You can try it, but don't get your hopes up. Receivers like your Pioneer were designed to work with very efficient 8 ohm speakers and with the right speaker they can sound quite good. I personally have not had good results trying to drive 4 ohm speakers with vintage receivers. 8 ohm speakers with Alnico magnets are no problem.
4 Ohm Load
I've got a Pioneer SX-636 receiver at my office that I listen to every day. I've been curious how it would sound if I brought it home for a night to hook up to my Vienna Acoustic Beethoven Concert Grands. The VA's are 4 ohm and my only concern is that the receiver may not enjoy trying to push that load. Anyone have an idea if this is no big deal or smoke waiting to happen? There's a good reason why I'm curious to try this but I won't bore you with that.
Thanks,
Mike
Thanks,
Mike
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- 13 posts total
When you look at the Classic Audio site for your amp, it has a listing for 4 ohms. That is good news. The bad news is that the watts rating is almost exactly the same as for 8 ohms. which is BAD news for sound quality. The 4 ohm watts rating should double the 8 ohm watts, and if it does not, it means the amp has a power supply that is insufficient and will strangle it at 4 ohms. And yours is like max'xed out with just TWO extra watts. Whew! So you can do it, just don't expect miracles...... |
Excellent points have been made above. I would add a note of caution about the possibility of clipping the amp and damaging your tweeters as a result. Stereophile measured your speakers as having a sensitivity of about 87db for 2.83 volts input at 1 meter. Given the 4 ohm nominal impedance, that corresponds to about 84db for 1 watt input, at 1 meter, which is quite low for use with a 27W amplifier. That is of particular concern if you are listening to material with wide dynamic range, meaning a large difference in volume between the loudest peaks and soft passages. Well recorded classical symphonic music is a good example of that. That will cause you to turn up the volume control much higher than you would for compressed material having narrow dynamic range, resulting in power demand on peaks that greatly exceeds the amp's capability. The resulting distorted, clipped waveform will contain high frequency energy that is not present in the original material, which the speaker's crossover will route to the tweeter. So I would suggest avoiding material that has wide dynamic range, and being careful to not turn up the volume to the point of audible distortion. Regards, -- Al |
It is NOT the sensitivity that matters most. The 'goodness' of a load is about phase angle.....How much does current lead or lag voltage? The moderate phase angle of this speaker is not a 'bad' load, though the impedance dip at 90hz to 2.83 ohms IS a redflag. http://stereophile.com/images/archivesart/506VABFIG1.jpg I had the SX-727 a LONG time ago and it was a warm one. Be careful and you should be OK. |
- 13 posts total