that pose. And I absolutely love rihanna. Sexiest black woman alive, and I absolutely LOVE black woman.
 
It's in the Slavic group, like Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Coatian, plus some others . . .
 
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