Compression drivers/tweeters

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   Question: is there any reason to favor 16ohm compression drivers over 8ohms? If the comps are active crossed and have their own amp channel the only potential advantage I can see is being able to power more comps per amp channel.. correct me if I'm wrong..Also, I've always thought it's best with compression drivers/tweets to not run at low impedance/too many drivers on one amp channel, i try to keep to one 8ohm driver per amp channel if poss or 2 8ohm drivers per channel at a push.. my question is: could there be any issue running say 4 16ohm drivers or 2 8ohm drivers from an amp channel for hf? Is there really any advantage running hf amp channels at say 8ohms max?

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dj jammin Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 10 April 2010 Location: southampton Status: Offline Points: 762	Post Options Post Reply Quote dj jammin Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Compression drivers/tweeters Posted: 31 December 2022 at 12:27am
	Question: is there any reason to favor 16ohm compression drivers over 8ohms? If the comps are active crossed and have their own amp channel the only potential advantage I can see is being able to power more comps per amp channel.. correct me if I'm wrong.. Also, I've always thought it's best with compression drivers/tweets to not run at low impedance/too many drivers on one amp channel, i try to keep to one 8ohm driver per amp channel if poss or 2 8ohm drivers per channel at a push.. my question is: could there be any issue running say 4 16ohm drivers or 2 8ohm drivers from an amp channel for hf? Is there really any advantage running hf amp channels at say 8ohms max?
	Reverence Sound system

ceharden Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List The 10,000 Points Club Joined: 05 June 2005 Location: Southampton Status: Offline Points: 11696	Post Options Post Reply Quote ceharden Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 31 December 2022 at 12:47am
	If you're just running a single compression driver then there's no big difference between 8R and 16R drivers, except that the higher impedance driver will require a higher Voltage from the amplifier for the same power. When looking at a system as a whole, there are various reasons why a designer might choose to use 16R drivers. If a cab contains multiple compression drivers (such as a line array) then two drivers can be paralleled but still present an 8R load for a single cabinet. In the case of a 2 or 3-way cab containing a passive crossover and where the HF needs to be attenuated (as is normally the case), a 16R HF driver may reduce the power needing to be dissipated in an L-Pad for example because the driver will naturally draw less power for the same Voltage input.