Mixed setup of 8- and 6-Ohm speakers -what's the implication?

[zarpeter]

Hello Audioholics,
I just assembled my first real A/V setup (Yamaha RX-V659 amp; NHT speakers 2xFour, 2xAbsolute Zeros, 1xThree-Center; on the beamer side a Panasonic AX100U with an Apple-TV unit; Dalite screen).

The Yamaha amp allows in the menu system to either choose 8-Ohm or 6-Ohm for driving the speakers.

Now, the NHT are a mixed bag with respect to that: The Three-Center speaker is a 8-Ohm unit, the others are 6-Ohm units.

The Yamaha does not allow to choose impedance on a speaker basis.

Q:
- Is it best to stay with the 8 Ohm setting in this case?
- Does this mean the receiver will deliver less current to the speakers (assuming higher resistance)?
- What kind of effect does this have on the listening experience?

Thank You for your advise,
Peter

 

[Davemcc]

The collective wisdom of the Board is to leave the setting in 8 ohm. It will not affect your speakers in any negative way. That mix of impedences will be fine. If my memory serves me correctly, the switch is there for the receiver to meet certain rating standards in test conditions. I could look up the link, but...

 

[avaserfi]

1. Staying on the 8 ohm setting is almost always where receivers work best. I think other settings are added to pass UL standards
2/3. Don't worry, the speakers will get the appropriate amounts of power and still sound good.

edit: Looks like I was beat too it with the same advice!

 

[zarpeter]

Sounds good; that's what I have done.

I speculated that the 6-Ohm setting would allow to pump more "juice" to the speakers.

But the current setup seems to already blow the windows off when I turn it loud(er); can't even go to the max setting.

The amp was <$300; that felt like a pretty good deal, particularly since I route all video content directly to the beamer and not thru the amp (hence I don't needed any video/HDMI interfaces).

Peter

 

[Davemcc]

I route all video content directly to the beamer and not thru the amp

Peter

You'll get more power if you run them through a warp conduit and transfer auxiliary warp power to the beamer.

 

[zarpeter]

You'll get more power if you run them through a warp conduit and transfer auxiliary warp power to the beamer.

What does that mean, Dave?
More power for the beamer? Or, are you talking audio?

Peter

 

[Davemcc]

What does that mean, Dave?
More power for the beamer? Or, are you talking audio?

Peter

Star Trek.

Sorry, seeing the word beamer made me think of "Beam me up, Scotty". So I'm a sci-fi geek...

 

[zarpeter]

Ah, you got me there!!!

 

[Davemcc]

Once the question is answered and there's no follow up questions, it's play time.

 

[agarwalro]

You'll get more power if you run them through a warp conduit and transfer auxiliary warp power to the beamer.

Google image search "Warp Conduit".

Result: