# adding loud speakers to an amp

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-loud-speakers-to-an-amp/183195>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 20, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-loud-speakers-to-an-amp/183195 "2003-06-20T16:11:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-loud-speakers-to-an-amp/183195/1 "2003-06-20T16:11:31Z")

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hi all …  
i have an amplifier with a pair of 4 ohm speakers.  
(with me so far ?!)  
say i want to add another pair … i could do this in  
series (and change the impedance to 8 ohms) or parallel  
(and change the impedance to 2 ohms) - either of which  
would degrade the amp’s performance …  
Anyone got a circuit which would match the impedance  
to the amp’s output ?

(i could get a box from radioshack/maplins but i suspect  
it would only require a resistor and a capacitor and a piece  
of string or something )

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-loud-speakers-to-an-amp/183195/2 "2003-06-20T16:30:12Z")

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You’d be better with an additional amp.

Paralleling two pair of 4-ohm speakers will put a 2-ohm load on the amp, which will most likely result in blown fuses or outputs.

Putting them in series will result in an amp-friendly 8 ohms, but this only works well if the speakers are identical because of how different speakers have different impedance at different frequencies - this results in varying amounts of power getting to the speakers and it can really mess up frequency response.