Changing the impedance of speakers

I want to run my amp into a 2 ohm load, but my speakers are 4 ohms.  Is it safe to use a 4 ohm resistor in parallel with the speaker to reduce the total impedance to 2 ohms?  This will give me like 25 extra watts per channel...

If this wont work, any other suggestions?  These are for my midrange speakers (6.5" Infinity Reference and 5.25" Infinity Kappas) Thanks

Hey   awd_sr,

Adding resistors is not a good idea.  If you want extra power buy a larger amp or wire another pair of speakers in parallel.  Don't forget that when you half the impedence you double the distortion which is an awfull trade-off on mids and tweets - exactly the frequency range where distortion is most evident.  At 2 OHMS the amp will probably work harder, overheat faster, saturate quicker, shutdown sooner.   Also don't believe everything you read about amp power.  Did they reach the watts mentioned on speakers or through resistors?  At what input voltage and frequency were these measurements taken?  Most amps on the market are running at 50% efficiency at best and class D is around 80%.  50% of 25 is a mere 12.5 per channel.  Is it worth it?

thanks for the help guys,

I actually know Ohms law pretty good, I guess I tried to relate basic E.E. principles to the audio world, i.e. resistances in parrallel etc.  I guess I will just go for the better amp.  Right now I'm using an el cheapo Jensen amp.... I know, Iknow...  I'll look into an Alpine 4 channel or somethin, my buddy gets great deals at Circuit City, he used to work there.

I never knew there was a direct(inverse) relationship between distortion and resistance.  See, I learn somethin everyday at this site...;)

thanks again guys

I have considered adding a second midrange speaker parallel to my component set, fo the same reason listed above - I could halve the impedance and double the power.

Currently, I am running an Infinity crossover and silk tweeter (Reference series), and I swapped out the Infinity 6.5" woofer for a Rockford Fanatic Q on each side.  Currently, at 4 ohms per side, my amp is putting out 90 watts per channel.  Adding another 4 ohm load in parallel could boost my output to 180 watts per side.

Is this just not a good idea?  I was considering doing this, figuring that a comp set and maybe a coax in parallel running 180 watts per side @ 2 ohms would be considerably louder than a single comp set with 90 watts @ 4 ohms.

Are we saying here that this is not a good idea?  Why will my SQ suffer?  I'm just a bit unclear as to why this would not work, or why there would be excessive distortion.

Thanks

~HH

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