home theather speakers terminilogies..help (impedance,freq.range..etc)?

Question

i have a sony home theather 2 yrs ago and am also planing to buy a simple 5.1ch home theater to put it in the other room.

please advice w/c specs is better (i'll just hide the brands between sony and philips to know w/c is good)

*home theater 1:
satellite speakers and subwoofer rated impedance -2.7 ohms
(freq. range not specified in manual)

*home theater 2:
satellite speakers - 4 ohms ; 150-20000hz
center speakers - 8 ohms ; 150-20000hz
subwoofer - 8 ohms ; 45-150hz

please choose w/c home theater specs is better sound output.
which is better higher or lower ohms (rated impedance)

thanks

Answer 1

Assuming both systems come with amplifier built in then it really doesn't matter, as the amplifiers will be able to handle the impedance (whether it's 2.7 or 4 or 8 ohms). But as a general rule, 6-8 ohms is the best compromise for a speaker between 'driveability' and sound. So I'd suggest the 2nd system would be your best bet overall, even though the subwoofer upper frequency is a bit higher than optimal.
That's based purely on those figures of course: ideally you need to listen to both systems and see which you like the best!

Answer 2

Lower impedance on speakers only mean the amp doesn't have to work as hard to drive them. It doesn't in any way designate quality of sound. Get a good CD, close your eyes and listen. Can you hear distinct differences, highs and lows? Is it hard to tell which speaker the sound is coming from? Does the sound fill the room without the volume cranked? Personal preference, what sounds great to you may sound totally different to others.

Answer 3

If I read the ingredients from 3 brands of soup, could you tell which tastes better?

Of course not.

You cannot tell what speaker sounds better just with these specs. You really should try to audition the speakers yourself with a music CD. Music is harder for speakers to reproduce so it can show you things about speakers that a movie soundtrack cannot.