Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Receiver capability

My brother gave me a set of older jbl bookshelf speakers. I have a Sherwood 4109 stereo receiver I use in an extra room. I decided to hook up the jbl's and my M3's to it to do some unprofessional A-B testing. Each had their own unique sound. I switched back and forth on many different songs. I found that when I had both sets going, the M3's stacked on top of the jbl's, that the sound increased noticeably and it provided more bass than either on their own. There seemed to be a much wider soundstage. Even my wife was impressed. My questions are, I assume this gets me a 4 ohm load on the receiver. Can the receiver safely run this for long term listening. The receiver is not a Sherwood Newcastle but appears to have all the same features of the RX 770. The back says A+B should be 16 ohms. Both sets I have are 8 ohms. Will running this combo endanger the receiver, speakers or both? Just curious as the sound was much more impressive but I don't want to damage anything in the process. Any input on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

I've had a Sherwood 2 channel receiver for some years now and have run 2 sets of speakers at once with no ill effects. It seems even the lower end Sherwoods have a pretty good amp section in them.

Yeah, I've been pretty impressed with mine. For $100 you can't go wrong.

Merch, apparently you have the M3s and JBLs connected in parallel, so yes, the result of that would be a net 4 ohm impedance if the impedance of each speaker happened to be actually 8 ohms at that frequency. Of course, all speakers vary in their actual impedance at different frequencies, and the actual result may vary with frequency from considerably more than 4 ohms to slightly less. The receiver doesn't know what the impedance of the speakers that it's connected to is, just that it needs to put out a certain voltage with resulting current and power to play a certain sound level. Despite the fact that the 4109 manual doesn't approve of that combination, it may in reality work well at the sound levels you use. If not, the protective circuits of the 4109 would shut it down if a danger of overheating developed. No permanent harm would be done to the receiver and none to the speakers. So, it shouldn't be assumed that the theoretical 4 ohm load would cause a subtantial problem.

Thanks for the reply JohnK. I guess companies have to cover their butts just in case. I will give it some serious listening time and see how things go.