Hey all,

I have been thinking about getting a pair of Zu Tone speakers and want
to make sure they won't damage my Melody SP3 tube amp if I do. The Zu
speakers are rated at 12 ohms and the Melody SP3 has 4 and 8 ohm speaker
hookups. My understanding is that one doesn't want speakers with less
resistance than the amp (2 ohm speakers with 4 ohm amp) or else the amp
could be damaged. Will 12 ohm speakers damage the amp? Should I plug
the speakers into the 4 ohm slot or the 8 ohm slot?

Lance

[Kalman Rubinson]

On 1 Jul 2006 16:28:47 GMT, Lance Hoffmeyer
wrote:

Hey all,

I have been thinking about getting a pair of Zu Tone speakers and want
to make sure they won't damage my Melody SP3 tube amp if I do. The Zu
speakers are rated at 12 ohms and the Melody SP3 has 4 and 8 ohm speaker
hookups. My understanding is that one doesn't want speakers with less
resistance than the amp (2 ohm speakers with 4 ohm amp) or else the amp
could be damaged. Will 12 ohm speakers damage the amp? Should I plug
the speakers into the 4 ohm slot or the 8 ohm slot?

The 8ohm tap should be fine and no damage would be expected.

Kal

[Kalman Rubinson]

On 1 Jul 2006 16:28:47 GMT, Lance Hoffmeyer
wrote:

Hey all,

I have been thinking about getting a pair of Zu Tone speakers and want
to make sure they won't damage my Melody SP3 tube amp if I do. The Zu
speakers are rated at 12 ohms and the Melody SP3 has 4 and 8 ohm speaker
hookups. My understanding is that one doesn't want speakers with less
resistance than the amp (2 ohm speakers with 4 ohm amp) or else the amp
could be damaged. Will 12 ohm speakers damage the amp? Should I plug
the speakers into the 4 ohm slot or the 8 ohm slot?

The 8ohm tap should be fine and no damage would be expected.

Kal

[BEAR]

Lance Hoffmeyer wrote:
Hey all,

I have been thinking about getting a pair of Zu Tone speakers and want
to make sure they won't damage my Melody SP3 tube amp if I do. The Zu
speakers are rated at 12 ohms and the Melody SP3 has 4 and 8 ohm speaker
hookups. My understanding is that one doesn't want speakers with less
resistance than the amp (2 ohm speakers with 4 ohm amp) or else the amp
could be damaged. Will 12 ohm speakers damage the amp? Should I plug
the speakers into the 4 ohm slot or the 8 ohm slot?

Lance


A higher impedance will do no harm.
An open impedance - no speakers however is not good for tube amps.
Has no effect on solid state amps.

Use the 8ohm taps... you will be able to get higher volume levels on the
8 ohm taps, since it is a voltage ratio at play in the transformer.
The lower voltage tap being the 4 ohm tap (higher current though).

_-_-bear

[[email protected]]

How about the 8 and 4 taps in series?

[MC]

"Lance Hoffmeyer" wrote in message
...
Hey all,

I have been thinking about getting a pair of Zu Tone speakers and want
to make sure they won't damage my Melody SP3 tube amp if I do. The Zu
speakers are rated at 12 ohms and the Melody SP3 has 4 and 8 ohm speaker
hookups. My understanding is that one doesn't want speakers with less
resistance than the amp (2 ohm speakers with 4 ohm amp) or else the amp
could be damaged. Will 12 ohm speakers damage the amp? Should I plug
the speakers into the 4 ohm slot or the 8 ohm slot?

I am not familiar with Zu Tone, but assuming they are relatively normal
speakers from the electrical standpoint:

Use the 8-ohm connection and they will work just fine, although your maximum
power output will be somewhat less (this is only relevant if you want
super-loud sound).

The impedance of an 8-ohm speaker is anywhere from 5 to 100 ohms at various
points in the audio spectrum, or so I'm told. So an 8-ohm and a 12-ohm
speaker almost aren't distinguishable.

You are right about not wanting to use speakers of *lower* impedance than
the amplifier is rated for.

Looking up Zu Tone, I see that they are high-end speakers. I suggest you
ask Zu Tone for advice. Almost no amplifiers have 12-ohm outputs, so I'll
bet they get used on 8-ohm outputs regularly.

[MC]

wrote in message ...
How about the 8 and 4 taps in series?

I don't think you can do that. Think about what "tap" means. The ends of
the transformer winding are probably designated 8 ohms and ground, and the
4-ohm tap is halfway through that transformer winding. You can't put a
transformer (or anything else) in series with half of itself.

[BEAR]

wrote:

How about the 8 and 4 taps in series?


Surely you jest?

The 8 and 4 ohm taps ARE in series!!

That is why they are called "taps" - they are simply along different
points of the total transformer secondary winding (in this case, the
secondary). In this transformer the 8 ohm tap is apparently the full
winding, the 4 ohm, some percentage less.

If one was unaware of this basic concept one should probably should
consider not offering despositive opinions on the subject of "objective"
high-end matters, at least I wouldn't?

_-_-bear

[[email protected]]

wrote:
How about the 8 and 4 taps in series?

No. When we speak of a "tap," we mean that it is an electrical
connection to somewhere in the middle of the windings. In most
cases there is only 1 secondary winding. In the case of an output
transformer with three taps, 16, 8 and 4 ohms, the 16 ohm tap
is the entire winding, i.e., all turns, the 8 ohm tap uses 71% of the
turns and the 4 ohm tap uses 50% of the windings. All connections
go to a common "ground" or reference tap which is at the other
end of the windings.

There are cases, though in the minority, where there are separate
windings for each impedance. Now, interestingly enough, when you
figure it out, if you had 2 4-0hm windings. Putting them in series
would NOT give you an 8 ohm winding, buut a 16 ohm winding.
The reason being is that the while the voltage ratio of a transformer
goes as the ratio of the turns, the impedance goes as the square
of the ratio of the turns. Two 4 ohm windings have twice as many
turns, and thus has twice the impedance ratio.

In essences, you can't put the two taps "in series" because they're
the same winding, just brought out of the can at different turns.

[[email protected]]

MC wrote:
wrote in message ...
How about the 8 and 4 taps in series?
I don't think you can do that. Think about what "tap" means. The ends of
the transformer winding are probably designated 8 ohms and ground, and the
4-ohm tap is halfway through that transformer winding.

Actually, no, it's about 71% of the way through the secondary winding,
more properly 1/sqrt(2) (0.7071...).

[[email protected]]

BEAR wrote:
wrote:

How about the 8 and 4 taps in series?

SNIP
If one was unaware of this basic concept one should probably should
consider not offering despositive opinions on the subject of "objective"
high-end matters, at least I wouldn't?

_-_-bear

Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't "How about the 8 and 4 taps in
series?" be more an inquiry, as opposed to a despositive [sic] opinion?
: )

Jeff