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Mixing 6 ohm & ohm speakers?

post #1 of 14
11/15/11 at 11:23am
Thread Starter 
[EDIT: That title should read "6 ohm & *8* ohm speakers", looks like it's uneditable tho...]

Hi all...

Apologies if the answer to this is obvious - putting together my first basic 5.1 setup and haven't been able to find a clear answer via Google and whatnot.

Currently I've got a pair of 6-ohm front speakers (Pioneer SP-BS41-LR), a sub, and a 5.1 receiver (Yamaha RX-V371BL). The receiver's default is 8-ohm, but there is an overall 6-ohm setting (i.e. applied across the board rather than channel specific).

I've noticed that 6-ohm rear and centers are far less common so am wondering if the receiver can handle mixing in 8-ohm speakers for those, keeping in mind it would be set to the 6-ohm option. Or am I best off keeping a uniform impedance throughout the system?

Any advice would be much appreciated...
Edited by aster - 11/15/11 at 1:38pm
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post #2 of 14
11/15/11 at 1:52pm
It doesn't matter at all. I am using a 4 ohm center, approximately 8 ohm mains and sort of 6 ohm surrounds.
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post #3 of 14
11/15/11 at 3:15pm
Thread Starter 
Huh. I have read a number of items online - both from manufacturers and owners - saying it does indeed matter regarding certain setups...
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post #4 of 14
11/15/11 at 5:18pm
It doesn't matter. Just calibrate the speaker levels and crank up the volume.
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post #5 of 14
11/16/11 at 4:33am
Quote:
I have read a number of items online - both from manufacturers and owners - saying it does indeed matter regarding certain setups...

I'd be interested to see any manufacturer literature that says don't mix speakers with different impedances. The one case where this might be true is for cheap HTiB systems that use non-standard speaker levels; they also usually have proprietary connectors.

A manufacturer may say don't go below their rated impedance. That makes sense, but is usually a conservative approach to protect them. The resistance switch some of them have just limit voltage; and that is more likely to cause clipping problems (and damage). Best is to just not over-crank your receiver. If you don't listen at ear-bleeding levels then you'll be fine. Also, if your receiver has shut-down protect, you should be okay (not that you want to trip that very often).

All-in-all, it's a bigger problem and risk going down to 4 ohm. Using 6 ohm speakers is generally safe. And mixing 6 and 8 only reduces any problem you might have using 6 all 6 ohm speakers. The only effect this will have is to make a level calibration even more necessary (but you should be doing one anyway).
Quote:
Just calibrate the speaker levels and crank up the volume.

I don't think so; or else I'm really confused. Sarcasm or annoyance?
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post #6 of 14
11/16/11 at 5:43am
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Originally Posted by Al.Anderson View Post

Quote:
Quote:
Just calibrate the speaker levels and crank up the volume.
I don't think so; or else I'm really confused. Sarcasm or annoyance?

Just oversimplification. Don't over think think everything he has read.


Edit - I don't know why everything is showing as a quote.
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post #7 of 14
11/16/11 at 9:45am

If you amp supports it, you will need to set the amp to the lowest impedence setting.  Other than that, shouldn't have a problem.

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post #8 of 14
11/16/11 at 11:53am
Quote:
If you amp supports it, you will need to set the amp to the lowest impedence setting. Other than that, shouldn't have a problem.

I've seen a number of articles that recommend against using that option. They say it reduces sound quality, and by limiting the voltage through the amp, promotes clipping. This is 2nd hand advice from just reading articles, but in the case of 6 ohm speakers I would not use that option. (4 ohm I cave.)
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post #9 of 14
11/16/11 at 5:23pm
Set the receiver to the 6 Ohm setting and let it go.
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post #10 of 14
11/16/11 at 11:23pm
i will throw my 2 cents in:

i was concerned about something similar as the OP, and yamaha told me that my receiver should not be set to 6ohm. i should leave it at 8ohm and do a ypao calibration and the receiver will adjust things as necessary. sounded too good to be true, so i asked again. same answer. apparently somehow the receiver knows. he was quite firm in his stance of not setting the unit to 6ohm.
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post #11 of 14
11/17/11 at 6:48am
Mike, you say you were concerned about "something similar", but you don't say what it was. Something you considered to be similar may be something completely different. Calibration is completely different from impedance.
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post #12 of 14
11/17/11 at 1:00pm
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Originally Posted by JohnRice View Post

Mike, you say you were concerned about "something similar", but you don't say what it was. Something you considered to be similar may be something completely different. Calibration is completely different from impedance.

i have 4ohm mains and no other speakers.
yamaha said to leave the receiver set to 8ohm and run the calibration and be done with it.
if i were the op, i would check with yamaha to confirm his receiver model will do the same
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post #13 of 14
12/7/11 at 3:35pm
it doesn't matter as long as you stay within the guidelines of your receiver, ie. 6 ohm min or 8 ohm or 4 ohm.

Each channel is getting X amount of Voltage to it, which is applied to the resistance of your speakers which gives you Y amount of Wattage or Power.

P=Current times Voltage or Voltage squared divided by resistance.

So by lowering the resistance to 6 ohm from 8 ohm you will see a modest gain in Wattage to the speaker. Each channel is putting out it's own power so it doesn't matter if you have 8 ohm in one spot and 6 ohm in another as they are all independent of each other.
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post #14 of 14
12/7/11 at 6:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by et1123 View Post

it doesn't matter as long as you stay within the guidelines of your receiver, ie. 6 ohm min or 8 ohm or 4 ohm.

what doesnt matter?
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