Ohms

[Boy Lover]

Lets say if my receiver is rated 8 ohms only and I hook up speakers that are 4 ohms rated will the speakers get ruined? or the receiver?

[Boy Lover]

Lets say that the receiver I am talking about has 200 watts and the speakers are 50 watts program and 100 watts peak.

[topspeed]

At low levels, your receiver should be fine. If you like to let it fly, maybe not. Keep in mind that if a speaker is rated at 4 ohms, that's its nominal rating and it likely dips below that (check your manual) which will be a much tougher load than your receiver was designed to drive. This in turn will make it produce much more heat which will eventually trigger its protection circuitry, cause it to clip, or both. Neither is a good thing obviously.

It's always better to have too much power than too little. If you amp is rated higher than your speakers, just use common sense. If you hear your speakers distorting, dial it back a little. Remember, the difference in volume between a 100wpc amp and a 200wpc is only 3 dB.

[JDiddy]

Lets say if my receiver is rated 8 ohms only and I hook up speakers that are 4 ohms rated will the speakers get ruined? or the receiver?
The speakers should be fine but it will put extra strain on the receiver. I've done this many times with both expensive and cheap receivers and both were fine even at high volumes. I once had 3 sets of 8ohm speakers hooked to the a channal of an old pioneer receiver, that would be around 2 and a half ohms and it played fine until I really cranked it, then it went into protect mode. I wouldn't recommend this but it should be ok.

[Boy Lover]

What if my amp is still 8 ohms and my speakers like my Control 1's were 4 ohms but it goes 150 watts peak?

[This Guy]

Did you not just read the answers they gave you? Peak doesn't mean ****, dont ever look at that spec. Read what they just said and you're fine.

[Boy Lover]

How come does it say warning on one of my amps and it says its rated 8 ohms only. Doesnt this mean its bad for the speakers and amp if I hook speakers that are less than 8 ohms. I dont want to damage my speakers or anything.

[Boy Lover]

I have a receiver that is from Kenwood and it has a ohms selector but should I use this amp instead? My amps model is KR-A5020 its very old. Ohms selector meaning it says less than 8 ohms slide the switch here and for 8 ohms or more slide it the other way. It says this in back of my old Kenwood amp. its rated 200 watts

[This Guy]

Well your other amp obviously doesn't like the lower impediance of the speakers you are using so don't use it anymore. You won't hurt the speakers, but you will hurt/ruin the amp if you keep running those speakers when it keeps saying warning. If the Kenwood amp has a switch for speakers with a lower impediance, use it and set the switch to "less than 8 ohms," and you should be fine.

[Boy Lover]

Well actualy I think it said caution. I checked and it didnt say warning.

[Boy Lover]

Well your other amp obviously doesn't like the lower impediance of the speakers you are using so don't use it anymore. You won't hurt the speakers, but you will hurt/ruin the amp if you keep running those speakers when it keeps saying warning. If the Kenwood amp has a switch for speakers with a lower impediance, use it and set the switch to "less than 8 ohms," and you should be fine.It doesnt blink and say warning I was saying it was printed in the back of the amp but I found out it said caution not warning.

[Boy Lover]

Should I still not use it??

[Pat D]

Lets say if my receiver is rated 8 ohms only and I hook up speakers that are 4 ohms rated will the speakers get ruined? or the receiver?
I wouldn't worry about it. There is a little blurb on this on Audioholics.com, look under What Doesn't Matter:

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/buyingguides/avhardware/receivers.php