Running at the wrong impedence, bad for the speaker?

[Thinline_slim]

I know there is the potential to harm a tube amp running at a mismatched impedance but is there the possibility of it also harming the speaker?

I have an Orange AD30, which has 8ohm, 8ohm, 16ohm taps. Unfortunately I wasn't paying close enough attention to the taps and I had one 16ohm speaker plugged into an 8ohm tap and the other 16ohm speaker plugged into the 16ohm amp.

The amp seems fine, other than a new set of power tubes since the others got noticeably weak but now the Weber AlNico Blue Dog seems really bright and harsh. I don't think it's the tubes since I tried the amp with other speakers and they sound normal, but something about the Blue Dog seems off.

Any ideas?

 

[GT100]

What happens in that case is that one speaker got 2/3 of the amps power instead to 1/2. If you were craking it and the speakers didn't have a decent safety margin (wattage rating) it could be a problem.

 

[RSRD]

Ive done this a few times on my tremoverb. It happens! so far no damage done.

 

[guitarjazz]

I believe there would be more danger lurking if you had a 4 ohm speaker plugged into a 16 ohm tap. I'm sure your amp is fine.