Everything you need to know about speaker impedance

The Audiophiliac discusses impedance with speaker designer Andrew Jones from ELAC.

[harmonised]

At the beginning, I was thinking... excellent, this is superb and will explain everything nicely! Then I became lost, and am now just grateful others understand sufficiently better than I do, so that great audio tech/kit exists so I can simply buy and enjoy it!

[spingarn]

This is excellent. Great that you can just summon Mr. Jones at will for his explanations.

[AmazonasBiotop]

Nice to have such professional speaker designer there. And hear strength from the source.. :)
Take care!

[dhpbear]

8:30 - Solid state amps offer voltage control. A tube amp is basically a current source; those impedance humps will also show up as humps in the amplifier/speaker frequency response!

[j-mo]

I liked the discussion. It helped me understand many of the factors associated with the impedence spec.
It comes down to how much current the driver, receiver or amp, can produe before overheating its components. At 4 ohms a speaker will draw double the amps as a 8 ohm (minimum) speaker. The power supply in the amp must be able to produce enought power to support all channels. So those multi channel AV receivers have to have stout power supplies.

[turiddu]

OMG what a get!!!! Andrew Jones!!! An affable giant in high end audio! NICE interview Steve!

[gutsanglory]

Andrew Jones has so much speaker knowledge it just blurs my mind.
Knows his shit !

[pauldemara]

That was an AWESOME interview Steve. Great questions and really fun answers from Andrew J. Hopefully many will watch to learn all about speaker impedance etc.

[SlowfingerJC]

For amplifiers, maximum power transfer is dictated by matching the amplifier output resistance with its load, i.e. maximum power transfer occurs when the load resistance = output resistance. All deviations from maximum power means not maximum power ie quieter = frequency response. Where a speakers resistance at a particular frequency is extremely high, then the amplified sound will be quieter = frequency response. If the resistance at a particular frequency gets near to 0 Ohm, then you are essentially shorting out the output of the amplifier, which means that the output stage of the amplifier could well exceed it's maximum power handling rating leading to a catastrophic failure. Just to make it a bit more complicated, the human ear has it's own frequency response, meaning that altough an amplifier may be amplifying a particular frequency relatively quietly, the human ear could be more sensitive at that frequency meaning that the sound would be percieved as not being quieter.

[eaopanama]

Great interview Steve. Andrew Jones is a very respectable man in the industry with lots of knowledge. I enjoy listening to him and although I've been into car audio and video for a long time, I'm always learning new things from him. He seems like a real cool person.

[GoldenGateNum]

*Thanks a lot for this I was hanging on every word, we really need more people like this setting it straight on the disappear down a rabbit hole mythologising misinformative internet!.*

[MegaFguy]

NAD states burst power into 8-4 and 2 ohms in their receiver specs if I am not mistaken. Great video!

[braintoosmall]

Thank you for a great explanation Andrew Jones! I've wondered about these specs for some time. Just make sure you have a good amplifier and you can drive any speaker!!

[whitneybeehler]

Even though I only understand about 2% of what these guys are talking about, I could listen to them all day. Maybe then I'd understand 3%. I wish I had been an Electrical Engineer...

[mvv]

Thanks, this was very helpful. I now understand my 8 ohms Bowers and Wilkins speakers (minimum 4 ohms) should have actually been rated 5 ohms, that is, if they would follow convention.

[mjjm]

There is a huge difference between a 120w receiver being able to produce sound at a low impedance, say =<4 ♎️ @ 80-120 Hz and a 250w power amp really delivering the goods.

[willmorgan]

Great to hear Andrew once more. Just wish you never left Pioneer and TAD. Miss your demos at Hi Fi shows Mr Jones, you need to come back to Australia.

[PoloABD]

Best thing to do if you’re not sure if a speaker will be overdriven with a certain combination of impedances is just to listen for distortion.

In a live sound/music performance situation, look at the excursion (how far the cone is going in and out).

[nicholascremato]

I don't know what the big deal is. Andrew has always made great speakers!!!

[jarodreddig]

Great video. I knew impedance was frequency dependent but I learned so much more