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NickdMan
04-22-2006, 06:11 PM
I'm very new with speakers. Just wandering what to look for. What is impedance and what is the number you want to be around when looking at impedance. Same with efficiency. I found two floorstanding speakers that I'm thinking about buying and want to make sure they're good. I will be adding a sub later on to capture the lower frequencies. Are these good: http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/specs/monitor50/
Also, will there be a way in which I can connect these speakers to my computer as well as my TV via receiver? What inputs will I need for that?

Drifter06
04-22-2006, 06:41 PM
hey,
I think I can help.
Impedance----is a measure of resistance. kind of like running in water. usually the more water the harder it is to run. Same with speakers, the higher the impedance (measured in ohms) the harder it is to put power into a speaker. A high impedance is both good and bad, good because it allows your amplifier to stay cool because it isn't being strained, but bad because it doesn't get the most out of your amp. All amps have a ohm rating on them and if the impedance gets to low the amp will overheat and either shut off or self destruct.
This ins't that big of a problem, because most home audio speakers are between 4 and 8 ohms. Amp manufacturers account for this and make their amps capabile of delivering power through thoes ohms.

hopefully that helps...

efficiency---- is just what it says. how efficient is a speaker, or how easy is it to power.
this measure is usually from a distance of one meter and the given speaker is played with one clean watt (2.83v). Any speaker will play music, some louder than others. The polks you're looking at have an efficiency of 89db, which is almost exactly average.
most any amps, even really low priced one will play fine with this speaker.
don't worry too much, if you do though most stores have a 30 day take back thing.

With regaurds to your speaker choice, I have been a long time fan of annything with a polk audio badge on it. My computer speakers and car speakers are polk audios, and I love them.good choice....
check out their subwoofers when it comes time.
you will not be disapointed.

NickdMan
04-23-2006, 10:37 AM
Thanks. I think I got the basics now.

emack27
04-23-2006, 11:16 AM
Also, the lower the impedance load on your amp equates to the more watts your amp will output. So if your amp is rated at 100W per channel @ 8ohms it will prob. be rated at 200W @ 4ohms. This is not true for all amps however.

Speakers have a min impedance, that means that at some frequencies and sometimes, not all, your speaker will pull that ohm load.