Hi guys, I bought Marantz 6006 to go with my M80. The sound is great, however even if I go nominally loud, the receiver shuts down, the blinking red light means that I am using wrongly rated speakers, which is correct, M80 are 4 ohm and Marantz does not want anything lower than 6.

I really love the sound, better than couple of yamaha and denon I have heard, but unfortunately I can't do with the receiver shutting down.

What would you guys recommend, how is Onkyo NR809? Any other receivers that are 4 ohm stable?

Any advice will be much apreciated.

despite what some say, i always recommend matching the receiver to the speaker spec's. if the speaker says 4 ohms then get a receiver that states clearly that it is rated or certified with and for the 4 ohm load and you will be in good shape. of course if you could swing it i'd recommend something with pre-outs (or an actual dedicated pre-amp) and get an amp.

of course, there is nothing wrong with a receiver designed to deal with 4 ohm loads.

don't endanger your receiver or your speakers trying to make either do what they are not designed or rated to do.

best of luck, please keep us posted!

Snow, welcome. The good news is that the concerns you've expressed are almost certainly unnecessary. Unless your particular unit is defective, the 6006 is easily capable of driving the M80s to beyond safe listening levels. The red light doesn't mean that you're "using wrongly rated speakers", but most likely indicates that an intermittent short exists in the wiring. Examine all the external wiring connections, but even if they look good carefully redo them. This type of problem in the past has often proven to result from a loose strand of wire making contact and causing a short. A more remote possibility is an internal short in the wiring of one of the speakers. Check for this(if the problem still exists)by disconnecting one speaker at a time to see if the problem doesn't appear when it's not connected.

The M80s are being used successfully every day with receivers less capable than your 6006, so again, unless the particular one you got is defective, it's not the problem. Very few receivers can pass the FTC required tests for an "official" 4 ohm rating, but nevertheless they do fine in the real world of home listening outside the testing lab.

Hi Snow,

Recent Marantz receivers have had no problems driving the M80s. I'm delighted you like your M80s and I'm sure, as JohnK mentioned, it's very likely a tiny short in your speaker connections.

However, check to see if your Marantz has an impedance switch or a setting in the menu for 4 or 6 ohms or 8 ohms. Contrary to what the owner's manual may indicate, do NOT set the switch for the lower impedance. Leave it at 8 ohms. Setting it lower will limit the power supply voltage and current, which might cause shutdown.

Historically, Denons have had no trouble driving M80s, nor do Harman/Kardon, Sherwood Newcastle, NAD or recent Onkyos.

Regards,
Alan

Another thing to put on the troubleshooting list is check to see if the M80's are set to large in the receiver. Set them to small with a 60hz or 80hz crossover point if you are using a sub.

Hi Guys, Thanks for all the suggestions, I trimmed the speaker cable ends more cleanly, I had more wire stripped than needed and the ends were slightly poking out, though red/black were not even close, however its possible the louder volume vibrated them enough so something might have earthed against the receiver body (just speculating).

Anyhow, after the clean trimming to just the required length, this hasn't occurred again. I was listening to On the Turning Away, Pink Floyd, heard it 4 times now and it hasn't occurred again.

I would agree with pretty much all that has been said, however, like "Solarrdadd" mentioned, in future, I might suggest investing in one or two outboard multi-channel power amps hence, even using your AVR as a pre-pro and avoiding the possible speaker resistance issue. Dedicated power amps don't become obsolete, power ratings/channel are generally better(and more realistic) and they tend to be more flexible in handling the anomalies of various speaker sizes and models.

Very good, Snow. As you see, first impressions often don't actually reflect the reality of a situation.

I have a Denon 3311 running M80's and mine shuts down with the red power light flashing which means its got to HOT and goes into shut down mode. I like to run mine on LARGE to get a more bass full sound with my sub. I put a fan in the tv cabinet to help blow the heat away from the Receiver.

Hi Deano,

Check to see if your Denon's impedance setting is at the highest--8 ohms--not the lowest setting. Denons typically have no problem driving the 4-ohm M80 towers. If you set the Denon impedance to the lower setting, it will reduce power output by limiting the power supply voltage and current.

There might be a short from a strand of speaker cable.
The other possibility is that you are running the Denon at levels of loudness in a big room that outstrip its power output capabilities, in which case you may need to add an outboard power amplifier with several hundred watts per channel output.

Alan

Maybe someone can help me out here. What is the difference between setting the speaker to small with a 80hz crossover or large and an 80 hz crossover? In both instances, the crossover to the sub is still 80hz, so what's the difference?

I think that with Pioneer's MCACC system, (the only one I'm familiar with), large will completely ignore the crossover setting, with all freq sent to all speakers, including the sub.

...and that will give you "double" bass.
i use Audyssey, and it's the same as MCACC for that.

The difference between the two is in the LARGE settings the main speakers will try to play frequencies below 80HZ. With the small setting they will not and the speakers roll-off will be determined by the crossover point. In both settings the sub will play the LFE channel as well.

Generally not a good idea setting mains to large for a number of reasons.

1) It can be damaging to the speakers at reference level. Sometimes speakers are not even capable of playing these frequencies (wasting amplifier power and stressful on the drivers)
2) Impedance and phase angle can be problematic in the bass region. Putting amps, especially receivers into clipping or overheating. Which can be stressful on the electronics and/or speaker.

I've tried the crossover at 40hz on small and large setting and on small it seems there's no bass being played compare to large. It seems as though more power is going to the bass drivers on large than on small.

I'll ve using 3 m80's for the fronts with an outlaw amp. With this set up would it be safe to assume i can set the speakers to large?

You can. But if like to listen loud and like dynamic music like classical or bass heavy music and Blu-ray movies which have very dynamic soudtracks, the power demands from the speakers can get pretty high. What are the power ratings on those outlaw amps? What is the listening distance from the speakers?

BW, when the speaker is set "large" there is no actual "crossover"; the speaker plays full-range(limited to its ability, of course)and the sub plays none of the bass in that speaker's channel. If a special mode usually termed "plus", "double" or similar is selected(which I never do)with "large" speakers, there's still no crossover, but the sub will also play(along with the main speakers)the bass in the main channels below the selected frequency.

In contrast, with a "small" setting and 80Hz crossover the speaker is rolled off below 80Hz and the sub primarily plays those bass frequencies and is rolled off above 80Hz, the "crossover" frequency.

It's the 7125. 125 with all channels driven, 190 at 4 ohms with all driven. Realistically, this baby can pull just shy of 250 with one.