Ohm challenged

I am replacing the 16 ohm tweeters in my rockola. I can go down to best buy and pick up 8 ohm speakers, no problem. I would have to order 16 ohm, 6 x 9 tweeters. Is there a significant difference in sound quality/volume between 8 and 16 ohm? Thanks, drjeck

You haven't mentioned what model you are asking about.

That is important because the need for efficiency varies greatly as the older machines had relatively low powered amps vs. the later ones.

As for buying speakers at Best Buy those are likely to be for car audio. While they may have better sound than original jukebox speakers, their efficiency is likely to be lower than what was originally installed.

When it comes to impedance, going from 16 ohm to 8 will cause the new speaker to consume twice as much power as original. On some machines you can change the connections on a power distribution terminal to be at half of the former wattage and thus restore proper loading of the map. On other models this gets complicated and if you don't understand the schematics it is best to stick with speakers having the correct impedance.

Rob/NYC

Thanks, Rob. I've got a rockola 445. There is a "low impedence" switch on the amp. Can I buy 8 ohm speakers and simply adjust this switch? Dave

Well, looking at this schematic: http://thearcadeboneyard.com/Jukebox_Ma ... EMATIC.pdf

It looks as though R-O used 16 ohm for the mid-highs and 8 ohm for woofers. The idea here would be to pad down the level of the highs. So it looks as though you might be OK using 8 ohm to replace the upper speakers. If you do this though you will need to replace the capacitor that crosses over the speaker with one approx twice the current MFD rating You would increase it from 15 mfd to approx 30 or just add another 15 in parallel. given that the new speakers will probably have higher power handling and be able to deal with bass frequencies, going to 47mfd or higher might be worth experimenting with.

Just be aware that the new speakers might not be as loud relative to the woofers as the originals were -even give that they'll get twice the power at 8 ohms.

Adding a choke to get the highs out of the woofers would surely help the sound as well.

Rob/NYC