Ohms and Watts

[MGailing]

This is probably a stupid question, but I figured its better to swallow your pride and ask rather than blow money on speakers that wont work well.

I currently own a Yamaha MCR-E600 with a receiver power of 40 Watts RMS each (2 channels) at 6 Ohms (its a bookshelf system). Anyway, I want to upgrade my speakers to either PSBs (Image 15) or Axioms (M3ti), but they both run at 8 Ohms.

My question is: If I were to run these new speakers at 8 Ohms on a 6 Ohm system, what happens? Will it work ok? What will it do to the wattage? Will I have a enough wattage running 40 Watt RMS to each speaker at 6 Ohms to power 8 Ohm speakers?

Thanks you guys - Im sorry for the lame question.

 

[MDS]

It will work just fine. It's always ok to run speakers rated at a higher impedance on a receiver that can handle a lower impedance.

 

[zumbo]

A 6ohm speaker has less resistance than an 8ohm speaker. The lower ohm speaker will let more power flow from the source. A lower ohm speaker puts more demand on the receiver or amp.(loose terminology)

 

[MGailing]

Thanks for the reply guys - will the higher Ohms on the speakers (8) affect the wattage running to it from my 6 Ohm receiver? So if im throwing 40 watts RMS at 6 Ohms to an 8 Ohm speaker, will it still run at 40 Watts RMS or will the wattage be even lower since there is higher resistance on the speakers?

 

[zumbo]

An 8ohm speaker will reduce the draw from the receiver as mentioned above.

 

[MDS]

When the receiver says '40 watts RMS', how is the rating specified? Usually receivers specify their power into 8 ohms (FTC - full bandwidth) and only give the 1 kHz (DIN) rating when specifying power into 6 ohms.

It will be slightly lower using 8 ohm speakers if the rating was given into 6 ohms. [not enough to worry about!]

 

[MGailing]

Thanks guys - I think I received all the information I needed!