Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners VP150 help - 6 Ohm or 8 Ohm setting on RX-V1400 ?

Hi All,

I havent posted here since a very, very long time. Have been a happy user of Axiom M22's and M60's since more than 2 years.

I just got my VP150 to replace a 14-year old centre speaker. I have a Yamaha RX-V1400 receiver. All my speakers were 8 Ohm speaker so it was a no-brainer to set the impedance at 8 Ohms.

This receiver allows you to select either 'Min. 6 Ohms' or 'Min. 8 Ohms'. I am not even sure if that applies only to the front speakers only or other speakers too.

So what do I do now that I have a 6 Ohm VP150 as my centre ? Should I stick with 'Min. 8 Ohm' setting or change to 'Min. 6 Ohm' ?

I looked at the manual but couldnt find a clear answer.

Any suggestions ? Thanks for your help

Cheers
Mahesh

The general wisdom is to keep your Yammy tuned to 8 Ohms. I have a pair of QS8s, which are 6 ohm speakers, and I run them on a lesser powered Yamaha RX-750 without any problems sonically or from a heat dissapation point of view.

Hopefully others will jump in and tell you why. Also, run a quick search for this 8 vs. 6 ohm issue - I bet there's also some prepackaged accumulated knowledge just waiting for you to tap it.

My understanding is that the 6 ohm setting artificially reduces the maximum power available to avoid overloading or overheating the receiver. The general consensus is that a better approach is "don't run the system flat out for extended periods of time" rather than relying on the stupidproofing switch.

This question has actually come up many times before with the Yammy's. Alan from Axiom, and many other AV gurus have mentioned to leave it in the 8ohm mode.

Randy

Yes Mahesh, the setting should be left at 8 ohms even if you had 4 ohm speakers. The 6 ohm setting reduces the maximum voltage which the power supply section feeds to the amplification section; the result is that both the maximum current and maximum power are reduced(Ohm's law, power equals voltage times current). This helps avoid overheating and keeps the Underwriters Laboratory happy, but in the real world of home use the 1400 has no trouble with 6 ohm speakers at the 8 ohm setting and generally has no trouble even with 4 ohm speakers. The 6 ohm setting should only be used as a last resort in the highly unlikely circumstance that the receiver would keep shutting down.

anyone here ever run m80's on a 1400?

I'm currently waiting for a 4600 to arrive so I can try it. It's supposed to have a much upgraded amp section to handle lower impedance speakers. I can only try and see what happens. My NAD might be going back yet.