receiver question with ohms

[glenn9812]

I have a onkyo 506. was wondering on the ohm ratings.

If i buy speakers at 6 ohms. it will push 100watts where if it says 8 ohms it's 75 watts. but the freq are different. was looking at elemental design speakers but was wondering how it would work since they are 6 ohm.

specs exactly are

75x7 @ 8 ohms (20hz - 20khz)
100x7 @ 6 ohms (1khz)

Would it better to run the ed 6 ohm speakers or say energy 8 ohm speakers rated at 100 watts?

 

[jamie2112]

I would say you should be fine running the 6ohm speakers with your Onkyo. It can handle it.

 

[Adam]

I would say you should be fine running the 6ohm speakers with your Onkyo. It can handle it.

I think that the question revolves around the 8-ohm power rating being full-range, whereas the 6-ohm power rating is at one frequency.

To the OP - you ask if one set of speakers is better than another. Are you actually asking if one will be louder than the other? I ask that because you start off asking about power output.

 

[glenn9812]

well i'm looking at these two speakers. But wondering what would be better to run at hte 6 or 8 ohms being that it looks like hte 8 ohms is a range of freq while the 6 ohms is just1 freq. I want to have good sq.

By the way the speakers i'm looking at ar ethe entergy c-100 and the ed A6 - 5T5 - MTM Pair

just look into why the freq has a range at one and one freq at the other ohm. i want the speakers to be able to get the most of them. just let me know i'd really appreciate it.


also out of the two which would you suggest anyways.

 

[Adam]

I wouldn't worry about one rating being at full range and the other being at one frequency. I'm open to being corrected on this, but my guess is that they were focused on the 8-ohm performance and did a shorter, cheaper test on the 6-ohm load. I'm no expert on that, though.

I checked the sensitivity of those speakers, because that can have a large impact on the volume. They word their specs differently so I couldn't make a direct comparison, but they are really close to one another.

C-100
8 ohms nominal
Sensitivity (anechoic) = 87 dB
Sensitivity (two speakers in a typical room) = 90 dB

A6 - 5T5 - MTM
6 ohms nominal
Sensitivity (system) = 88.3 dB

Both models will probably play at about the same volume level. The A6s might cause the Onkyo to go into protection mode sooner because they would probably cause a higher current draw on average.

I think that the most important thing is to get the ones that sound the best to you.

 

[Mike19]

"I think that the most important thing is to get the ones that sound the best to you."

+1

Mike

 

[fast1]

i agree to what you said mike, only thing that limits most of us is the budget...

 

[lsiberian]

I would get the 8 ohms all else being equal. There are just less issues that way, but. Just because they claim 8 ohms won't mean they don't dip much lower.

 

[glenn9812]

another quick question. are the KEF KEF iQ1 set up really worth $300 bucks more than the other two sets.

 

[Loren42]

You stated that the receiver has a rating for 8Ω, but does the receiver have a rating for 4Ω? If so, it will surely handle 6Ω.

The power delivered at 6Ω is simply the median power between 4 and 8Ω.

I just checked the specs. I think this answers your question since they give ratings for 4, 6, and 8Ω load.

 

[no. 5]

but. Just because they claim 8 ohms won't mean they don't dip much lower.

Good point. After all, a speakers impedance curve is usually all over the place. Just check out some of the measurements from Stereophile or SoundStage.

another quick question. are the KEF KEF iQ1 set up really worth $300 bucks more than the other two sets.

For what it's worth, I think the Energy C-100's are likely the best choice.