Can I Match My Promedia Sub/Amp with These Speakers?

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I'm thinking of replacing my aging Promedia sats with some Insignia NS-B2111 bookshelves ...

My question: Since the Insignias have an Impedance rating of 8 ohms, and I believe the Klipsch sats have a 4 ohm rating, am I in danger of frying either the Klipsch sub/amp or the Insignia's if I hook them up together?

Any and all responses greatly appreciated!

[justin_tx_16]

you will likely pull too much power from the amp which will cause damage to those speakers. if you don't try to high a volume, maybe no problems... but i wouldn't do it. your promedia's should be just fine, why do you feel they have aged to this point?

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Thanks for responding, justin!

Why would they pull too much power? I thought that if the Klipsch amp could support the 4 ohm Klipsch speakers, it should have an easy time pushing enough power for the 8 ohm Insignia's? Doesn't it take less power to support 8 ohm than it does 4 ohm? Please tell me if I have that wrong.

As for volume, I don't blast them - I find that the Insignia's are loud enough with the control pod volume turned 1/4th of the way up.


As for why the promedia's have aged ... I've had them for a long time, my cats have knocked them off their stands a few times, I've had to open them up and resolder the wires. They are starting to show their age and I've decided I want to go with bigger and better speakers on my desktop

Don't get me wrong. I love my promedias and they have served me well for many years! They were more than worth the money I spent on them. But while they are still the best speakers ever built for the PC, there are bigger and better bookshelf speakers out there, and once I decided I could live with having thirteen-inch tall speakers on my desk, it opened up a lot of different possibilities. I've hooked the Insignia speakers up to the Klipsch amp and did an A/B test, and while the Klipsch sats offer slightly more detail, there is no contest about which provides better sound overall. This is NOT a knock against the promedias - when matched against their competition, that is, other pc speakers, they are far and way the top of the line. That is what they were meant to compete against, and they do it very well. But they can't stand up to bigger speakers outside their price range, and nor would I expect them too.
Thanks again for responding, Justin, and please let me know if my thinking is mixed up about the ohm ratings ...

[justin_tx_16]

Running out the door but here goes.

The higher the impedance, the more power required to power the speaker.

My 32ohm headphones sound great out of my ipod. My more sensitive 300ohm headphones don't even get close to sounding as good unless I add an amplifier.

As long as you stay away from clipping (pulling more power than the amp was built to put out) you will be fine.

do the promedia's SOUND aged or just appear so? just curious My 2.1's are from the beginning and they sounds fantastic! I had to do some work on them also, display unit at a dealer (they don't take great care of their display units...).

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Thanks for responding again, Justin!

For the most part, I'd say the promedia's sound just as good as when I first bought them. I had thought about modding them - putting some sound absorbing material inside the cabinents would be very easy, to get rid of that slightly hollow sound they have when you knock them. But once I hooked an Insignia up to the left channel, with the klipsch sat on the right, and switched the sound left or right a few times to compare, there was just no contest. The Insignia have a much more natural tone to them, and in comparison, the klipsch start to sound a little tinny, like sound from an old transistor radio. The only area in which they top the insignias is in detailing - there were some sounds that were a little muddy on the insignias,but with the klipsch they were clearer and more identifiable. I'd guess this is due to the klipsh horns. But in the end I decided to trade a little loss in detail to a more natural sound overall. I had my wife and sister-in-law do an A/B comparison as well and they both picked the insignias without hesitation ... Again for being such a tiny speaker the klipsch puts out amazing sound - but it just can't compare to better, bigger and more expensive speakers.

Not trying to bash klipsch in any way here - My home theater is all klipsch, with RB-5s as my mains, and it sounds awesome. I just wanted a little "bigger" sound for my PC. I'm still going to keep the promedia rear speakers but I'm going to mod them - putting some sound absorbing material inside the cabinents would be
very easy, to get rid of that slightly hollow sound they have when you
knock them, which should cut down a bit on resonance/reflections.

Thanks again for responding!

[justin_tx_16]

Thanks for responding again, Justin!

get rid of that slightly hollow sound they have when you knock them

Then don't knock them... []

Just be careful with the volume and you will be fine!

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Now I seem to have lost most of my bass ... Not sure if it has to do with a miss-match between the Insignia's and the Klipsch amp or if it is due to the fact that I spilled soda (I) onto my PC tower, and some of it did get inside. I got a blue screen and immediately shut everything down. Then I opened up the tower and cleaned up the soda with denatured alcohol (nasty stuff) and let it dry over night. Booted back up today and everything works fine - except for that lack of bass! The klipsch sub now sounds very anemic and weak! I didn't spill anything onto the sub/amp so it might have nothing to do with my recent accident, maybe I did run the volume too high? But it was working just fine before ... Maybe I should start a seperate thread about this, but how can I determine if my sub has been damaged somehow?