4 Ohm Speakers

[High Fidelity 0]

As part of my new compact rig, a pair of 4 Ohm, 400 Watt RMS full range speakers would be ideal. ABS would be even better.

 

Currently, I have to use 2 sets of speakers to get my 4 Ohm 400 Watt, but just 1 pair would be so much better.

 

I've spent hours trawling the net but not found any yet.

 

Anybody know of any.

[buskersball 0]

There was a guy on ebay selling a pair of HZ500's at 4ohm. He's a good seller as I got a pair of 300s off him and they were mint! I'd have had the 500s if they were 8ohm

[chrismk 0]

Why are you so determined to go for 4 ohm only speakers, is this to get the best from your amp.....or as some amps work better with a lower ohm rating, just curious

[superstardeejay 0]

Loads of people do 4 ohm speakers. Look at the Peavey HiSys for example, you can specify either at the time of ordering.

 

[High Fidelity 0]

QUOTE (chrismk @ Nov 13 2005, 11:21 PM)

Why are you so determined to go for 4 ohm only speakers, is this to get the best from your amp.....or as some amps work better with a lower ohm rating, just curious

As part of my "compacting" I'm trying to get everything as small and simple as possible.

 

That's why my new rig will have a powered mixer. No amp rack to lug about, less cables to connect etc.

 

The new powered mixer is 200x200 at 8 Ohms and 400x400 at 4 Ohms.

 

99% of the gigs I do don't need more than the 250x250 I currently have with the seperate mixer and amp. Very occasionally, I find myself pushing the 250x250 to the limit so just a fraction more power would be ideal, without having to put in a second set of speakers.

[Splosh 0]

Again, I use Peavey, superb sound for the money - and they are a well known and trusted brand..... Check out the web for some good deals too...... I would tell you who I buy from (Definately the cheapest), but then if I did that, the likelyhood of their prices going up is pretty much guarenteed!!!!

 

Splosh

2J's Roadshow

 

 

[Party-On 0]

Volume is mesured in DBs, not watts or ohms, If you get 8ohm speakers you can add another pair if ever needed and your amp will drive both pairs at 4ohms, if you get 4ohm speakers you won't have this option.

Although, I think some of the PV range will let you daisy chain 4 ohm speakers and still be rated at 4 ohms.

If you want to get more volume, look at the SPL ratings for the spreakers.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[chrismk 0]

QUOTE (Party-On @ Nov 18 2005, 04:19 PM)

If you get 8ohm speakers you can add another pair if ever needed and your amp will drive both pairs at 4ohms, if you get 4ohm speakers you won't have this option. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Depends on the amp though, with this type of connection you can double the output on the amp but then it depends on the total wattage of the combined speakers, ie: 2500 watt amp pushing 4000 watt speakers is going to sound......

[norty303 0]

QUOTE

2500 watt amp pushing 4000 watt speakers is going to sound......

 

 

.....about 2db less loud than 4000w on those same speakers. Barely any difference to the human ear. Only benefit is a little more headroom. And certainly won't sound rubbish.

 

A 300w speaker with a 106db sensitivity powered with 300w is going to be about the same as a 100db sensitive 1000w speaker powered with 1000w.

[Andy Westcott 0]

Or indeed 1200W......

I find it surprising how often people incorrectly believe that a few extra watts will make a lot of difference:

 

200 watts being upgraded to 300 watts: "But it's an extra 100 watts! Gotta sound a lot louder..."

 

Anyhow, my advice would be to run the powered mixer into an 8 ohm load, not 4 ohms. The reasoning behind this is simply one of reliability, as when feeding an 8 ohm load, there will be a lot less heat generated within the output devices, even when outputting the same wattage.

 

Incidentally, I would question these ratings:

"The new powered mixer is 200x200 at 8 Ohms and 400x400 at 4 Ohms."

 

I've yet to encounter an amp which will output exactly double the 8 ohm power into 4 ohms. This would require your powered mixer to have some expensive and bulky regulated power supplies, which frankly I don't think it would have, as there would be little point in going to all that extra expense and bulk when the same could be achieved by building a slightly lumpier amp.

 

Might be worth finding out under what circumstances the quoted powers were achieved, as if you compare like for like, the power increase into 4 ohms might not be as great as you were led to believe.

 

8 ohms. Reliable. Cool. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/thumbup.gif