Onkyo Receiver: 4ohm vs 6ohm

Systems

Burning question for me. By defualt my Onkyo is set to 4ohm and it has the option for me to set it at 6ohm. Is there any reason why I shouldnt (with my setup)?

scottvamp

Try both. Less stress on the amp at 6 ohms. I believe your speakers are 8 ohms. I surprised nothing has fried.

disneyjoe7

My think was allows that the higher ohm settings can be more stressful not less. I believe a resistor is added to circuit when 4 ohm is set to limit the load seen by the amp if the speakers are 4 ohm, this way the amp see's a 8 ohm load not 4 ohm load.

Systems

I read the manual and it says this "Speaker impdance Sub-Menu"

If the impedance of even one speaker is between 4 and 6, select 4

If the impedance of all speakers are between 6 and 16 select 6.

All my speakers are 8 so I would guess I should pick 6.


Se setting is:

"minimum of 4 or 6"

WilliamM2

Try both. Less stress on the amp at 6 ohms. I believe your speakers are 8 ohms. I surprised nothing has fried.

Why would anything fry? The higher the impedence of the speaker, the LESS the amp will be strained.

I think you are confused on the 4/6 ohm setting. It does not add power, but limits the current the amp can put out, to protect it from overheating. It's there because the amp is really not capable of handling 4 ohm loads. There is less stress when set to 4 ohms.

heiney9

In most if not all instances this switch enables a receiver to go into protect mode much earlier than if it thinks it's driving an 8 ohm or in this case 6 ohm load (which is not nec a good thing). Severe current limiting ruins the sound and really has no sonic benefit whatsoever. You are better off running very efficient 8 ohm speakers. If you have to have a switch to run a lower nominal impedence speaker obviously there is a poor/cost cutting design in action.

H9