8 ohm speakers with a 6 ohm output stereo?

Question

I have an old Aiwa Stereo which outputs 6 ohms through the normal speaker output ports. It also has standard AV style jacks where i can run surround sound, which outputs 16 ohms. Next to the surround sound jacks it has a standard style AV jack that is black instead of red/white. This black jack is labeled "super woofer". I would like to be able to run my speaker system which consists of two 10-inch sub-woofers and two 6 inch normal speakers, all at 8 ohms. The stereo is an Aiwa NSX-5100 made in December of 1994 Is there any possible way to rig my woofers and speaks using only that stereo? If not, can someone tell me how to do it easily otherwise?

Answer 1

You can hook up your 8 Ohm speakers directly to the 6 Ohm outputs without worry.    It sounds like the 6 Ohm output was a comprimise so you could use either 4 or 6 Ohm speakers.  The actual output impedance is probably much lower, anyway -- more like 1/10th of an Ohm (if it is a decent amplifier).

For the subwoofers -- you need to wire them in series to get 16 Ohms.  Wire the "+" terminal of one subwoofer to the "-" of the next subwoofer, then wire the remaining "+" and "-" wires to the black A/V super woofer jack (polarity doesn't matter -- that's why they are both black).

.