Impedance Issue?

[micksf]

picked up a pair of Panasonic 8840 Speakers at Goodwill. Connecting them to a Onkyo TX-45000 and only one channel has normal sound and the other is muted and muddy. swapped speakers and both speakers work. if I connect them both to one channel, they both play at volume. If I connect a new pair of speaker to the Onkyo they work fine. this is beyond me, any suggestions?

Specs...
Onkyo TX-4500 MKII - wattage is 60 watts per channel RMS at 8 ohms
Panasonic 8840 - Peak input 22W, impedance 8ohm

 

[cademan]

You need to use one set of outputs only. Use both speakers on "A" left & right only. Now if one side is muddy then swap the left and right "A" only. If one side is still muddy then you either have a problem with the receiver/amplifier or the speaker switch is dirty.

Check exactly the same way with the "B" speakers left & right.

 

[micksf]

You need to use one set of outputs only. Use both speakers on "A" left & right only. Now if one side is muddy then swap the left and right "A" only. If one side is still muddy then you either have a problem with the receiver/amplifier or the speaker switch is dirty.

Check exactly the same way with the "B" speakers left & right.

yes, both speakers are on A outputs. but did test on B outputs as well, with no luck. I've had a newer pair of Warfdales on the Onkyo for a long while no issues. so I don't think its an amp issue. again, with the panasonics only one channel plays cleanly. but if I swap speakers ( left side and right side), the speaker that was muddy is now clean and visa versa. what's really weird to me is that both play clean and at volume if I put them on the same channel.

 

[cademan]

Well, it does sound like you have a receiver issue because if I am getting your explanation correctly, you are putting both speakers on the same channel I.E., you're putting one speaker on "A" left and one speaker on "B" left which means that you are only using one side (left channel) of your stereo receiver which means the entire right channel (A & B right) is the muddy channel.

Let's try something: Pretend that there is no "B" speaker connection - it doesn't even exist.

Just use both speakers on the "A" speaker connections only. Here you should only have the left and right connections. Only one speaker (let's say left) should sound clean and the right speaker should sound muddy. Now swap the right speaker with the left speaker connection. Now the right speaker should sound clean and the left speaker should sound muddy.

FYI, speakers only consist of a magnet and a coil and crossover. The speaker itself isn't the problem if the same speaker works great on one channel but muddy on the other channel. This points to the receiver/amplifier as having the problem.