After reading that, seems that most setups are fine.
Bob
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Hello,
I have some 25 year-old Allison CD7 speakers I have always loved. Unfortunately, my old Harmon Kardon Receiver left channel no longer works. I naively went out and bought a Sherwood receiver from Radio Shack without considering speaker-matching. The receiver output at 8 ohms, and through my Allisons, there is a lot of distortion, even at low volumes.
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I appreciate the response, but unless I am reading that link incorrectly, all that it indicates is that if the 8 ohm receiver doesn't overheat, then it won't damage the receiver.
It's as you suspected. Look for 4 ohm amps and you come up empty.
It's an old trick but you can put a 4 ohm in series and it's now 8 ohms impedance.
http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Aluminum-Shell-Resistor-Resistance/dp/B005CFYZWM/
Yes it takes 2 Watts to get 1 Watt to the speaker.
Bob
Bob, are we saying I could put an additional resistor between my 8 ohm receiver output and my 4 ohm speakers? Wouldn't that just increase the ohms linearly? It seems we are going in the wrong direction (unless I am again missing something here..)
If you recall you basic Electronics, resistors in series add up. So 4+4 = 8 and we have the right impedance.
I noted why it's not a great solution but at least it gets up back to where the load is spot on.
Bob
I definitely don't get electronics of audio equipment. But I trust that what you say is right. I am more concerned with damaging my speakers than my $100 receiver from Radio Shack, so if putting a 4 ohm resistor between the speaker and receiver only hurts the receiver, I can live with that. I think I will try this technique and see what happens. Hey, its certainly an expensive solution of it works reasonably well!
I'm just some old electronics designer so how could an 8 ohm load whether it be the 4 ohm speaker with the added 4 ohms or an 8 ohm speaker?
Something is lost in translation here.
Let's say we have 8 pounds of stone or 8 pounds of sand. Both in the trunk of your car would be equal?
It's like saying one could damage the car?
Bob
I read somewhere on some forum or other that putting a 4 ohm resistor in there can do something wrong to amp or speaker, but maybe I imagined it.. At any rate I'll try the resistor and see what happens. Thanks again!
We add this in series. I can guess some would try some other way.
Here's a link about it -> http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/resistor/res_3.html
If you step back and actually consider what's written on the site that Bob provided, it's all there. There's no magic bullet. A modest priced "mid-fi" standard receiver should be more than adequate provided you don't seek out rock concert volume levels at home.