And here is a perfect example of where marketing comes into play. Denon obviously wants people to buy their receivers regardless of what speaker they choose, hence they answer, yes, our receivers will work with 4 ohms. For the most part this is probably true, however note the other statements which 'absolves' them of any real responsibility if it doesn't work:
"In general, you’ll find that Denon products are designed to function with a wide variety of loudspeakers..."
"In the rare event that very low impedances tax the amplifier, quick acting circuitry will protect it from damage. If unusual operating conditions trigger this circuitry... If this happens, simply turn the unit off, wait a moment or two, and turn the unit back on again. The protection circuitry will automatically reset. If it re-engages, check your system for possible malfunctions."
Yah, like some other system component would be at fault here.
Then of course there is the marketing from the speaker companies which may throw off the user as to whether their 8 ohm speakers are really acting more like 6ohm speakers or less depending on how the company lists the product:
"However, you should remember that a loudspeaker’s impedance rating is a nominal or average one: A speaker rated at 8 ohms may actually vary from 5 (sometimes even less) to 20 ohms or higher..."
Personally i think speaker companies should be setting their ohm ratings not as an average, but listing them according to the lowest dip on the ohm scale, even if it is for a small range of frequencies. A relatively easy standard can be developed to make this a bit more structured, such as: a 4 ohm speaker is 4 ohms if ohm spike hits 4ohms for a range of at least xx # of Hz cumulative, etc.
Perhaps this standard already exists but i've seen some frequency charts that have some odd numbers. A 4 ohm speaker that actually hit near 2.5 ohm for about a 20Hz span and 3 ohm for maybe another 30Hz span but the company still lists it as 4 ohms because it is an 'average'??!!
Gee, i hope whoever bought those speakers knows their receiver can do at least 3 ohms lest their protection circuitry turns off the system for 'unknown' reasons beyond 'usual' circumstances.
Last edited by chesseroo; 01/29/03 12:48 AM.
