How to Measure Speaker Impedance With a Multimeter
Knowing the resistance of a speaker is important when pairing it with an amplifier. If the resistance is too low, the amplifier can run too hot, creating the potential for damage in the circuits. If the resistance is too high, the output of the amplifier will be restricted, hurting audio performance. Although most speakers are labeled as to their resistance, you can check the resistance of any speaker with a multimeter, an instrument that measures current, voltage, resistance and other electrical values.
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Instructions
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Put the probes of the multimeter into the sockets on the multimeter. Most multimeters have several different sockets, depending on what you are measuring. Because multimeter models vary in their layouts, check the manual for your multimeter if you're not certain.
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Set the range for your multimeter for readings in the range of 2-16 ohms.
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Touch each of the probes to a different speaker terminal and check the reading. This is the speaker's impedance. Turn off the multimeter to preserve the batteries.
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References
- Photo Credit multimeter image by dinostock from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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You cannot measure speaker directly with a meter...it is a complex frequency dependent measurement.
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Who wrote this? DC Resistance and AC Impedance are not the same thing. Impedance varies by the frequency of the audio signal by a factor of 1.2 at lower frequencies to 7 or 8 at higher frequencies At best you can only take the DC resistance and multiply by 1.3+ to get the approximate nominal Impedance, but that is only a ballpark estimate.
