# 8 ohm speaker to 4 ohm



## RIFF WRATH (Jan 22, 2007)

I have several 12" 8 ohm speakers that I would like to use individually for a couple of 4ohm small tube amps..........is there any way to hook up some type of electrical component (resister???) to the speaker to get from 8 to 4 ohms.....cheers, Gerry


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## Voxguy76 (Aug 23, 2006)

Check the Weber Z Matcher out:

https://taweber.powweb.com/store/zmatch.htm


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Easy - use two 8 ohm speakers in parallel to get a 4 ohm load.


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## StevieMac (Mar 4, 2006)

Greg Ellis said:


> Easy - use two 8 ohm speakers in parallel to get a 4 ohm load.


OP indicated he wants to use his 8-ohm speakers _individually_. The Z matcher is the only method I'm aware of BUT you probably won't hurt those small amps with a mismatch from just 4 to 8 ohms.


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Yeah, I realized that after I posted.

The idea holds tho - run another 8 ohm load in parallel with the speaker.

What SORT of load will work depends how much power we're talking about.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Tube amps are not as fussy about impedance matching on speakers. Just wire up the 8 ohm speaker as normal and rock on.


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## Gizmo (Aug 7, 2008)

+1 on Steve's input
You are usually ok with a 2 to 1 mismatch as long as you don't run them flat out all night, although I believe it's generally better to go with a lower impedance spkr than a higher one on a tube amp.
It will sound different though to using 4 ohm.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

RIFF WRATH said:


> is there any way to hook up some type of electrical component (resister???) to the speaker to get from 8 to 4 ohms.....cheers, Gerry


 Sure, put an 8 ohm power resistor across the speaker terminals and you will have a 4 ohm load for your amp. Make sure the resistor can handle half the power of what the amp can deliver cranked up. The power from the amp will be shared between the speaker and the resistor, so you will only hear about half the power of the amp. All that being said, I agree with the other guys that the impedance mismatch shouldn't be a problem if you just run it as is. It will affect the frequency response (tone) of the amp, but it could be in a positive rather than negative way, try it and see.


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## RIFF WRATH (Jan 22, 2007)

thanks for the replies..much appreciated.......I guess I will go the 8ohm route but I thought that would burn out the tubes faster........cheers, Gerry


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