help understanding what's better 2 or 4 ohm component speakers

[yusme]

Hey guys what up, I always had this question about the impedance of speakers and maybe you guys can clarify something for me, for component speakers what is better 2 ohm or 4 ohm ?

I saw an article before about how the lower the impedance like for example 2 ohm, the speakers need so much power that sometimes the distortion can be very high and awful,

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[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

It depends on the quality of your amp. Total Harmonic Distortion ratings are useful for finding the right amp for you in this case. As long as the amp is 2 ohm stable and you have a clean source and signal, you'll be fine.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

2 ohm speakers are useful for getting more power out of our amplifier, and that's about it. That is exactly why many Bose factory systems use 2 ohm speakers. Any good quality multi-channel amplifier should sound fine running at 2 ohms.

 

[negolien]

I agree with the above. I run Kappas and they are 2 ohm also a lot of speakers are 4 ohms though so good to go that way if you can for ease. I had a hard time matching my Doors speakers and 6x9 Kappas to an amp due to one being 2 ohm and one being 4 ohm I had to settle for a little more power to the door speakers. Might have been easier had I gone with everything 2 or 4.

 

[Jepalan]

My personal opinions...

If I am designing a pure SQ system, I still opt for 4-ohm speakers all the way around. I am highly suspicious of the *perception* that running 2-ohm speakers helps you pull more power from the amplifier in a way that matters. To clarify - there is no doubt that most amps can put more power into a 2-ohm load, but the key question is whether that additional power actually gets turned into **more useful acoustic energy leaving the speaker**?

Here is an over simplified example: if I have an amp that is limited to putting out 14v RMS and I load it with 4-ohms, it will put ~49 watts into the load. If I load it with 2-ohms it will put ~98 watts into the load. But there is nothing that guarantees that 2-ohm load will generate *more acoustic energy*.

This is *very* similar to the marketing ploy of rating vacuum cleaners by the "amps" they pull. They should instead be rated by air velocity, air volume and suction. I can easily create a vacuum that pulls 20amps and doesn't $uck air any better than a "2 amp" vacuum. The measurement is meaningless.

What I do know is that most (all?) amps will run cooler and at slightly lower distortion levels when loaded at 4-ohms (or 8-ohms) versus 2-ohms. So I choose to run 4-ohm speakers all the way around. The other advantage this gives me is that if I am in a pinch, I can always bridge amp channels to drive my 4-ohm speakers, but *many* amps cannot drive a 2-ohm load when bridged.

Again - this is just my way of looking at things. To each his own.