What Receivers handle a 4 ohm load that cost under $500?

[emrliquidlife]

I purchased some Unisound speakers from Thing Fling. Of the speakers, There is a main set that has a 4 ohm rating. I need to get a receiver that can drive this load. My current receiver is a Harmon Kardon AVR 146. It was rated at 5 X 35 watts I think. So, more power would be a plus as well as HDMI switching. I can't see attempting a setup more complicated than 5.1.

Any thoughts on a receiver that is $500 or under? Off on the side, I have an old Pioneer 901 from approx 93. That Receiver has an ampliefer that accepts preamps and I can simply use the amplifier in the unit.

Just in case anyone is curious, I bought the following: Home Theater Unisound Floor Speakers DAC 2.6, and Unisound Golden Series Home Theater Speakers.

Thanks

E

 

[jostenmeat]

I might try the preouts to the other receiver, if just for now. After all, that gets you double the power supplies.

 

[highfigh]

I might try the preouts to the other receiver, if just for now. After all, that gets you double the power supplies.

Say, what?

 

[highfigh]

I purchased some Unisound speakers from Thing Fling. Of the speakers, There is a main set that has a 4 ohm rating. I need to get a receiver that can drive this load. My current receiver is a Harmon Kardon AVR 146. It was rated at 5 X 35 watts I think. So, more power would be a plus as well as HDMI switching. I can't see attempting a setup more complicated than 5.1.

Any thoughts on a receiver that is $500 or under? Off on the side, I have an old Pioneer 901 from approx 93. That Receiver has an ampliefer that accepts preamps and I can simply use the amplifier in the unit.

Just in case anyone is curious, I bought the following: Home Theater Unisound Floor Speakers DAC 2.6, and Unisound Golden Series Home Theater Speakers.

Thanks

E

A 35W/ch receiver has a slim chance of driving a 4 Ohm load well. What is the whole model number of the Pioneer?

Get your post count past 5 and put up some photos of the speakers.

 

[jostenmeat]

Say, what?

Whaddya mean? Aren't two amps better than one? Or is there something that I am missing?

Oh, well, I was assuming the HK had preouts, which it very well might not. I was thinking of driving some speakers with one receiver, and some other speakers with the other.

 

[Seth=L]

The H/K doesn't have preouts, and that's a pretty old Pioneer receiver.

I'd look at Marantz's offerings in the sub-$500 range.

Good power w/ HDMI 1.1 (handles audio)

Slightly less power, but still good w/ HDMI 1.3 (more audio support {DTS-MA, Dolby TrueHD} and deep color support)

Both receivers will do the job, each comes with a 1 year warranty from Marantz. A4less offers extended warranties on refurbs as well.

 

[allargon]

OP, you need an older (HDMI?) receiver with pre-outs.

Look for a good price (E-bay, Craigslist, Audiogon, etc.) on a HK AVR 247 (or maybe 254 but I doubt if you can get one for under $200) or a Yamaha VX-R663?

After that you can add some external amplification. Even a lot of the $1k+ receivers don't properly drive 4Ohm speakers as reported by Audioholics (*cough* Pioneer), so psuedo separates is likely the proper budget choice in this case.

If you don't need HDMI and abhor the psuedo separate route, then you can probably find a good deal on a used NAD receiver. That will likely drive 4 Ohm speakers. However, there's that whole reliability issue. Older Cambridge Audio (and maybe Rotel) receivers are also good choices.

 

[highfigh]

Whaddya mean? Aren't two amps better than one? Or is there something that I am missing?

Oh, well, I was assuming the HK had preouts, which it very well might not. I was thinking of driving some speakers with one receiver, and some other speakers with the other.

Yeah but you posted that two power supplies is better, unless you were referring to the added power from the additional amplifier channels not taxing the 5 ch receiver. I'm probably being overly picky about the wording but...

Could be the full moon we just had, too.

 

[emrliquidlife]

Thanks amigo. I'll post up the model number of the Pioneer tonight. Back in the day, it was a quality unit. This was before Pioneer went with the Elite branding.

E

 

[PENG]

4 ohms or not, for those kind of speakers I wouldn't bother with separate amps. It is not uncommon to find those tiny HTIB speakers having 4 ohms or lower impedance, yet no one worry about driving them with power amps. I think most people simply stick with the stock OEM receivers/amps or whatever gear that are part of the package/box.

Back to the OP's speakers, they claim 150W power handling capability but they probably mean "music watts" or something like that but please don't ask me what music watts are. If anyone wants to know may be ask Sony, Sanyo, Samsung etc. I am pretty sure if you power those things with a real 200W amp you will blow them up quickly if you are not careful. And please don't tell me it is under power that blows speakers as you know that I know the drill but.............

For $500, you can pick up a Yamaha RX-V863 and then add separate power amps when you are ready to upgrade your speakers.

 

[emrliquidlife]

Way late on this.

So I have a Pioneer VSX-D412K from 2003....Nope, that puppy isn't going to drive 4 ohms.

I have my vintage Pioneer VSX-901S from approx 93. This puppy weighs some 40 lbs. I tried to get data online but simply couldn't find any info.

I think I'm going to have to find a new reciever. So far the Harmon Kardon AV 146 is holding up. But I think I have some real winners in the Unisound speakers so I want to get something going.

Funny thing, while digging things out, I also found a broken Denon DVD player that I'm going to try to fix.

Ed

 

[3db]

I purchased some Unisound speakers from Thing Fling. Of the speakers, There is a main set that has a 4 ohm rating. I need to get a receiver that can drive this load. My current receiver is a Harmon Kardon AVR 146. It was rated at 5 X 35 watts I think. So, more power would be a plus as well as HDMI switching. I can't see attempting a setup more complicated than 5.1.

Any thoughts on a receiver that is $500 or under? Off on the side, I have an old Pioneer 901 from approx 93. That Receiver has an ampliefer that accepts preamps and I can simply use the amplifier in the unit.

Just in case anyone is curious, I bought the following: Home Theater Unisound Floor Speakers DAC 2.6, and Unisound Golden Series Home Theater Speakers.

Thanks

E

How big is the room? What is the speaker's senstivity? How loud do you intend on playing them. Any receiver from Yamaha, Piooneer, Denon, etc will be able to handle a 4 ohm load provided that the loudness you want is normal talking or slightly louder listening levels and that the room there in isn't large. Problem is, people want to be able to crank the loudness levels up or the speakers are in a large room and the receiver has to be pushed to achieve listening levels louder than human speech.

 

[Cristofori]

Consider the Marantz SR-4023 at $499 http://us.marantz.com/Products/2555.asp

80wpc and drives 4 ohms. Has phono, pre-out/main-in & subwoofer outputs, and all the useful features you can want in a 2-channel receiver, plus a 3yr warranty.

I just got mine and so far so good!

 

[hawkman]

hope i don't break any rules but this thread is as close as i can find. I bought a used Yamaha Rx795a 5.1 receiver,no speakers.output 310 watts. center speaker 6 to 8 ohm and front rears 8 ohm.that is off the back.cant find info on that amp on Internet. then i bought speakers used,theater research model tr-5200 the satellites are 88 db @ 1 watt @ 1 meter, 60 rms- 120 peak, at 4.8 ohms,[didn't know about the ohms thing when i paired them]sub is 200 watts rms @4.8 ohms it has 2 speakers in it with 3 sets of bindings 2 sets in 1 set out. i only have one preamp rca comeing out on the Yamaha and the jvc takes two left and right. can i hook this up or did i just not do enough research first. thanks in advance for any help.

 

[greggp2]

I purchased some Unisound speakers from Thing Fling. Of the speakers, There is a main set that has a 4 ohm rating. I need to get a receiver that can drive this load. My current receiver is a Harmon Kardon AVR 146. It was rated at 5 X 35 watts I think. So, more power would be a plus as well as HDMI switching. I can't see attempting a setup more complicated than 5.1.

Any thoughts on a receiver that is $500 or under? Off on the side, I have an old Pioneer 901 from approx 93. That Receiver has an ampliefer that accepts preamps and I can simply use the amplifier in the unit.

Just in case anyone is curious, I bought the following: Home Theater Unisound Floor Speakers DAC 2.6, and Unisound Golden Series Home Theater Speakers.

Thanks

E

While they don't offer HDMI switching, I would recommend looking at an older Rotel Unit. The RSX line like the 1055, or 1056 will easily handle the 4 ohm speakers and sound very good. The only thing you will lose will be HD audio, but with the multi-channel inputs, you are back in business...

Here's one that is a little expensive, but I've seen them sell for under $500. I sold my 1056 for $550 over a year ago on Audiogon..

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?miscrcvr&1271904303&/Rotel-rsx-1056-a/v-rcvr-

 

[lsiberian]

4 ohms or not, for those kind of speakers I wouldn't bother with separate amps. It is not uncommon to find those tiny HTIB speakers having 4 ohms or lower impedance, yet no one worry about driving them with power amps. I think most people simply stick with the stock OEM receivers/amps or whatever gear that are part of the package/box.

Back to the OP's speakers, they claim 150W power handling capability but they probably mean "music watts" or something like that but please don't ask me what music watts are. If anyone wants to know may be ask Sony, Sanyo, Samsung etc. I am pretty sure if you power those things with a real 200W amp you will blow them up quickly if you are not careful. And please don't tell me it is under power that blows speakers as you know that I know the drill but.............

For $500, you can pick up a Yamaha RX-V863 and then add separate power amps when you are ready to upgrade your speakers.

LOL Yeah HTIB speakers aren't going to challenge an HK 146. HK always underrates there stuff as part of their marketing strategy. Still I doubt their amp section will have an issue with a 4ohm speaker. The software is shoddy, but their amp section is reliable in my experience.

 

[sholling]

The Onkyo TX-SR707 is certified for a 4ohm load and you can pick up a refurb for $500.