Home theater speakers: going from 6 ohms to 8 ohms.?

Question

I bought a Yamaha home theater box set back in 2005. Recently, the receiver crapped out and I am looking to purchase a replacement. I'm probably going to buy a Yamaha RX-V461 receiver, but have one concern: my old receiver (HTR-5835) sent 6 ohms to the 5 speakers, this new one will send 8 ohms. How much of a problem, if any, will this be?

Answer 1

The receiver doesn't "send Ohms". The speakers have a resistance measured in ohms. The receiver sends wattage to power the speakers. The more resistance the speaker has the less watts it can get from the receiver. If the speakers are 6 Ohms it just means they can draw more power from the receiver. So if the receiver is say 80 watts max at 8 ohms it might be 105 watts max at 6 ohms or something like that. Yamaha receivers are usually safe down to 4 ohms or sometimes 2. Toward the end of the manual, about the last page, Yamaha has printed all of the specs. It will list the wattage at 8/6/4/2 ohms.

Answer 2

Most likely not much problem. What matters is the impedence of your speakers, not the old receiver. If your speakers are 6 ohms or anything higher then they should work fine.

Answer 3

Using 8 ohm speakers is safer than 6 or 4 ohms.

Speakers have a "Nominal" or average impedance, but in truth - they vary their impedance from 3-30 ohms as you play sound.

Honest companies like Yamaha publish power with 8, 6 and 4 ohm loads so people know the power the unit can provide with these typical speaker impedances.  But they tend to only put the 8 ohm value on the sales tag.  Check the Yamaha website for the numbers and you should see all 3 power values.

I like the RX-V line. I have a 793 that was my first AV receiver, it's been to college with my daughters and is still working ... 10 years.