High current amp and 8ohm speakers

[Tino]

I have a pair of old school Orion HCCA amplifiers. I was going to put them back into use after a decade of doing nothing and had a question regarding impedence and its effect on sound.

I noticed long ago that when I took my 250HCCA which was a 50wpc @ 4ohm amp which was 1 ohm capable, but drove it stereo on a pair of 8 ohm subs, that the bass was tremendously tight, controlled and deep. In mean I've never heard such control. At the time the subs were modest Pyle driverII series. When I swapped the drivers with a similarly spec'd 4ohm version, it seemed more sloppy. I'm not sure if this could have been small variations in the woofer itself or not but all I know is when I was running that 8ohm sub on that 1 ohm capable amp, I had the deepest tightest controlled bass I've ever heard

So generally, does loading down an amp reduce its control over teh speaker? I'm building this stereo to be simple and to have really good sound quality. Would running my 250HCCA and 225HCCA on 4 or 8 ohm speakers give me more control than to run lower impedence speakers?

Thanks

[dmfraser]

The damping factor is defined as the load impedance/source impedance.

When you halve the load impedance, on the same amp, you halve the damping factor. Hence sloppy bass when you go to 4 ohms. Made worse if the speaker wires are too thin.

Dan

[Tino]

Thanks for the reply back. Its good to know that I'm not imagining what I've heard I'll just run the amp on the 8ohm subs. I think it sounds much nicer and the volume output was actually quite good. More than I'd ever need.