# 8ohm vs 16 ohm



## HulkSmash (May 22, 2011)

About to purchase compression drivers. Is there any appreciable difference in sound quality between 8 ohm and 16 ohm drivers of the same driver? I have amplifier enough to drive either one. I've searched, but haven't found a great answer.


----------



## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

No, but depending on the other speakers in the system, the 16 ohm drivers could get you a better power per driver ratio...I always tried to do something like a 1:3:5 ratio for a 2 way front stage plus sub.


----------



## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

thehatedguy said:


> No, but depending on the other speakers in the system, the 16 ohm drivers could get you a better power per driver ratio...I always tried to do something like a 1:3:5 ratio for a 2 way front stage plus sub.


He has a very good point ^^^


What mid/midbass are you using, and what drivers you looking at?


----------



## HulkSmash (May 22, 2011)

B&C DE500 and the B&C 10NW64 are the drivers I'm leaning towards now.


----------



## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

HulkSmash said:


> B&C DE500 and the B&C 10NW64 are the drivers I'm leaning towards now.


So you plan to go to about 1k on the horns than? The 16ohm will work good, however , the 8ohm is what I would get, honestly it just helps your noise floor at that point. 8ohm is better also for getting power to the driver if your trying to play a bit lower than its "usable" range, before breakup issues at least. we aren't going for 140db so we have some efficiency to burn, but if your going to use before its natural roll off goes too far down , I would go for 8ohm , it will allow you to keep the gains lower thus lowering noise. Horns seem to have a X-ray quality for sound and X-ray quality for picking up noise through EMI. There very sensitive , you'll alway have some hiss com from them , unless your gated , but the lower you can keep the gain the less noise you will have and they can be noisE 

With those mid/bass drivers it would easily get to 1k.


----------

