Driving 6 ohm speakers with Vintage Marantz

[lionelbob]

I've read through the many 4 ohm - 8 ohm posts here and they all pretty much say the same thing, if it says 8 ohms it means 8 ohms.

I grabbed set of Pioneer speakers thru EEK!bay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180069956782

When I got them home I noticed that they are marked 6 ohm.

The current owner had been running these with the 80 watt (cheapie) Fisher amp (marked 8 ohm) in the same ebay deal above.

The amp still works fine, and I ran it at 3/4 volume for 20 minutes without heat or failure.

What I was intending to do was to use the 6 ohm Pioneers with my 2230, but I got nervous reading all this stuff about roaching the trannys.

I remember from basic electronics class that impedence is not really resistance. ??

Some threads say to grab a 2 or 4 ohm 1/2 watt resistor and insert in series. Isn't that what a speaker selector box does?

It would seem that I could be pretty safe putting a 2 ohm resistor in series and just blast away.

I know, most of you won't say, "yeah go ahead," due to liability issues.

Or should I just put the Pioneers out for recycle?

 

[alexkerhead]

The 2230 will run 6ohm speakers without a problem.

I ran a 4ohm load on my 2270 for months and never had an issue.

A 2ohm resistor in series would make it where the speakers would be starved for wattage, only getting 10watts each or so.

 

[Fred Longworth]

Do NOT put resistance in series with the speaker. That blows the "damping factor" all to hell.

It is perfectly safe to operate a pair of 6-ohm speakers on your 2230, however, that is the only set of speakers you can run at once.

Fred Longworth

 

[jami w.]

u can but run only a single set of speakers an thats it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
im runnin 4 ohm on my 2325 have done for yrs on an off
ive never had a problem

 

[justw]

All of the above advise is good but.... I have been running three paralleled Large Advents on various vintage Marantz receivers, 2230, 35, & 40, for several months with no problems. That would be roughly 2.7 ohms. It is in a 20X12 office so I probably don't consume more than 10 watts RMS or so. Plus the Advent is a fairly efficient speaker. I wouldn't advise anyone do this that isn't prepared to pay the consequences but if you aren't going to draw a lot of current from the amp and it doesn't get too close to being a short and you exercise due caution regarding volume levels it should be fine. In your situation you certainly don't need to worry about 6 ohms and if you were to add a pair of "8 ohm" speakers that would yield 3.4 ohms. Myself, I wouldn't fret about that. Just don't try to entertain the whole neighborhood with both pairs of speakers connected.
In my case when I add a fourth pair of Large Advents I will be adding a seperate power amp for them.

 

[WA2020]

I have a quandary. I am running a Marantz 2216 on my desktop. I'm running 6 ohm OHM FRS 11's to my left and right. I have two desks with 28" clearance where I can put box speakers underneath. When I run 4 ohm underneath because the impedance is higher, they are louder and drown out the FRS 11's. I run this in near field so the volume doesn't piss off those upstairs, the volume never gets higher than 4, so if anyone is aware of decent 6 ohm vintage box speakers I can hunt for since old receivers don't offer a fader between channels. 8 ohm or 4-8 ohm's are either louder or non existent.