wareagle

whats an ohm? what does it do? whats the diff between a 4, 8, and 16 ohm. i see this on cab speakers and amps all the time. what does it mean....

lerxst88

ohms is a measure of resistance in an electrical circuit.

in any electrical circuit there has to be SOME resistance otherwise the battery (or power supply) will short out and no one wants that. (connect the two ends of a wall outlet and youll understand what happens)

btw if youre trying that right now STOP!

in terms of speakers it is to show you what kind of load the speakers are putting on the amp. you might think less ohms is better so the amp doesnt have to work as hard but itll actually hurt the amp more if there isnt the correct load on it

in short dont worry too much about it. if the amp says 8 ohms get an 8 ohm cab. if it says 16 ohms get a 16 ohm cab. if you have any questons about rewiring cab combinations or anything like that please post up again!

wareagle

thnx! i read somewhere that lower ohms the better b/c the tone is better lower? also newer amps (or maybe older ones, idk lol) give u the choice of the ohms, i see like 16 8 and 4 most frequently, is it correct that the tone is better on the 4 ohm? pros and cons?

i prob wont be rewireing my cab/head ever, but what does that do/mean rewiring cab combos, i heard it b4 but didnt understand it too well, i heard somthing of choosing if the sound goes through one or 2 or 3 or 4 speakers or somthing?

lerxst88

better tone through lower ohms sounds ridiculous to me. does your bike go faster when you can barely keep up with the pedals? its bad for the amp and any "tone gains" you would get would be pretty insignificant. (before i knew what ohms were myself i would fiddle around with the switch to see if it sounded any different thank god i didnt break my amp!)

what i meant by rewiring your cabinets is to put the speakers in paralell or series to get the correct ohms for your head. theres not too much of a difference in sound between series and parallel but you should ALWAYS run your amp with a cab of the same ohm rating or impedance

wareagle

kk, thnx for the info, knowing me i'd buy a head with 16ohm and a cab with 4...

Adwex

For someone like yourself who is new to ohms, impedance, and electrical concepts in general, the most important thing you need to know is that the amp must be set to match the impedance of the cab.

If you have a 4 ohm cab, you must set the amp for 4 ohms.
If you have a 8 ohm cab, you must set the amp for 8 ohms.
If you have a 16 ohm cab, you must set the amp for 16 ohms.

That's why most amps are switchable. If you don't match the impedance, you run the risk of damaging the expensive components in the amp.

__________________
http://www.youtube.com/MarshallLesPaul

wareagle

kool, i see ur from long island, same. yankees or mets? is ther any diff in tone at all between them?

Adwex

I'm not into sports, but if I had to make a choice, I'd go Yankees.

My Marshall cab has a 4 ohm and a 16 ohm input, so there is a choice. A long time ago I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference so I went back and forth between 4 and 16, and I didn't notice any difference. I use 16 all the time.

__________________
http://www.youtube.com/MarshallLesPaul

wareagle

kk.