Quote Originally Posted by nahmed
What does it mean when an amplifier has a "high current design"?

If it can drive 4 ohm speakers, does this capability let it drive 8 ohm speakers better than an amp that can only drive 8 ohm speakers?

thanks
Nadeem
First of all, lets get the matter of speaker impedances figured out. Speaker impedances almost always vary considerably with frequency. A number reviewers provide an impedance vs. frequency curve for the speakers they review. You can find them in Stereophile, Audio Ideas Guide, and Soundstage. It's easy to find illustrations of this on the Soundstage site, so I will provide a link:

http://www.soundstagemagazine.com/speakermeasurements/

You will find that many speakers with an 8 ohm rating actually get considerably lower than that. There are no standards for the impedance ratings of speakers that I know of. But, as it turns out, most receivers will still drive them at ordinary levels. Of course, if the protection circuitry cuts in or the amp gets too hot, then you have some cause to be concerned.

Those who say that "high current" is an advertising slogan are pretty well right, as there is no standard for what is meant. For most of us, an amplifier that can deliver a lot of power into 4 ohms would have a high enough current capability. However, some speaker have an impedance which gets fairly low in certain frequency ranges, some down close to 1 or 2 ohms. This to me is bad design, but many say some of those speakers sound very good. So, you need an amp with a pretty hefty power supply to drive them to a decent sound level.

Do super capable amps sound better with ordinary speakers? Not really. As long as you stay within the amp's capabilities, you should be fine.

Let us take some of the silliness that has been given here. Suppose you have an amp rated at 100 watts into 8 ohms and 200 watts into 4 ohms. In the US, if that is what is claimed, then the amp MUST meet those specs. Now lets take a 200 watt amp, rated into 8 ohms, which is rated at 300 watts into 4 ohms. Which is the more capable amp driving a 4 ohm load? Yet according to some here, that would not qualify as high current!