• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

8ohm output transformer with a 4ohm load

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I know if you run too high of a impedance load on a tube amp the plates could fry just like if you had no speaker attached. But what happens when you pop a 4ohm speaker on a 8ohm tap? Is it perfectly safe as long as you dont go above the normal wattage of the amp? I dont know what happens when the tubes see 2.5k instead of 5k.

Aka if its a 10 watt amp at 8ohms, dont go for 20watts at 4ohm , keep the volume at half...
 
In such a case you will get much higher distortion, since distortion increases as the tube's load impedance decreases.
Also, it seems to me that you'll get less output power, since the operating point of the tube will not be suitable for the new load impedance.
 
What happens if you put 4 ohm resistors in series with the 4 ohm speakers, besides halving the output power to the speakers, all else should be OK as far as the amp is concerned? Yes? No? Halving the power is only -3dB. Sure its not the "right thing" to do but if you're stuck...

Ian.
 
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