Need 4ohm advice

[Pooky373]

Got two Bose Freespace 360P outdoor speakers that are 4ohms, 80 watts. I know I can run 8ohm receivers if I’m careful with volume. Im looking for a decent 4 channel stereo receiver/amp. Doesn’t have to have Bluetooth because I already have a Bluetooth receiver. Separate volume controls would be nice. Probably need around 100W per channel. My two other speakers are 8 ohms. I’d love to be around $500. Thanks

 

[dlaloum]

Got two Bose Freespace 360P outdoor speakers that are 4ohms, 80 watts. I know I can run 8ohm receivers if I’m careful with volume. Im looking for a decent 4 channel stereo receiver/amp. Doesn’t have to have Bluetooth because I already have a Bluetooth receiver. Separate volume controls would be nice. Probably need around 100W per channel. My two other speakers are 8 ohms. I’d love to be around $500. Thanks

If you opt for a used AVR from 10 or so years ago, you should be able to get a flagship model with plenty of power and high current design, which should handle 4 ohm speakers without any issues at all.

As a bonus, many of the old flagship models may well support multiple zones and other features that could be useful to you.

 

[lovinthehd]

An avr from Denon, Marantz, Yamaha and Onkyo in the $500 range won't have the most powerful amps but likely will do just fine, while none are rated for 4 ohm particularly, but how loud are you planning on cranking those Bose (they have a max rating of 80W).. Do you need the latest/greatest in video? If not then at that budget I'd think an older flagship avr would likely be better as dialoum said. You can't use some more traditional type speakers? Not sure what you mean by separate volume but an avr with zones will allow different volume levels in each zone.

 

[dlaloum]

An avr from Denon, Marantz, Yamaha and Onkyo in the $500 range won't have the most powerful amps but likely will do just fine, while none are rated for 4 ohm particularly, but how loud are you planning on cranking those Bose (they have a max rating of 80W).. Do you need the latest/greatest in video? If not then at that budget I'd think an older flagship avr would likely be better as dialoum said. You can't use some more traditional type speakers? Not sure what you mean by separate volume but an avr with zones will allow different volume levels in each zone.

It isn't loudness... amps that aren't designed for 4 ohm loads may well have substantially higher distortion into that load - even though they don't clip.

A nominal 4 ohm speaker, will have minimum impedance of 3 ohm or less (in my case 1.6ohm) - and at those impedances many of the more economical amp designs do not do well... without "running out of power". (because realistically you seldom need more than 1/10th of the rated power!!)

And without a better amp to compare to, many won't realise how much better their setup could sound with an appropriately speaker matched amp.

In general "all amps sound alike" - and the general caveat is: when running within their designed performance envelope.
A lot of the more economical amps have a design envelope that has a minimum impedance of 4ohm... and speakers that go below 4ohm (all nominally 4 ohm speakers!) - are outside of that envelope.

To use my own example... a vintage Onkyo SR876 AVR (and/or Integra DTR70.4)- sounded great with my speakers.... a Brand new Integra DRX3.4 (Onkyo NR7100)- did not sound as good... but using it with either a Quad 606 or Crown XLS2500 power amp, fixed the problem and got the system sounding as it should. - my listening level is 72db @MLP and my maximum continuous power use is under 4W when cranking ... with peaks well under 16W - so "power" is not the issue... "current" may be... or simply the amp design and load dependent performance. (the two elderly AVR's mentioned above were both high current designs, similar to the current Onkyo RZ70 / Integra DRX8.4 )

 

[lovinthehd]

It isn't loudness... amps that aren't designed for 4 ohm loads may well have substantially higher distortion into that load - even though they don't clip.

A nominal 4 ohm speaker, will have minimum impedance of 3 ohm or less (in my case 1.6ohm) - and at those impedances many of the more economical amp designs do not do well... without "running out of power". (because realistically you seldom need more than 1/10th of the rated power!!)

And without a better amp to compare to, many won't realise how much better their setup could sound with an appropriately speaker matched amp.

In general "all amps sound alike" - and the general caveat is: when running within their designed performance envelope.
A lot of the more economical amps have a design envelope that has a minimum impedance of 4ohm... and speakers that go below 4ohm (all nominally 4 ohm speakers!) - are outside of that envelope.

To use my own example... a vintage Onkyo SR876 AVR (and/or Integra DTR70.4)- sounded great with my speakers.... a Brand new Integra DRX3.4 (Onkyo NR7100)- did not sound as good... but using it with either a Quad 606 or Crown XLS2500 power amp, fixed the problem and got the system sounding as it should. - my listening level is 72db @MLP and my maximum continuous power use is under 4W when cranking ... with peaks well under 16W - so "power" is not the issue... "current" may be... or simply the amp design and load dependent performance. (the two elderly AVR's mentioned above were both high current designs, similar to the current Onkyo RZ70 / Integra DRX8.4 )

Maybe the Bose are as bad as your speakers for low impedance, maybe not...would be nice to see measurements but not likely being Bose. Doubt it's critical with those in any case, particularly outdoor speakers of this type. Ymmv...but we've had the conversation before a few times now.

 

[PENG]

Got two Bose Freespace 360P outdoor speakers that are 4ohms, 80 watts. I know I can run 8ohm receivers if I’m careful with volume. Im looking for a decent 4 channel stereo receiver/amp. Doesn’t have to have Bluetooth because I already have a Bluetooth receiver. Separate volume controls would be nice. Probably need around 100W per channel. My two other speakers are 8 ohms. I’d love to be around $500. Thanks

People on forums will tell you all kinds of things about what you need for 4 ohm speakers but the truth is, it depends on many factors such as distance, speaker's sensitivity specs and your desired maximum undistorted sound pressure level at your listening distance.

Ultimately though, you can just follow the speaker manufacturers recommendation and not worry much about the factors I mentioned. For example, if Bose recommended 80 W, 4 ohms, then a 100 WPC into 4 ohm rated amp that you mentioned should be adequate.

The Freespace 360P series II seems like a very different animal, that is not 4 ohm, and for that model, high current is not as important as high voltage. It is hard to find things on the Freespace 360P but I did find the following linked one, is it what you have?

If it is, then a 100 W 8 ohm amp will definitely be adequate as those speakers are rated only 25 W but there are the transformer version and non transformer version, so which one do you have?

summer (boseprofessional.com)

 

[lovinthehd]

People on forums will tell you all kinds of things about what you need for 4 ohm speakers but the truth is, it depends on many factors such as distance, speaker's sensitivity specs and your desired maximum undistorted sound pressure level at your listening distance.

Ultimately though, you can just follow the speaker manufacturers recommendation and not worry much about the factors I mentioned. For example, if Bose recommended 80 W, 4 ohms, then a 100 WPC into 4 ohm rated amp that you mentioned should be adequate.

The Freespace 360P series II seems like a very different animal, that is not 4 ohm, and for that model, high current is not as important as high voltage. It is hard to find things on the Freespace 360P but I did find the following linked one, is it what you have?

If it is, then a 100 W 8 ohm amp will definitely be adequate as those speakers are rated only 25 W but there are the transformer version and non transformer version, so which one do you have?

summer (boseprofessional.com)

View attachment 69205

Originally I saw a slightly different spec sheet and just now another slightly different one here https://assets.boseprofessional.com/m/1f08a3dab4a081fe/original/tds_FreeSpace_360PII_ltr_EN.pdf altho minor differences....