Measuring speaker impedance dips


How would you go about doing this? Is it as simple as hooking your meter between the positive and negative terminals of your speakers while the system is playing?

If the speaker dips below say 4 ohms what does this mean and why should there be a concern?. Is it that there is very little resistance at that point in time and the amp's signal becomes unstable and less defined?
nuguy

Showing 1 response by zargon

No, not that simple. You need to be measuring impedance (which includes resistance, capacitance, and inductance) as a function of frequency. This involves looking at voltage and current during a frequency sweep.

A low impedance dip means at that point the speaker is drawing a larger amount of current from the amp. Speakers with such dips below are much harder to drive than those with a fairly flat impedance. Every time the impedance is halved, the required current doubles. Not all amps are up to that, especially down to 2 ohms or less. In general, SS amps tend to do better under these conditions, however, a carefully selected tube amp can be made to work as well.