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Can I plug two 4ohm speakers into this unit?

M

Maomaster

New Member
Hello, I recently purchased a Kenwood KR-1000. Which gets some flak in these threads over the design of the unit, but regardless of its looks, it has some serious power. I see this on the back of the unit, and begin asking myself..."does that mean I can run two 4ohm sets of speakers (B+C) and not risk killing my receiver???" Please advise this noob before he kills someone...or more importantly...someTHING...
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According to the manual, when two pair of speakers are to be operated in combination that are 4 ohms or more, connections are to be made at the "B" & "C" terminals and the Impedance Switch should be set to 8 Ohms or more. Presumably this means that the speakers are wired in series when using these connections.

However this switch must be set Less than 8 Ohms to when: 1) A single pair of speakers rated less than 8 ohms is used. 2) When two pairs of speakers connected to A, B (or C) are to be used in combination. (No minimum impedance stated).

That said, I'd be extra cautious when driving two pair of 4 ohm speakers using the connection method directly above calling for the "Less than 8 ohms" position of the impedance switch. The resulting impedance will be 2 ohms and will likely fall significantly lower than that at certain frequencies. Since the manual only provides output power ratings of 120WPC & 130WPC into 8 and 4 ohm loads respectively, it is evident this is not a unit designed with high current capabilities, ie operation into < 2 ohm loads, therefore the output stages are likely be overloaded under such use.

Link to the Owner's Manual. Will have to register with hifiengine to view.

https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/kenwood/kr-1000.shtml
 
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THANK YOU!! I had found the manual before, but found it to be almost MORE confusing, so I sincerely appreciate the guidance. I think I'll just stick with running one set of 4ohm speakers at a time. One for rocking (MTX AAL1540) and one for softer, more subtle music (Advent Laureates). Again, thank you for helping me not blow up my unit, I know it looks unconventional, but being a child of the 80's....I kinda like it :)

Plus, the sound is analog still....so it's kind of the best of both worlds to a younger, aspiring audio-padawan...
 
It depends on the speaker. Unfortunately some manufacturers are very conservative in their ratings and some not so much. Most modern mid-price speakers are very easy to drive. They know that they have a good chance of being hooked up to some gutless HT receiver and will be judged accordingly.

Much like most numbers in audio, a grain of salt is recommended.
 
Have in mind that not all the speakers are created equally...to translate in english.Nominal impendance may be 4 ohm but different speaker can have impendance dip lower than 4 ohm, more over different speakers have different impendance dip across the hz band. One can dip 2 ohm in 40 hz, second set of speakers can dip in 500 hz...all this is very stressful for the amp ( need a really good amp to handle this without issues ).

I wouldn't play it b+c...one pair at the time should be ok, depending on your amp spec.
 
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