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4 ohm or 8 ohm


BassPlaya

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first, power is rated based on the impedance of the speakers. so it won't be 250W into 4 ohms if it's 250W into 8 ohms.

 

by using two 4 ohm cabinets, you will get more power and be, ostensibly, louder than if you used two 8 ohm cabinets.

 

i believe there are good reasons to use 8 ohm cabinets and get an amplifier that can drive them, if you have the cash flow to make a choice like that.

 

for example, 8 ohm cabinets will be tighter with bass, and they will be more accurate. the reason for this is that they draw less current per watt, so they won't overheat as quickly, they won't power compress (i.e. lose dynamic range and total volume due to heat) as easily.

 

as for your original question, you'll get louder by using two 4 ohm cabinets, but that my fry your amp. the safe way is to use two 8 ohm cabinets.

 

you'll notice the sound difference if you only use one of them -- not nearly as loud, but much cleaner and tighter.

 

robb.

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The ony reason I can see to use two 4ohm cabs is if you're going to run them from each side of a stereo poweramp and the reason you'd want to do that is for bi-amping. But, when you're running 2 identical cabs bi-amping doesn't make any sense.

 

Using two identical cabs you're better off with 8ohm cabs and bridging the power amp. You'll pick up about +3db of headroom and (theoretically) double the amp's slew rate.

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  • 1 month later...

rather than start a new topic I searched and found this which (sorta) answered my Q and spawned a couple more.

 

I want to get an acme b-2, but want to be able to add the second one in the future if need be... so would this lead me to buy an 8 ohm one?

 

What does bridging mean? I'm guessing it means combining the two channels in a stereo amp into one mono...

 

In mudbass's post would the two cabs be ran in series or parallel?

 

Anywho thats about it

Dave

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