Can different speakers really damage this system?

Polly007

Standard Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
Points
8
Hi

As a back-up, I've just bought a Panasonic SC-AKX14 from Currys for £135. To be fair, for the price, I'm blown away with the power it has and how well it handles the bass, even at high volumes!

Anyway, I was thinking of hooking it up to my Kenwood LS-58 speakers, to see what it sounded like, but I've just read the following in the instructions for the Panasonic....

"You can cause damage to the system and decrease the sound quality if you use other speakers"

Is this right? Or is that only if I use lower rated speakers? Thanks for any thoughts :)

Polly
 
Hi.

I would agree with that but that was putting it politely. The mini hifi will most likely go into protection mode. Its not so much about the wattage but the impedance. Going by the manuals, the speakers are 8ohms and the Panasonic mini hifi is giving 4 ohms. If i have this right, The spks will draw more power than the mini was designed to give and could cause that to trip out. This may happen from switch on, after a period of usage or if try to give it some. And if it doesn't have any protect mode, kiss one or the other or both goodbye. So i would Not recommend pairing them up if you like what you have.
 
Last edited:
"You can cause damage to the system and decrease the sound quality if you use other speakers"

Is this right? Or is that only if I use lower rated speakers?

The Panasonic SC-AKX14 amplifier is specified for 4 Ω loads.

The Kenwood LS-58 loudspeaker is specified as having an impedance of nominally 8 Ω.

However, there should be no damage problems associated with the use of an 8 Ω loudspeaker with an amplifier rated for 4 Ω loads.


Alan
 
Thanks for your replies, guys....but now I'm confused :rolleyes:

One says damage will occur, the other says it's unlikely.

Don Dadda.....can you tell me what you mean by the speakers drawing more power, please? How do the speakers draw power? Don't they just give out what the amp sends to them (in simplistic terms)? Please bear with me....I know very little about hifi but I'm trying to learn as I go so I don't damage anything. I can understand that if I tried to use a more powerful amp with lesser powered speakers I'd definitely have a problem but I don't understand it the other way around :blush:

Thank you again

Polly
 
Alan, While i appreciate that you know more than i on this subject and its been decades since i've done my electronics engineering course, so i stand free to be corrected, however unless the manual says it can handle 4-8Ω, which quite a fair amount of amps do and states it, i may try it, but not keep it that way in fear of said damage. I definitely wouldn't try it if it was the other way round.


Polly - I did say 'Most likely' as my knowledge is far from being on expert levels but I just did a quick refreshers :D, and i may of got my facts slightly arse about face :blush::facepalm:. I always went by, in terms of hifi, that 4Ω amp and 8Ω+ rated speaker was risky unless stated otherwise. If the speaker was 4Ω and the amp was 8Ω, then the spk will draw more current than the amp can give out. The lower the impedance, the higher the current.

With that, It seems The 4Ω rating is most likely the min the amp will handle (even though it does not explicitly say that) and it seems 8ohm speakers will be ok. I'm still not completely swayed that nothing will happen - eventually, so i can only say try with the err on caution.
 
Last edited:
Don Dadda, thanks for trying to explain things for me. Unfortunately, you lost me when you started to talk about impedence and current and putting funny symbols in! :facepalm: :D I did say I know so little about this kind of thing and it's so true. I like my music booming and that's about as far as it goes :laugh: I still don't understand how the speakers will draw more current. Are you assuming they have a separate power supply? They only connect by the speaker cables, that's it. Would that make things different?

Again, thanks for your help :thumbsup:

Polly
 
I hear ya. Confused the heck out of me when i done my course all them years back and aparantly still does :D

Spend a few minutes reading the following. Might help clear things up a bit as my explanation is crap :laugh:

Speaker Impedance Explained - Ohms
 
I wouldn't say it's crap. It's just along the same lines as me talking to you about sheep farming (assuming you're not a sheep farmer, of course!) :laugh:

Thanks for the link. I'll have a look in a bit :thumbsup:

Polly
 
:rotfl:. Not quite my line of work.
 
I thought as much. Not too many of us left now and especially ones who can afford HiFis :D :arty:
 
I suspect that the amp section can't output very much power at all, so driving other speakers could readily lead to them being damaged due to a distorted output, if you found yourself turning the volume up too much. However, mostly this warning smells of CYA :)
 
CYA? :confused:
 
Alan Mac is correct in that no harm will be done to the system simply by connecting the Kenwood speakers. What you will find though is that the volume is lower. Therefore if you try to push the system too hard to achieve similar volume levels as with it's own speakers, then you could damage the Kenwood speakers. You're highly unlikely to damage the system.

As long as you're sensible with the volume & avoid any hint of pushing it until it distorts, all should be fine.

Edit
This is assuming that the speaker impedances he quoted are correct.

Oh & CYA ;)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your reply, Croc :) I might give them a gentle try, just to see what the difference is out of curiosity, but I promise I won't push it hard. I really wish I could afford a truly booming system. I think I just need my own nightclub, really! :laugh:

I've read Don Dadda's link once. I think it'll need a further 3-4 times before I can makes sense of it....but I'll keep at it. I'm not one to give up easy :thumbsup:

Oh and :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: at CYA.......thanks!!

Polly
 
For the sake of those with little or no technical knowledge, let me try to explain a few concepts.

VOLTAGE (symbol V or E) - Voltage is the presents of Electricity. Think of a battery sitting on a shelf. It still has voltage even though it isn't connected to anything. The Voltage is present it is just not being used. Think of a water tower full of water, but all the taps are turned off.

CURRENT (symbol I) - Current is the movement of Electricity. Connect a battery (a voltage source) to a Bulb and current flows, draining the battery and lighting the bulb. When current flows, work is done. So, Current is the Flow of Electricity through wire.

RESISTANCE (symbol R or the Greek letter Omega) - Think of this as a restriction in a water pipe slowing the flow of water; as in Low-Flow Shower Heads. The Water Tower represents Voltage, it has a certain amount of water pressure which equates to voltage. But regardless of the pressure in the water lines, the Low Flow Shower Head resists, restricts or limits the rate of flow of the water.

In a sense, we can think of a Resistor as a device that controls the flow of current in a circuit. Big resistance means small amounts of current. Low Resistance means large amounts of current.

IMPEDANCE ( symbol R, Xl, Xc) - This gets complicated. If we are dealing with pure Resistance, then Resistance and Impedance are the same thing. However, if we are dealing with Capacitor or Coils, it becomes more complicated. The nice thing about a Pure Resistor is the the Current and Voltage are in sync. As soon as we have Voltage, we have current and the math is very easy - Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide.

But, that is not true of Capacitors or Inductors. A Capacitor is like a big bucket, water flowing into it is like current flowing into a Capacitor. The level of water in the bucket is analogous to Voltage, the more water in the bucket, the higher the voltage.

But look what is happening from the perspective of the Bucket or Capacitor. Current Flows fast and immediately, but it take a while to fill the bucket. So, FIRST come current, then comes voltage. The Current and Voltage are out of sync with each other. Which means we have to use VECTOR Math to solve any equations using Capacitors (or coils).

With Capacitors the Flow of Current LEADS the presence of Voltage by 90°.

Let me say here, that this only applies to alternating or changing voltages. Capacitors and Coils are unaffected by DC or continuous voltages. To a DC voltage, a capacitor is an open circuit. To a DC voltage, a coil of wire is a short circuit.

The opposite occurs with a Coil of wire. Because a coil of wire is also a generator. When Voltage is applied, the coil creates a counter Voltage that resists the flow of current. As the CHANGE in voltage subsides, that is, as we get closer to a DC Voltage this counter-Voltage disappears and current begins to flow.

So, first we have Voltage, then we have Current. So, the Voltage LEADS the Current by 90°.

This is why speaker design is so complex. If speaker were purely resistive, it would be simple. But speaker are a complex combination of Capacitance, Inductance (coils), and Resistance. As a result, as the frequency varies, the impedance of the speaker is all over the place. At one point, the Resonance Frequency where all the factors (capacitance, inductance, and resistance) are at their peak, an 8 ohm speaker can be as high as 80 ohms. On either side of this peak, the impedance is at its lowest, and an 8 ohm rated speaker might drop down into the 4 ohms to 6 ohm range. Though 6 ohms is more likely. Then are the frequency starts to rise, the impedance also starts to rise, and at the very highest frequencies, the impedance can be back up around 60 ohms.

As you can see IMPEDANCE is a very complicated thing, and drives speaker designers Barmy.

POWER (symbol P or W) - Power is the result of something, not the presents of something. Voltage is the presence of Electricity. Current is the presence of the flow of Electricity. Power is the result of a Voltage being applied to a Resistance/Impedance causing current to flow, resulting in Power being consumed or work being done.

We assume that amps provide Power, but not really, they provide voltage, and as a result Power is consumed by the speaker. An amps Rated Power is the measure of the Voltage and Current capability of the amp. The more Voltage it has and the more Current it can supply, the more power the speaker is able to consume.

With more Voltage and with higher Current, the brighter the bulb lights.


In the specific case being talked about, using an 8 ohms speaker in place of a 4 ohms speaker, is not likely to cause any problems. However, going the other way, using a 4 ohms speaker in place of an 8 ohm speaker COULD cause a problem, depending on the quality of the amp.

Other factors come into play, one factor is time, another factor is Volume or Loudness.

I used an 8 ohms speaker and a 6 ohm speaker on a normal consumer amp. Technically this shouldn't be allowed since the combination of those two speakers is 3.4 ohms. Typically 4 ohms is the low limit on a vast majority of amps. On two different consumer grade amps, this worked. That is until I used the system to watch a movie (Lord of the Rings). Part way through the movie, the amp shut down; too much volume for too long a time.

Again, if my facts are right, in the current discussion, it is very unlikely that using an 8 ohms speaker in place of a 4 ohms speaker would cause a problem. The current will be lower and the heat will be lower; I don't see how that could cause a problem.

Just a few, hopefully helpful thoughts, though long winded as usual.

Steve/bluewizard
 
Last edited:

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom