4 Ohm speaker with 6/8 Ohm AVR. (1 Viewer)

[TCarp]

I accidentally purchased a $400 Center Channel speaker with 4 ohm impedance, forgetting my Denon AVR-X4500H only supports 6 and 8 ohm impedance. How will this negatively affect my audio quality? Is there a a piece of hardware I can add to add impedance? Hopefully one the goes on the speaker wire and doesn't require opening the speaker cabinet. Am I better off selling my speaker and using the money to buy a similar one with 6 ohm impedance?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Basically, a 4-ohm speaker demands more power (wattage) from an amplifier. Receiver manufacturers don’t like rating their amplifiers for 4-ohms, because in order to have that capability it would require a heavier-duty power supply, and hence added cost.

But the speaker might not necessarily need more power in real-world use. For instance, a 4-ohm speaker that’s very efficient will probably demand less power from the amp than 8-ohm speakers that are inefficient.

As long as your other speakers are 8-ohms, you should be okay. The worst that can happen is that the receiver will shut down if you drive it too hard. If that starts to be a problem, then you’ll need to get a different speaker.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[TCarp]

Basically, a 4-ohm speaker demands more power (wattage) from an amplifier. Receiver manufacturers don’t like rating their amplifiers for 4-ohms, because in order to have that capability it would require a heavier-duty power supply, and hence added cost.

But the speaker might not necessarily need more power in real-world use. For instance, a 4-ohm speaker that’s very efficient will probably demand less power from the amp than 8-ohm speakers that are inefficient.

As long as your other speakers are 8-ohms, you should be okay. The worst that can happen is that the receiver will shut down if you drive it too hard. If that starts to be a problem, then you’ll need to get a different speaker.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Thank you that is helpful information.

 

[Type A]

You can replace the speaker or get an external amp for that channel

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

What are your other front channel speakers? Doesn't sound likely your new center speaker would be a particularly good match to them if it's ~4 ohms while they're ~8.

You're probably better off going w/ a center that more closely matches the other front speakers -- I don't mean they must be same impedance, but that just seems like a sign they're not likely a good match.

Generally, you should want your center speaker to sound the same as (or very similar to) the other front speakers (at least for the core of the frequency range where voices and most of the music in a movie soundtrack resides) so they blend well together. That usually means at least very similar speaker design and drivers... and not likely to have such substantial diff in load to the AVR/amp. Also, seems kinda odd for the center speaker to be the one presenting the more difficult load...

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

Agreed with Man. Ideally you want the front three speakers from the same series.

In addition to what Wayne said, receivers will tend to have more difficulty properly controlling low impedance speakers, and you will run the risk of overheating the channel. It has to be pretty extreme for the receiver to actually shut down, but it can shorten the life of the receiver.

 

[TCarp]

Thanks for the advise everyone I will consider making these changes when money permits. As for my other channels: my front left and right, surround, and surround back ones are 6 ohm and my two Atmos ones are 8 ohm. I will look into frequency response when I have more time.

 

[3dbinCanada]

I accidentally purchased a $400 Center Channel speaker with 4 ohm impedance, forgetting my Denon AVR-X4500H only supports 6 and 8 ohm impedance. How will this negatively affect my audio quality? Is there a a piece of hardware I can add to add impedance? Hopefully one the goes on the speaker wire and doesn't require opening the speaker cabinet. Am I better off selling my speaker and using the money to buy a similar one with 6 ohm impedance?

What make and model of speaker is it? Usually, one should as a minimum keep the front three speakers from the manufacturer, and better still, same series as well. The idea behind that is that one wants to match the timbre so when the sounds pan across the 3 front speakers, it sounds the same rather then coming from two different speakers.