Can I connect 4 ohm rated speakers to an 8 ohm rated reciever?

Tynan

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Hi - I wonder if anyone could help with my question?

I have an old Sony STR-DE445 reciever which states that I can only connect 8 ohm speakers to it. I would,like to connect a set of 4 ohm surround sound speakers and wondered if this would cause any major problems to the reciever or speakers. The speakers are all from the Sony DAV-SR2 home theatre kit and are individually rated at 4 ohms.

I have an 8 ohm subwoofer so I should be ok with that.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks.:)
 
It is possible, but inadvisable. You risk potential damage to either the speakers and/or the amp. If you do coonect the speakers, ensure the amp is well ventilated and check regularly for signs of overheating. Do not play at high volumes and take care with the volume control.

I'd personally not use these speakers with the amp and advise you purchase speakers more befitting, such as those with a 6 - 8 ohm impedance.
 
The home theatre kit speakers would sound the same anyway with the only benefit possibly being more power - which you can't use!

Also, if the sub is also from the kit it is likely to be passive (without it own power supply) and incompatible with the av receiver.
 
Many thanks. I guess I'll stick with my current set-up and not worry for a while.

Cheers. :thumbsup:
 
Hi - I wonder if anyone could help with my question?

I have an old Sony STR-DE445 reciever which states that I can only connect 8 ohm speakers to it. I would,like to connect a set of 4 ohm surround sound speakers and wondered if this would cause any major problems to the reciever or speakers. The speakers are all from the Sony DAV-SR2 home theatre kit and are individually rated at 4 ohms.

I have an 8 ohm subwoofer so I should be ok with that.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks.:)

If you have enough speakers you can use 2 in series to make 8 ohms.
 
I'm not sure what 2 in series means.

I'm trying to cobble together the speakers form a Sony DAV-SR2 home theatre kit with an old Sony STR DE-445 amp. This is in an effort to get the hi-def audio from the Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player to the amp through the multi-channel analogue connections.

The DAV-SR2 only has an optical connection which works fine with the blu-ray but does not have the multi-channel inputs.

If you have any more advice or suggestions then please let me know.:)
 
Connecting in series basically means you could connect speakers together in such a way that overall impedence is increased. So two 4 ohm speakers wired together = one 8 ohm speaker. The wattage of the speakers is added together
In order to do this for 5 channels you would therefore need 10 of 4 ohm speakers!!
You connect the + of speaker 1 to the negative of speaker 2 and then the - of speaker 1 to the - amp terminal and the + of speaker 2 to the + amp terminal.
Of course, you would still have no subwoofer and SQ will be reduced.
 
I'm not sure what 2 in series means.

I'm trying to cobble together the speakers form a Sony DAV-SR2 home theatre kit with an old Sony STR DE-445 amp. This is in an effort to get the hi-def audio from the Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player to the amp through the multi-channel analogue connections.

The DAV-SR2 only has an optical connection which works fine with the blu-ray but does not have the multi-channel inputs.

If you have any more advice or suggestions then please let me know.:)

Wiring up the speakers in series would require that you connect the positive terminal of one speaker to the positive terminal of the amplifier. Then you connect the negative terminal of the speaker to the positive terminal of another speaker. You then connect the negative terminal of the second speaker to the negative terminal of the amplifier. If both of the speakers have an impedance of 4 ohms, the total impedance will be 8 ohms.

Not very practical because you'd need 2 speakers for every one speaker output.
 
Thanks.

I think i'll just stick with the DAV-SR2 and it's 4 ohm speakers with the optical connection from the Blu-ray for now.

The best way forward in the future will probably be a new amp and speakers (possibly wireless) but that will have to wait.

The sound is still pretty good - the opening car chase from Quantum of Solace on blu-ray sounded great!

Many thanks again.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 

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