Speaker 4ohm vs 8ohm

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What happens if someone uses 4ohm speakers instead of 8ohm?

Does that put any additional strain on the AMPs or other components or just change the sound?

Asking for a friend....
 
Googlefu

4ohm speaker has less electrical resistance than an 8ohm speaker, meaning it draws more power from an amplifier, potentially allowing for louder sound at the same power level, but requiring an amplifier that can handle a lower impedance load, while an 8ohm speaker is more compatible with a wider range of amplifiers and is generally considered safer for most setups; essentially, a 4ohm speaker can potentially sound louder but needs a more powerful amp to drive it properly compared to an 8ohm speaker.
 
You could also read the 4ohm vs 8ohm discussion on other websites such as this ->


There are also threads here on KLOV discussing speaker specifics for arcade games which, arguably, provide less dynamic frequency performance than one would need/expect for music fidelity etc. YMMV

Also, the commonly used 8W TDA2002 audio amps used on many games can work into a 1.6ohm load.
The compromise would be power and dissipation etc.

 
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Does that put any additional strain on the AMPs or other components or just change the sound?

Yes additional strain, yes change the sound. In (very) short it could run the amp slightly hotter and may sound muffled on the top end.

You may not notice the second issue. As for the heat, its not good but hard to say if it would be a problem in the short term.

I personally would put in the cheapest 8 ohm speakers i could find.
 
It depends on the game, and the amp chip being used.

For example, the TDA2002's on Atari AR's can drive anything down to 1.7 ohms (IIRC from the datasheet). So some amps can handle a wide range of impedances.

The best answer would be to use whatever the game was designed for.
 
What happens if someone uses 4ohm speakers instead of 8ohm?

Does that put any additional strain on the AMPs or other components or just change the sound?

Asking for a friend....

From back in my college classes, and at the time I was very much into car stereos in the late 80's and early 90's. The impedance is more of a "matching" than a direct resistance. I'm trying to speak about in simple terms, but if you are hooking up a 4 ohm impedance speaker to an 8 ohm impedance amp, what happens is you don't have the best energy matching, so you will get losses between the amp and the speaker.

As andrewb mentioned, most modern amps are tolerant of driving different impedance loads.
 
At signal frequencies (that's where the impedance is specified) a 4 ohm speaker will draw twice as much current as an 8 ohm speaker for a given amplifier output voltage. That means the 4 ohm speaker will have twice the output power. It also means the amplifier must be able to supply twice the output current to maintain it's output voltage without serious distortion.

And yes, there is an output efficiency issue too. But for our purposes we mostly don't care about that. The feedback is taken from the speaker's input, so the amplifier's output impedance is reduced effectively to zero and the input voltage to the speaker is constant regardless of the speaker's impedance (within limits of the amplifier's current output capability). That means that the output power tracks as I've described it, but the power efficiency is.....different. Beyond the scope here.

I second the notion that you should use the same speaker type that the game shipped with so that the amplifier is loaded the same.
 
While people are right that new units are more tolerant, the speaker rating is the speaker rating. If it was designed / equipped with an 8 ohm speaker, replace it with an 8 ohm speaker.

Yes, it will draw more current. If you use the game once a week, so what? If you have the game on all the time, you'll kill the amp eventually. How long is "eventually?" Who knows - you are operating outside of the design envelope, which isn't generally tested.
 
This is great discussion and reminds me of my audiophile days.

When the speaker in my Asterouds Deluxe cabaret died, I spent a while finding a great replacement. The problem was it was too good and vibrated the cabinet with bass (bbbrrrrrrrr!). I had to go to a lesser speaker for it to sound right. Speakers have come a long way and my AD cabaret has never sounded better.

Oh, I also reviewed different 4 and 8 ohm solutions. The original was 8 ohm and so is the replacement.

Scott C.
 
I need to replace the 8ohm, 5watt speaker in my Asteroids Deluxe cocktail. What do you recommend I go with from your research? And would it work without modifying anything else?
 
2 of the 4ohm speakers wired in series would work. Look up speakers wired in series or parallel. Would not quite sound the same as an original. depends also on the frequencies you want. Bass, midrange, high, or full range. I found an 8ohm full range 8" on Ebay a month ago for one of my Asteroids U/R cabs
 
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