8ohm vs 4ohm speakers?

[josh05]

hi all, have been shopping around for speakers and are seriously considering the monitor audio rx8s or the spendor A5s to replace my bose 301s. have noticed that most speakers are either 4 ohm or 8 ohm, my questions are does the impedance of a speaker have any affect on the type of sound the speaker produces? and is 8 ohm better than 4 ohm or is their any difference at all? thanks guys

 

[fayeanddavid]

Most amplifiers either have a switch at the rear (for switching normally between a 4 ohm and 8 ohm impedance) or specify that they are suited to 4 ohm or 8 ohm loads

Either impedance does not impact on the sound quality providing the match is correctly set, the impedance is merely the resistive load as seen by the amplifier (it is more complex than this, but this is in lay mans terms)

Speakers are not 8 ohm or 4 ohm per se, hence nominal impedance, as the impedance does change through the frequency range of the speaker as it is being driven by the amplifier, howver the term is valid for matching purposes

Hope this helps