6ohm or 8ohm

Wesmo

I just bought a new onkyo 696 receiver yesterday (quite awesome!), and am running 600i's for the front, a 245i for the center, and pioneer rears. I was wondering if it would be best to set the receiver to 6ohm or 8ohm. Would i risk damaging anything with the lower resistance?

Ron-P

Your speakers are rated at 8ohm.


Peace Out~:D

Systems

4/8 or 6/8 ohm switches, as far as I know, are a UL requirement (for some equipment) that actually lower your potential power output when running lower-ohm speakers, in order to keep you from frying the receiver. However, this would seem to increase the possibility of clipping, due to less power output when the switch is set to 4 or 6. If you have a switch like this, I think that you are better off with 8-ohm speakers & the switch set at 8 ohms. You can run lower-ohm speakers, but the presence of such a switch is a sign that the receiver is a "borderline" case when it comes to running lower-ohm loads. If someone has more insight into this, please contribute. I originally thought that these switches were wonderful devices that allowed the use of a greater variety of speakers, but the bulk of what I've read about them lately indicates that they are in essence, a great argument for seperates!

RuSsMaN

I have an older Nad receiver with a '4ohm normal - 8ohm high' switch.....can't tell a bit of difference running 8 ohm speakers.

Cheers,
Russ

gidrah

I agree with Ron-P. Your speakers are rated for 8ohms (I think) and should be treated as such.

Russ - I too have mine set to 4-6 ohm and haven't found a difference in sound. I swap speakers often and would like to be prepared. But if I ever get a chance to audition some 16 ohm(ers), I'll make sure to flip the switch.

meestercleef - The presence of these switches does indeed verify the need of seperates. But you have to admit rcvr manufacturers are finally admitting to the need of driving these more difficult loads. Before it was a hit and miss. I also have a different understanding than you on watts/ohm. To the best of my knowledge 1/2 the ohms=2x wattage (in a nutshell). This isn't always true and the waves can be clipped accordingly (my case= 120@8 & 120@4) to somebody expecting the 1/2Ohm=2xWATTS rule.

Systems

This is getting confusing. One explanation I read stated that UL certification requirements cause the recvr's max rated wattage to be reduced when 4 ohm switch used. But--if lower ohm spkrs cause increased current draw, then perhaps the 4 ohm switch is merely a "balancing" device that compensates for the increased draw caused by the 4-ohm spkrs, thereby causing everything to basically come out equal in the end? Does this make any sense?

rkrooney

Actuallly it depends on your pioneer speakers. Your Onkyo manual will tell you to select "4 ohms" if even one of your speakers is between 4 and 6 ohms. If your pioneers are 6 to 8 ohms then select the "6 ohm" setting.

20hz

its simple the lower impedance setting just increases the voltage to the out put transistors THUS making it a SAFER setting in case you run different impedance speakers .
this came from a amplifier repair tech

TNTsTunes

20hz wrote: »

its simple the lower impedance setting just increases the voltage to the out put transistors THUS making it a SAFER setting in case you run different impedance speakers .
this came from a amplifier repair tech

It's been over 15 years since the last post was made...