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In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Planning my DSET

Post Subject: 1R vs 16RPosted by Romy the Cat on: 10/19/2016

With near 1R impedance I presume you will have multiple bass drivers paralleled. That is perfectly legitimate way to operate but there are a few things you might consider.

The mistakes at 1R are more effective then at high impedance. If you have 16R then you get some difference of sound if you change from 16R to 12R. You will have the same sonic difference if you change from 1R to 0.9R. The operation point at low impedance point is a bit too sensitive. Driving 1R you will have more sonic difference when you change from 250mA to 300mA on 6C33C’s plate then it would be driving 16R. The symmetrical clipping become a bit more aggressive with low plate loading. I do not know why but I did observed it. At 16R the voltage and current clippings were more gently introduced then with 2R loading. The speaker cable behave a bit differently then what I was accustomed. The cable are running in “current mode”, so the “best” cable for 16R load would not be not the best for 1R.

Still, if everything is done properly then there is no difference what loading impedance would be 1R or 16R. The 1R has some advantages as the DCR of the transformer is lower and the bass drivers matching become a bit less critical…

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