Sony DAV-C450 home theatre receiver

[billm13]

I have a Sony DAV-C450 home theatre receiver ONLY and want to hook up speakers. This receiver is a 3 ohm system ! Can I hook up 6 or 8 ohm speakers without frying the receiver ? Are there 3 ohm speakers out there that can be purchased and used with this receiver ?
Thx. Bill

[poneal]

Yes you can use 8ohm speakers with the receiver. The 8ohm load will be easier to drive anyways. Most speakers manufactured today are nominally 8ohm. This is not to say they will not dip down to 3 or 4 or for that matter higher than 8.

[billm13]

Thx for your feedback. I was under the impression that the higher the ohms the higher the resistance and therefore there would be a greater electrical load on the reveiver. and if the receiver is not meant to handle that kind of load you would have problems. So, that is not the case ???
What would be the purpose then of making 3 ohm speakers and receivers since everything else seems to be 8ohm ??? Thanks again, Bill

[jameslkieb]

They're harder for the amp to drive but not in a bad way. You'll just get less volume out of them. Going the other way can get you into trouble. If your amp can't handle driving say a 4 ohm load and you hook a 4 ohm speaker up to it, you'll pull too much current through the amp and risk blowing it. It usually sounds pretty bad too.

[jameslkieb]

Oops, to answer your question, if you can build a multichannel amp into a small package and drive your own 3 or 4 ohm speakers with it then you're saving a lot of power and money.
Typically most drivers in a box are 8 ohms and some older ones are 16. If you run these off your typical HTIaB it'll sound a lot quieter than the ones that came with it.