4 Ohm vs 8 Ohm

I'm not exactly sure about this but I know that my home audio system runs at 8 ohms and right now my car speakers run at 4 ohms. Is there any advatage to running your car speakers at 8 ohms? Does the quality of the sound increase? I Know that the power from the amplifier decreases, thats fine I could bridge something or get something together, but basically wanted to know what the advatages were to wiring components to 8 ohms. (if this is even possible)

In general, a speaker is designed for a particular net impedence and you cannot change that.  That is why many speakers (specifically woofers) use multiple voice coils: to give the installer the ability to vary the impedence as part of system design.  Amplifiers tend to like higher impedence loads and yes, in general an 8-ohm load will allow an amplifier to run cooler, with less noise and farther away from its limits than will a 4-ohm load.  The difference are measurable with test equipment, but the likelihood you can hear it is very low.Support the12volt.com

I also have a question about this. hypothetical situation: I have an amp that will push 50 watts at 4 ohms. It pulls 5 amps. If I pushed it at 8 ohms, will it still pull 5 amps, or would it pull 2.5 amps?? Paul

Ohms law.  Assuming the amplifier output voltage remains the same, as resistance increases current flow decreases.  So while it probably won't be exactly cut in half on the power suply side (due to efficiency issues, losses, etc.) it will certainly go down, as will gross power output.Support the12volt.com