Series vs parallel?

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power

The power drawn from the amp is inversly proportional to load impedance, (P=(E*E)/R)
so two speakers of the same impedance in parallel will draw four times the power of the same speakers in series
(at the same voltage output)
 
Series will be 16 ohms with 8 ohm speakers, parallel would be 4 ohms. Voltage sensitivity will be 6dB higher with the 4 ohm arrangement, but the efficiency (dB/Watt) will be the same in either case.

Just as with the impedance, Le is halved from a single driver when paralleled, and doubled when in series. Some have claimed that the higher Le of series connections leads to a dulling of transients or phase response, but I've yet to see documentation of this.

As much as anything else, it's an issue of making the amp happy. Most amps will have better distortion figures into 16, but solid state amps will typically be able to deliver as much as 4X more power into the lower impedance loads. Tubes will change less in terms of potential power output, unless it's an OTL, in which case, many amps can push more juice through the HIGHER impedance (16 ohm) load.

With me so far? Good.
'cause I'm done for now 😉
 
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