Loudspeaker Impedance 4-Ohm vs 8-Ohm: Which is Better? 

"Regardless of your speaker impedance... always keep the switch on the high setting." That is all I needed to know. Thanks Gene.

Videos like these are fascinating and absolutely invaluable to people like me. You answered so many questions I've had for so long. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, Gene! Audioholics rules!

I asked The Borg. They said, "Resistance is futile." I'm not sure they understood the question.

Im really diggin this channel. Lots of great insight. Lots of great tips. Lots of great deals mentioned. Havent taken advantage yet, but im sure as christmas nears id live to hear about some good receiver deals. Thanks and keep up the good work

Your monologue videos are always the best, when you have some guests it always feels a bit cringy and forced back and forth. Can you please make more videos like this where you just talk alone, it's perfect as is.

Thank you so much for the 8 ohm switch at the end that was the reason for watching the video. I always wondered that . Thank you very much

I remember when I was into car audio. I had a 2 ohm stable amp and nobody could believe it was 2 ohm stable because no one I knew had a 2 ohm stable amp at the time. I loved that little 150W Crunch USA amp. It pushed 2x10" Pioneer 300W speakers with ease. I miss those days. 😀

Yes this was very helpful. I have been accused of overthinking an issue but understanding is worth the effort

Another great video You're on a roll Gene!

Oh thank you so much, this has been a fantastic explanation. And for everyone - watch it till the end, it's worth it!

Loved your video .... Good explanation ; relationship of Audio sensitivity & impedance I do have knowledge on Electrical ...but not on audio You cleared it 🙏

Interesting monologue, Personally I have always preferred high impedance speakers because the requirements for the speaker cable become less stringent (and I can just put a hum drum cable in place, I always concidered cables as closing post of the entire budget). The sensitivity issue between 4 and 8 Ohms I find less compelling. I prefer to relate sensitivity to power dissipation rather than voltage to understand the speaker motor. Like wise when I look at an amplifier, I look at the (RMS) power to an 8 Ohm speaker to match the two components (if you have 2 high sensitivity speakers in a living room, the neighbors will be calling the police at 20 Watts output so I am completely at loss why anyone needs a 300W per channel amp). The part of the impedance setting I found very interesting and learned something new :) But I was waiting to get the exeption which are tube amplifiers (or rather amplifiers using an output transformer) they have to be impedance matched to maximize the power because they are not approaching a voltage source.

Thankyou ,now it's makes sense , I have switched my Receiver back to 8 ohms .Sounds just fine and no issues, I'm 65 and never understood all of this till now . But ,what about this , I did read somewhere once ,that the danger is playing around with low power systems may blow .(I got 100 watts / channel , and hardly turn it up .)

Really great video!!! I generally prefer 4ohm speakers. They seem to be less fatiguing.

oh boy, this reminds me of my initial EE days in school.... did not like it; went the mechanical route.... you did make it pretty easy to understand though and I enjoy your videos; breaks down to simple ohms law....👍🏻 I learn something new from every video you have put together.....

thank you for clearing up the impedance switch question :)

Excellent info and very well explained.

Thanks Gene. Very helpful. Confirmed what I was doing.

Thanks again for the great review

Great advice on using a separate amp to run 4ohm speakers. I Purchased a Rotel 1582

I've never understood how these devices were rated. Thanks for explaining this so clearly. Great vid.

Thanks Gene. Very informative. 👍

Hope you can review Kef R3 and/or RSL CG25. Now, I'm going to see some of your videos. I'm specially interested on dual subwoofers calibration, I think I screw it, because I buy two different. A monolith monoprice 10 inch, and a speedwoofer RSL. So I Will try to make this combination work, or get rid of one of the two. Wish me luck! Oh, by the way, congratulations for your new Mark for 90,000 subscribers and 20 millions of visitors. Without a doubt, this honest channel deserve it and more.

That design of the tweeter on SVS Prime Pinnacle reminds me of the MB Quart tweeter from the '90s. Like MB Quart QL-502 S or QL-1002 S, All MB Quart speakers impedance are 4 ohms, can make your amplifier sweating fast.

Great information as always. Thanks Gene.

Audiohawksdotcom...my ears heard. I liked that. Its a hawkish breakdown, illustrated. Motorised low impedance speaking style. Am here to glean and learn. Thanks again.

This was very informative. Thank you

Wish this video would have been available about two years ago, it would have saved me some money. I popped several tweeter's before realizing my Denon 6400 wasn't putting out enough power for my 4 ohm speakers. Because Denon state's the receiver is capable of pushing 4ohm speakers, I thought it was fine. Guess not. I went the somewhat cheap route and bought a couple crown amps for my front three speakers everything's been good since then...

Hey Matt , big fan thanks for the response , I recently disconnected my B&K ref amp 200x7 with the Monoprice , while I may not be able to measure I will use the B&K and see if this occurs as I remember the Klipsch RF-7's kept playing clear and loud and continued to increase .When running the XMC-1 in reference stereo mode and not PLIIx the RF-7;s responded while using the Monoprice .Again appreciate look forward to watching next video keep up your great work audioholics .

Love this..... always straight to the facts and in a way that even I can understand it.

Fantastic explanation of speaker/amp Ohm ratings. Nice to hear this topic covered in such detail. So much mis-information and half-truths out there about manufacturer Ohm designations. There's a lot of Ford Vs Chevy, Analog Vs Digital nonsense out there about 4 & 8 Ohm disgnations. Those argunents arn't even close to being relivant to how speakers and amps work.

Thanks for the mathematics behind all of this. Fantastic!

Man... that 4 ohm receiver setting is deceiving. Thanks for educating us plebs :-)

Explained perfectly. Thank you!

Nice explanation.

Great video!!!

Totally awesome! ThX so mutch! Peace and Love. And Happy new Year.

Gene, fantastic dissertation about ohms and impedance. I'm just learning about this as I setup a new basement studio setup construed during COVID pandemic. New Denon DRA 800H Receiver with 2 speaker outputs. A and B. I connected 2 pairs of 8 ohm rated bookshelf speakers in parallel to the B speaker output, a d 1 pair of Fluance Signature Series Surround HiFi Bookshelf speakers, a 8 ohm speaker with nominal 6 ohms. The system played very well until after a time, with voulume at 62 (98 the highest), the Receiver overheated and shut down. When i disconnected the A speakers , the paralleled speakers played without issue. I now added a integrated amp , an IOTAVX SA3 to play the Fluances , hooked up via the Zone 2 preouts on the Denon. Any other way to play all 6 speakers on the Denon? This was a great well skilled video. Thx . Be well

great video....gene

holy moly. you really know your stuff.

Gene you sweetheart! I feel like the belle of the ball! Ha ha thanks for taking a deep dive into this topic! I saw this video 2 weeks ago and have been putting off my reply, sorry to leave you hanging. I ended up passing on those Beta-50’s cause the tweeters were dented, but I picked up some Beta-40’s one of which has a tweeter which although still fully domed shows some past fascination-deformation and little cracks from the CMMD layers delaminating, it honestly looks like glass as it diffracts light when I get up close at different angles with the flashlight. (Sold separately lol) . I happen to find a replacement tweeter on ebay for a beta-40 and what should I happen to see in the backside photo? It’s got 4ohms written on it. I then spent a little time with the brochure and noticed they call their horn-like parabolic waveguide a “Constant Acoustical Impedance” waveguide. Implying to me that the horn loading provides some air pressure impedance to perhaps increase the 4ohm tweeter’s resistance in the system. Hard to say if they rated it with or without the waveguide. I put the new Beta-40’s into storage with the rest of my setup, I’m essentially couch surfing, so tragically I haven’t been able to listen. Or analyze. The Beta series has two center channel options, I have the cheaper 2 way mtm design. I ascribe to the philosophy that the center channel is the most important channel. So I sprung to get the current reference series center channel RC263 as a bump up in overall performance. So I have my 4 towers 2 surrounds an extra center channel to cannabalize for a doner tweeter to spare. But guess what the impedance on the reference series center is marketed at? 6ohm with 89db sensitivity, compare that to the beta line advertised at 8ohm 91db. Is that just specmanship for the same number? The reference series also has a much shallower and broader waveguide, it’s almost flush compared to the deep pocket the beta tweeters sit in, but the reference also has a little torus and some other scifi jetsons junk suspended close to the tweeter’s dome. Which Is exactly the esoteric high tech gimmickry I love! What do you think about those sensitivity differences in mixing the sets? And about the hornloading affects on impedance curves? Or the CAi “Constant, Acoustical, Impedance” waveguide.

good info!!! thanks

Good stuff, thanks.

Nice, i dus dit the whole video out. Thnx a lot. Like your vids. Just good info no BS here.. thnx.

Excellent!

I have a cheap system: Cambridge AXR85 amplifier and old speakers. One pair is 8 ohms and the other is 6 ohms. I've been running all 4 speakers at the say time. I don't crank them up much and the amp is running fairly cool. No signs of overheating. Should I only run one pair? My amp is rated at 85 watts per channel and 4-8 ohms. I can select speakers: A, B, or A/B . The owners manual says it's ok to run 2 pairs of 8 ohms speakers together but not a 4 ohms and 8 ohms together. Just not sure about 6 ohms and 8 ohms together. Gonna disconnect one pair for now. I appreciate your technical expertise and really enjoy your channel.

Cool ! Howd the newer ml motion 60xti compare to the older model?

Thanks, I lern a lot from you.

Great video.

You should use two monitors and XSplit for these broadcasts. The second monitor can show you the composite final product. If you want free instead, get OBS Studio.

Thank you for the advice at the end about the 4/8 ohm switch on the back of my amp, I thought by having it on the 4 ohm setting I was getting more output, I was wrong thanks.

can you do a review on the JBL l890 tower speakers? what they like for power, best eq setup, best distance from listener, ect. thank you for all of the information you give in your videos.

New sub. (1998)Yamaha rx-v890 5.1. Able to handle newer 4ohm stereo home speakers ? Thanks brother Good work. Learning n refreshing lots of my old stereo knowledge

Nice video ....Sir my question is I can connect 6 ohms speaker to 8ohms in series ? plz reply this speakers I will use in 8 ohms stereo amplifier ?

I have a Pioneer sx-1250,from 1976. I drive a pair of JBL LX600 8ohm speakers,for low to mid volume listening,and a pair of Cerwin Vega AT-12 4ohm speakers,for some higher volume listening. If I use a speaker selector switch,is there any reason that I shouldn't drive both pairs,together? The receiver specs say no lower than 4ohms...... I had this receiver serviced and recapped recently,and it bench tested at 180wpc. Thanks in advance!

Wow I was telling people at best buy that my Pioneer SC-87 was clipping out (Nannie) with my Martin Logan Theos on five ch driving. They were like so confused and telling me it should not be doing that lol. I just got a separate 2 ch Amp and now I have 0 problems.. Real Experts are hard to find in life.

Hi there. I have an AV Amplifier by Onkyo and a pair of tower speakers with 6 ohms impedance. I had some issues with the amp shutting down. I was advised by amp technician to select 4 ohms impedance in amp selection instead of my original selection of 6 ohms or more. Please advise me on this 4 ohms impedance selection on my amp with the 6 ohms impedance tower speakers. Will it cause any harm to either amp or speaker? Your technical info appreciated.

The tower speaker may not be triple woofer, it may have 2 active woofers and a passive radiator, also many centre channel speakers are 4 ohm due to the 2 8 ohm woofers wired parallel

From my experience a 4ohm speaker likes more power ( a lot) in which case I would never use an AVR. Would you say this speaker is difficult to drive? Frequency Range (+/-3 dB) [Hz] 50 - 26.000 Sensitivity (2,83 V/1 m) [dB] 87.0 Nominal Impedance [ohms] 4 Maximum SPL [dB] 107 Recommended Amplifier Power [W] 40 - 150 Crossover Frequency [Hz] 3,1 Crossover Principle

What about svs ultra bookshelf speakers would that be hard to drive say like pioneer sc901 powering those ultra bookshelf svs speakers

i have a question i have a pair of polk audio TSI 300 tower speakers. the specs say 8 ohm but why is it when i read it with a ohm meter it says 3.6 to 4.1. all speakers in towers are working and sound great but when i crank it up my receiver clips. it is a Yamaha RXV659. Thanks

Im running 4 omh's on a really old NAD high voltage receiver into really old Celestian bookshelf two ways rated at 8 omh's. This receiver is set to run either setting for omh's these speakers perform better at 4 omh's I never play them load or past like 1.5 on the volume control. Over time these old speakers have sounded different with the high voltage at 4omhs and im guessing its the extra watts from that setting and the high voltage. They are still kind of congested which is common for these speakers.

excellent thanks!

Thank you very much for that I found that very useful alot of it won't over my head but helped me just the same thank you again 👍🏽

I figure the truth likely lies between two extremes, whatever they are. This is good. I use Tannoy DC3000's, and TDL Studio 1's which are both nominally 6 ohm's. ;)

Have a new Pyle amppifier 40 Watts x 2 POWER OUT PUT that requires a 10% RMS 4 ohms speakers , but I have a pair of 60 watts 6 ohms JVC bookshelf speakers on hand . Think these 6 ohms will work .

Please help with specifications for the TLS Reference TL REF 1000 TX. I bought this set of surround speakers 15 years ago. I have upgraded to a Denon S950H, I am not sure if the speakers and Denon are a best fit.

So if I'm running Three 6 inch 8 ohm Skyline performance Studio speakers that are 350 watts each. then i would need about 450 W 4 ohms to run them.. ?

New subscriber here sir. Thanks

So I big CVs would it be better to play them on a stereo amplifier or AV Receiver

Yes very useful

I Have an amplifier 180 watt per chennel output in 4 ohms . So can I use 150 watt speaker in 8 ohms? Because if i connect 2 × 8 ohms in parallel in become 4 ohms 300 watt

Infinity was famous for using 4 ohm speakers for everything and then wiring the woofers in series to get 8 ohms going to the crossover for some reason. Thinking it was mainly because they killed Amps on a regular basis.

got a question i know this is old but im a lil confused your note about spl changes at mid/high vs low, but isnt that backwards? our ears are most senitive to mids/high not bass but why do u need 10db difference in the most senitive range compared to lows at 6db that our ears arnt senitive to? or am i missing something

So when a speaker says 8ohm(min 3.0) so what ohm rating is that speaker?

I recently purchased a Yamaha as-501 integrated amplifier (85 rms/channel @ 8-ohms) - resulting in the depletion of my very limited finances. So now I don't have any means to buy matching Yamaha speakers. But I have a pair of Pioneer car speakers in wooden enclosures ( 4-ohms, 150-rms/each ). Please let me know if I can use them without causing any damage ? The as-501 Amp has an Impedance Selector switch - Should I set it to 4--8 ohms or should I leave it at 8 ohms ?

Hi if my ampis 4 ohms do 8 ohms speaker load my amp too much? My amp have 2 channels and is 4 ohms 750 watts per channel if i use 8 ohms speaker how many watts of 8 ohms is ok? Thanks

Isn't it true that a lower impedance speaker results in a lower (halved) damping factor to a higher impedance speaker? I'm pretty sure if an amplifier has a damping factor of 300 with an 8 ohm speaker, it'll more or less be approximately only 150 with a 4 ohm speaker. I've been wanting to look into some 16 ohm speakers, which favour high voltage to high current. This would mean the damping factor with a 16 ohm speaker on the same amp would be 600, right?

Your correct except with a tube amp. You often have the opportunity to choose16 , 8 or 4 output matching. Try all of them...often connecting the 8 or 16 ohn connector to the 4 ohm speaker sounds better.

When I blew up the Marantz SR 8012 I called tech-support and they stated that I should have switched the receiver to 4ohm

My 1988 JBL L-60T speakers are 6 ohm. Is that a good or bad thing? (My amp is 8 ohm)

I have the Sonus faber sonetto viii’s(4ohm). And SF recomends pairing with 50-300w amp. I have a Parasound halo a51, and at 4ohm’s gives out 400w. Will my system be ok?? 😮

I am most confused with the given speakers' impedance specification. eg: nominal umoedance 8 ohm, minimum impedance 3.8 ohm ; What it is? What should I treat the speaker impedance if I am to play two pairs of speakers for both A and B of one amplifier which has a limit of maximum 4 ohm?

Could you make this more simple with is Better 4 hom or 8 hom

better to power 8 ohm speaker with 4 ohm amp to be safe? in those low dips

Hi Gene, Can you share some of you insight on airmotiv c2+ center speaker which is an 4 ohms speaker with 92db sensitivity

Both Good 4 is good with Amp high power 8 less power run

Does 4 ohm speaker require an amp with more power? I would think a amp with less power (i.e. more bang for the buck) since it plays louder. example: 33% of my amp's power into a 4 ohm would be louder than that same volume level (33%) into an 8 ohm. So i would have to turn the amp up to get the same db for a 8 ohm vs 4 ohm. Confused on why 4 ohm taxes an amp.

Awesome Video Gene. So much knowledge. So does a true lower ohm speaker basically have the ability to get louder with less distortion? I have some lower ohm speakers like Elac’s and Sonus Faber and truthfully I don’t notice much of a difference between them and my Goldenear triton 5’s I guess as far as ohms go. Thanks and shared

Now I understand why my Ifinity Beta 50s have 4 ohm tweeters and 10 ohms dual 8 inch woofers but they advertised the speaker as 8 ohm..

Hi Gene

I recently purchased the Monoprice Monolith 7x200 amp and connected to an Emotiva XMC-1 driving Klipsch RF-7's ,450c and RB 59's for my surrounds at about -10 db or so the volume wont increase , Klipsch being sensitive speakers and the Emotiva processor functioning optimally , do you feel its an amperage problem at the outlet 15 not 20 ,or something with this subject of impedence ?

I have ELAC 6.2 6 ohm speaker where is that speaker and the Marantz pm 7000n what about 6 ohm speakers

Great video as always But can I run a 4olms amp on a 8olms speaker,

Thank you. Is Hugo still with you?

I have 2x Neo 10 8ohm. Should i wire them in series 16 ohm or paralell 4 ohm? my ICEpower1200A2 can handle both

This is a topic that I've been pondering for some time. It's quite clear that the 4 ohm speaker will have twice the current flowing through it's voice coil than the 8 ohm speaker will have, which I would think would make them more dynamic, all things being equal. I just can't understand why 4 ohm speakers, with 2.83 volts presented to it, are typically less efficient (lower SPL) than an 8 ohm speaker with 2.83 volts applied to it. With the voltage being the same, the 4 ohm speaker would have twice the current flowing through it, and that should result in a larger magnetic flux being created by the voice-coil, and more movement of the speaker, and more output, i.e., a higher SPL than an otherwise equal 8 ohm speaker ... any thoughts to clear this up for me?

Wiring speakers in series can in some cases degrade the power output of one or both speakers at certain frequency bands. When speakers are wired in parallel, the full output voltage of the power amp will be applied to both speakers and they will work independently. In series, however, the current through both speakers will be limited by the sum total impedence of both speakers, and the voltage will be split between the speakers. If the speaker impedences are identical, the voltage will be split equally between the two speakers. But if the speaker impedences aren't perfectly matched in all frequency bands, the speaker with lower impedence will have its power output limited by the other speaker in those bands. While this is typically a minor effect, it can in some cases become audible.

Does the advice to keep your amp at the higher output apply to tube amps? I've heard that to choose 4 or 8 ohm taps based on perceived sound quality.

Awesome!!!!!