[ChrisCoaster]

On Nov 26, 3:48*pm, vlad wrote:
I have a surround 5.1 setup consisting of 4ohm speakers. Now I need to
upgrade to 7.1. So I am on the market for new 7.1 AV receiver with
full alphabet soup of sound protocols.
I pretty much narrowed on Denon, Marantz and Integra brands.

In relations with this I have two questions:

1. Looking in specs of new receivers I noticed that they quote their
power ratings for 8ohms without mentioning 4ohms without mention if I
can plug in 4ohms speakers. So is it safe to assume that modern AV
solid state receiver can handle 4ohm?

2. I need to buy new pair of surrounds. Should they be too 4ohms. Can
I mix 4ohms and 8 ohms?

I would appreciate any technical advise on this matter. You can send
responses directly to my e-mail address.

Thx

vova
_____________________________
The only intent of consumer-grade 6.1 & 7.1 digital surround is to
MAKE MONEY selling MORE SPEAKERS. Period.
5.1 is more than sufficient for most residential home theatre/surround
setups, unless your theater/viewing room is at least 20' wide by at
least 30' deep!

As for the ohms/resistance thing, manufacturers design their receivers/
amps to produce a given output at a given range of resistance(load).
That may be either 4~8ohms or 8~16ohms. I haven't seen a model that
can drive 4~16ohms - yet - but I'm sure there are a couple out
there.

A good analogy is if you run 8 or 16 ohm speakers with your 8~16ohm
amp, that is akin to driving your car on a normal road, close to or at
the speed limit, with your self and at least one passenger. OTOH, if
you run 4ohm speakers off that amp, it's like revving your car's
engine while the drive wheels are suspended(as on a rack in a
garage). There's no load(asphalt) for the wheels to spin against and
you could easily overheat the engine/drive-train and even cause a tire
to explode from centrifugal force. Yikes!

-CC