Speaker Impedence and Foxonix

I'm definitely showing my lack of basic audio engineering skill here, but I'm wondering, would a 4ohm speaker be generally louder than an 8ohm speaker when used with Foxonix?

Could the Foxonix hardware provide enough power to use a speaker like that? Would there be a bigger drain on the batteries?

-eric

PS: When placed in a nice plastic "cabinet" I found the 8ohm 40mm speaker sold here plenty loud, but I was just curious.

Speaker volume is influenced by a few things: the power supply voltage, the size of the speaker, the housing that the speaker is in, and the electrical characteristics of the speaker (like impedance). When driving a speaker with a Fox Board or Project board, it's probably best not to go below 8 ohms. The hardware *may* be able to drive a 4 ohm speaker, but it might tax the audio driver by drawing too much current. Going in the other direction - up to a 16 ohm or 32 ohm speaker - would be OK.

To get more volume from a given speaker size you can try these tricks:
1.) Increase the power supply voltage (use 3 batteries instead of 2, for example)
2.) Place the speaker in a larger housing or chamber, which generally gives better bass
3.) Increase the levels in your audio files, but make sure not to go above 0 dB

- Will @ Foxonix