Denon 3806 and 4 ohm speakers

[cthomp]

My question is this:

Is the Denon 3806 capable of driving 5ea 4 ohm speakers and a sub in a home theater application? Room size is 16x25x8. Speakers are Vienna Acoustics Grand series. I just want to achieve a decent level of sound, I don't need to blow the windows out of the house. I was thinking about providing a cooling fan for the 3806. Would it be worth the extra $$ to go to the 4306? Thanks

 

[nova]

Yes,..... I run 5 4ohm speakers with a 3805. You should be ok. I don't have any problems until about -12 from reference level,... any louder and my speakers start to sound harsh, the reciever starts getting hot, and the wife starts yelling One of these days I'm gonna get an amp

 

[Jack Hammer]

I'm running 5 4 Ohm speakers with a Denon 2805, It works fine. My place is currently too small to listen at extreme levels, so I can't accurately comment on how loud it will drive them. You can always add an external amp later if you need/want more power.

 

[j_garcia]

I would advise against it. I'd opt for the 4306 or 3806 with an external amp for at least 2 channels.

Do a search on the 3805 and 4 ohm loads, there was a big thread about it.

I run 5 4 Ohm speakers also, and my receiver can handle it as well, but it doesn't sound good when pushed. Adding the monoblocks made a noticable difference, which showed me that the receiver wasn't able to deliver enough current for all those low impedance speakers. A cooling fan doesn't change the fact that you are drawing twice as much power.

 

[brendy]

The majority of receivers really can not handle a full set of 4 ohm speakers,especially in a large room like yours.

 

[zildjian]

I'd opt for the 4306 or 3806 with an external amp for at least 2 channels.

This here is good advice. I have a 3806. My mains are each 4.2ohms, center channel 4ohms, two surrounds each 5ohms (DefTech BP2000 mains, CLR 3000 center, BPVX surrounds). I've ended up adding an external power amp to drive my center channel alone and I'm having an old classic 2 channel power amp of mine rebuilt now to put in to power my mains. The system sounded good before when it was just the 3806 alone, but when I pushed the system to 'loud' levels, not blowing out the windows like you said, just like turning it up sometimes to hear throughout the house, things sounded harsh and the protection circuit actually kicked in a couple times at peaks.

As far as the amp difference between the Denon 4306 and 3806, there's not enough of one to justify the price increase for the 4306 if the bigger amp is all you're looking for. Probably the same power supply just rigged a slight bit different to get a tad more juice out of it. If the 3806 has all the features you want, buy it and like J_Garcia above suggested, get a decent external power amp (not the cheap Behringer that keeps popping up in posts) to power your mains. That should take enough strain off the 3806 to give you what you want. My center channel being handled by an external amp (Parasound amp) made some difference by itself. Doing the mains that way should definately help.

Hold off on getting a fan, just see how the setup performs once you get it and see how hot it gets. I may add a fan to my big external amp, but I'm going to wait to see how the temp levels are with just the heat sinks, I don't want added noise in the room from a fan if it's not absolutely needed, and I don't turn the volume up LOUD very often.

 

[j_garcia]

I figured the 4306 had the same or similar power supply, but hopefully enough of the 4806 might have trickled down that it would be OK - I can't say, as I've not had a chance to fool around with a 4306 yet. IMO, you'd really need to step up to the 4806 if you don't want to use an external amp, and even then, the 3806 with a good external amp will still likely give you more real world output. That's what I did, I went with the 8300 instead of the 9300 (almost 2x the price), added the amps. It cost me quite a bit less and I ended up with more power than the 9300 would have provided alone.

A buddy of mine just picked up a 4806 and we're in the process of looking for speakers for him right now so I can install all his gear and fire it up.

BTW, I like the choice in speakers. I really enjoyed the Viennas when I auditioned them.

 

[cthomp]

Thanks for the help everyone. Have any good suggestions for an external amp for the mains?
(Assuming I go with the 3806)

J Garcia, what series of Vienna Grands did you listen to?
I am looking at Bach's for L,R Maestro for Ctr, and Waltz's for surrounds.

Haven't quite decided on the sub, but leaning towards Axiom EP500 or HSU VTF-3 MK2.