trvale Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 I have a set of Quintets that are rated at 8ohms. I know that if you wire two 8 ohm speakers in parallel you get 4 ohms. I was wondering if it was possible/safe to just wire a simple 8 ohm resistor in parallel and get the same effect. Will I get worse sound quality running at 4 ohms? I am running an Onkyo 595 that will have dynamic power up to 155 watt/c if run at 4 ohms. Will I notice any difference between the 90 watts/c at 8 ohms with my puny Quintets? Thanks for any suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 You can parallel a resistor with the Quintets and the amp will indeed put out more power into the now 4 ohm load. However, only half of the power (77.5 watts) will go to the speaker and the other half will go to the resistor and be wasted as heat. Sound quality will not likely change. As you can see, you'll send more power to a speaker by using it without a resistor. I don't see how a Quintet can absorb 90 watts for long without damage. Be careful. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 OY!! You cannot reduce the impedance,(electrical resistance to an A.C. current),of a speaker without modifying the crossover network and/or the speaker enclosure. At most you can trick your amp into "seeing" a lower impedance. This characteristic is inherent to the design of the speaker and is based on the drivers and components of the speaker's crossover. Placing resistors,chokes etc in the signal path or across the speaker might modify the load as "seen" by the amplifier but in most cases will simply increase the power demands on the amp without actually increasing the current flow to the speaker,(the extra power will be dissipated by the devices utilised in tricking the amp into seeing a lower impedance). Therefore the amp will be working harder and thereby reducing its service life and increasing the risk of component failures without ANY benefit to you as the listener. In addition you risk successfully dividing the extra power between your speakers and the add on devices and blowing out your speakers again without any perceptible increase in performance. In addition any device your use to trick your amp into seeing a lower impedance will likely degrade the sound by introducing unwanted phase shifts and amplitude variations into the signal being fed to the speakers. In any event when using any Klipsch speaker you do not really need more than a few watts to cause ear bleeds in your next door neighbour's cat. If you "need" louder sound get a bigger amplifier - but for Yahwha's sake don't move into my neighbourhood if you do! <GRIN> ------------------ It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca.1900) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted March 3, 2002 Share Posted March 3, 2002 As lynnm said... OY!! What is you goal here?Why would you want over even 80W in Quintets???The Quintets should be cut above 80Hz and above 80Hz the Onkyo 595 has plenty of power to drive them to very high levels. And recievers dont like tough loads,even if the manual claims higher output. You gain nothing of real value by lowering the LOAD the amp will see.Nothing at all with the Quintets. TheEAR(s) Now theears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trvale Posted March 4, 2002 Author Share Posted March 4, 2002 Thanks for the replys. I was just curious. Now that I know some of the details, it does sound like a stupid idea. I am very happy with my setup right now, so no reason to risk damage to anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted March 4, 2002 Share Posted March 4, 2002 trvale There is nothing stupid about asking a question -particularly when the question addresses an issue such as this. On the face of it - somehow decreasing the impedance of the speakers would appear to offer benefits if one did not understand the underlying physics involved. What would have been stupid would have been to attempt to seriously modify your speakers without checking it out with other users. Y'ALL done Good Compadre! ------------------ It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca.1900) This message has been edited by lynnm on 03-04-2002 at 10:26 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGeist Posted March 5, 2002 Share Posted March 5, 2002 Although I don't see any practical reason for doing it, you can lower the impedance of a loudspeaker by simply adding a step-up transformer. Transformers are used all the time in commercial loudspeakers. In these applications the impedance is raised such that multiple speakers (in parallel) can be driven by one amplifier. The technique works quite well for this purpose, but it does degrade the sound quality. Kerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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