Ok so!! Here's the deal

1. Have a Denon AVR-588 receiver rated for 6-16 ohms
2. Have two old/new Angstrom Omega floor speakers rated for 4 ohms

Now... if I hook them up, will I blow the speakers? Or should it work fine? Metered the speakers, they are definitely 4 ohms.

Any tweaking I can do to wires/connections to make sure impedance matching is a little closer or is a 2 ohm difference not that bad?

that kinda chat might turn a lot of us geeks here on

The 2 ohms won't make much difference. The "Smaller load" will actually be easier on your amplifier and, I do believe, a little louder.

Nope, they should work fine, and you won't blow the speakers. You could add matching networks to dial it in, but I don't think it's necessary.I don't think the 2 ohm's would be detectable to your ears if you matched em, but if the speakers do have 8 ohm terminals, I would hook to those.

when it comes to ohm load, the difference of 2 ohms on equiptment now isn't much to worry about.

I'd say you would be o.k. to run the speakers. You'll actually run a little more wattage to the speakers but it won't damage them.

If I was really nervous about it, I'd call the recever manuficture and see that their tech guys had to say for sure.

But again, it won't do any damage.

Just for further information, what is the wattage rating of the reciver and the speakers?

If you really want to get carried away, you could put a resistor in series with it. While this is totally feasible, it is also a joke. LOL!

Its actually a little harder on your amp and your amp will run a little warmer.

But again nothing that will cause any damage.

Remember that the volume controller on the reciever starts from zero on up. So in essence the Ohms you are putting out can be controlled by the volume control. There will be a point where as you turn up the volume the speakers will start to give off distortion.That is the point you don't exceed. That is the point where you are exceeding the ohms that the speakers can handle. Also if you have a bass controller and a treble controller on the reciever Keep them both set below that point as well. You should be fine as long as someone doesnt turn the volume,bass, and treble up high or past that point...

The volume control controls wattage not ohms.

But your right on everything else.

Ok, so my Engineering skills are clouded by years of studying IT

A lot of people get it backwards.

I work alot with custom stereo systems so I get to play with amps, ohms, and wattage all day.

And Ohms Law obviously.

E=I/R

Did I get that right?

Wow!

I didn't expect so many responses guys thank you!!


The receiver is rated power at 75 watts for 8ohms per channel. And 110 watts 6 ohms per channel.


Speakers-- no known power rating as of yet, they were purchased used, and I'm still trying to find some info on them...

Look here:

http://angstromloudspeakers.com/item_list.php?top_cat_id=79

Thanks sweetheart, but those aren't the speakers...

The ones I have are older than those in the link, I think that's why I am having a hard time to find info on them re power rating for the other poster up there

Try ebay. You may pick up some info there.

E=I*R

I guess, I'll be ditto-ing most of the geeks here.

It is safe with modern amplifiers. Usually, there is some degree of dynamic output impedance matching (kind of automatic matching to the impedance of a given speaker).

Theoretically, it is safer to run a speaker with higher impedance than that of an amplifier output, than a speaker with a lower impedance.

The amplifier in your situation will have to work harder, while delivering less useful power to the speaker.

The payback will be the quality of sound, less than that with perfect match.

Finally, again, today, it is way less important, due to circuits being "smarter".