4 ohm bookshelf speakers you have loved?
- Thread starter hearwax
- Start date
alteclipsch
Super Member
The KLH Thirty Two are 8 ohms, but they are very nice little speakers!
Lavane
Lunatic Member
Its been a few years, but the 8" KLH's I had were 4 ohm, fried egg tweeter under the mesh. Another model then? I remember them being 4 ohm because I couldn't run them with my 8 ohm mains.
alteclipsch
Super Member
You must have had another version of the same model. Here's the label off mine. My 4 OHM KLHs were the Twenties.
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
I think my ADS 710's were 4 ohm but the Aerial Acoustic Model 5's were for sure. I loved them both but that was before I discovered open baffles.
Thank you all! What an enjoyable set of responses. I'm sorry I lost track of this thread and only rediscovered it now. I'll hope it's not now poor form to reply at this very late date.
To answer a question from one early commenter: My own interest had to do with the possibility of creating an array of relatively affordable, highly musical bookshelf-sized side-surround loudspeakers for a home theater, summing to 8 ohms. This notion was stimulated by a theory regarding home surround encountered elsewhere on the web: that an immersive illusion is best achieved at home (as it is in commercial theaters) not with a single bipolar or dipole side surround, but instead with two or three small, identical conventional speakers on each side wall. With such an approach, though, unless one is prepared to incorporate multiple power amps, one must be careful about the summed impedance of each such side-surround array.
Another possible application would be a pair of (or even four) bookshelf speakers driven by a single one-channel or two-channel subwoofer amp with a steep low-pass filter (and/or with the speakers' tweeters disconnected) -- so, functioning as petite passive bass modules. This would allow wall or shelf placement of one or two such bass modules up higher than the wall's height midpoint... which can magically smooth out a typical listening room's dominant bass mode c. 50hz-80hz. For that unusual smoothing application, the bookshelf 'modules' needn't reproduce the bottom couple octaves of bass, so small to mid-sized is fine. But again, the array's final impedance must be managed carefully.
I didn't mention these odd projects at the outset because they didn't seem likely to resemble others' range of interest in the question.
Well, thanks again for the fascinating range of excellent options!
To answer a question from one early commenter: My own interest had to do with the possibility of creating an array of relatively affordable, highly musical bookshelf-sized side-surround loudspeakers for a home theater, summing to 8 ohms. This notion was stimulated by a theory regarding home surround encountered elsewhere on the web: that an immersive illusion is best achieved at home (as it is in commercial theaters) not with a single bipolar or dipole side surround, but instead with two or three small, identical conventional speakers on each side wall. With such an approach, though, unless one is prepared to incorporate multiple power amps, one must be careful about the summed impedance of each such side-surround array.
Another possible application would be a pair of (or even four) bookshelf speakers driven by a single one-channel or two-channel subwoofer amp with a steep low-pass filter (and/or with the speakers' tweeters disconnected) -- so, functioning as petite passive bass modules. This would allow wall or shelf placement of one or two such bass modules up higher than the wall's height midpoint... which can magically smooth out a typical listening room's dominant bass mode c. 50hz-80hz. For that unusual smoothing application, the bookshelf 'modules' needn't reproduce the bottom couple octaves of bass, so small to mid-sized is fine. But again, the array's final impedance must be managed carefully.
I didn't mention these odd projects at the outset because they didn't seem likely to resemble others' range of interest in the question.
Well, thanks again for the fascinating range of excellent options!
ericj
Well-Known Member
The speakers that came with the Philips MCD-708 are Pretty Decent and the isodynamic tweeter (licensed from the Rank Organization) really opens up when you replace the tweeter cap with a film cap.
Philips sold other MCD speakers that look really similar and have a similar tweeter but aren't the same size or sound quality. For example the MCD-702 speakers look the same in pictures but are 8 ohm and sound kinda not as good.
The JVC FS-5000 and FS-7000 mini system fullrange speakers sound quite good when elevated a few inches from the nearest boundary but NEED a sub crossed over fairly high for anything but nearfield.
Pushing the limits of "bookshelf", the ADS L520 i rebuilt in donor cabinets is pretty good too. I expect any of the small ADS and Braun will be good.
Philips sold other MCD speakers that look really similar and have a similar tweeter but aren't the same size or sound quality. For example the MCD-702 speakers look the same in pictures but are 8 ohm and sound kinda not as good.
The JVC FS-5000 and FS-7000 mini system fullrange speakers sound quite good when elevated a few inches from the nearest boundary but NEED a sub crossed over fairly high for anything but nearfield.
Pushing the limits of "bookshelf", the ADS L520 i rebuilt in donor cabinets is pretty good too. I expect any of the small ADS and Braun will be good.
Grundig Box 1600b - not small, 8" woofer, very detailed sound, good bass - seem to get along well with any music I've played through them Somewhat rare, apparently... If I could only keep one midsized speaker, these would be the ones...
(Not my image)...
(Not my image)...
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galactus2
Active Member
Another thumbs up here for small Cantons.
I didn't get them new, but these Canton model S were in very good condition when I bought them, and still are.
They're run by a small Cambridge Audio amp, pushing out about 35wpc, and it's a good match. Perfect for low-level listening in a small room.