Cal Blacksmith Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 I am looking hard at picking up a set of 85 forte speakers. The published specs say 8 ohm but the connector block on the speaker says 4 ohm. I would tend to trust the speaker info over published specs but whats up? Did they make both? I am just getting back into high end audio after a twenty something years absence. It was 1977 when I first heard a set of Klipsch horns. The $2000 each was too steep for a lowly soldier in this mans army. Anyway I bought a Yamaha CA 600 amp, CT400 tuner, B&O 1900 turntable, Tandberg 3500x and Yamaha NS600 speakers. All in all, quite a kickin system in 1977. Fast forward to today. I still have everything but the speakers (they were stolen in shipment) I have been playing with the idea of buying a tube amp as my dream system was a Mac 225, Klipsch horns and a Mac pre-amp. Well, I found a deal on a Sonic Frontiers Power 1 tube amp that I just couldnt pass up. Quad kt88s @55wpc <. 1% thd at rated power 20hz to 20khz. Ok not cutting edge but much better than this ol blacksmith has ever had. I am running that into a pair of JBL 4312 Control monitors. (70s vintage with the white cones) with a home brew pre-amp powered by 2 12ax7s and 2 6dj8s. Who made it and how long ago from what schematics is a mystery but it DOES sound better than the pre-amp section de-coupled on the Yamaha. All that to say, Hello and what is up with the forte impedance ratings? The amp can be adjusted to a 4-ohm load but it takes a soldering iron to do it and I would rather not change things on the amp if I didnt need to. Thanks for your time in reading this and the answers I anticipate. Ps, any comments on how the fortes sound compaired to the JBLs would be nice to have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Welcome to the forum. You will like the Forte's, but listen to them first if you can. Plenty of bass. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Don't sweat the impedance issue.A speaker's impedance is not a steady state issue but actually varies widely according to the frequency of the input signal at any given moment. Four ohm speakers are no better or worse in any sense than eight ohm speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Blacksmith Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 Thank you gentlemen for your replies. I suppose that it is more critical for a SS amp to be matched than it is for a tube amp. The tubes will run a bit hotter as if they were working harder (which they are for a given sound pressure) but if I never push them hard it should be ok. I looked at the other topics in this forum and I found the 4-8 ohm issue discussed there also. Sorry, I missed it before posting my question. For my day job, I am an inspector and deviating from published specs is hard for me! I do understand that a speaker is a dynamic device and that a wide range of impedance is the norm but ..IF IT DIDNT MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHY DO THE MANUFACTURES MAKE ALLOWANCES FOR IT? Ok, that is out of my system, sorry, the by the book side of me came out! The blacksmith side of me says whats the big deal; there are many ways to do the same job, not better, just different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 cablacksmith, Want to get really confused? Khorns, Lascalas, and Cornwalls use a 4ohm woofer, a 16 ohm mid, and an 8ohm tweeter! The impedance curve on a Khorn with AA networks goes from a low of 4 to a high of 45ohms and they are rated nominally 8ohms! Some here like the sound on the 4ohm taps on their amps I and others like the sound on the 8s. If one was to wire up Khorns in parallel, they would have to use the 4ohm figure to be sure their amp can tolerate a 2ohm load at the low frequencies. That is probably the story on the Fortes. Nominally 8ohms with a low of 4ohms to be considered when using more than one speaker per channel. Hope you enjoy the Fortes! Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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