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Kenwood KA-7300 & 4 ohm loads

Grenadeslio

Grenadeslio

Lunatic Member
Banned
Recently purchased a pair of AR58s speakers rated 4 ohm dipping as low as 3.2, the specs on the Kenwood KA-7300 make no mention of output into 4 ohm loads. Now I would take this to mean it's not rated for 4 ohm loads, and I know some AR's such as the 9 are considered amp killers. My question is, has anyone tried this amp with any of the AR's that might be a difficult load, not necessarily the AR 9.

I've used it to drive 6 ohm Jamos, 5 ohm Infintys with no issues whatsoever, just wondering what I might be facing with the AR58s.

That said, I do have an amp on hand to connect and use the Kenny as pre only, a Belles 1 but it's currently seeing duty along with its twin biamping my Infinitys.
 
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Look at the back of the amp for speaker impedance directions. The 7300 is fine as is 95% of all the gear out there. That 4 ohm sticky is a truthful bunch of bs a scare tactic. If an amp can't it is usually stated on the amp or in the manual. Don't believe everything you read on the internet. If that sticky got you worried.
 
Blue Shadow said:
Look at the back of the amp for speaker impedance directions. The 7300 is fine as is 95% of all the gear out there. That 4 ohm sticky is a truthful bunch of bs a scare tactic. If an amp can't it is usually stated on the amp or in the manual. Don't believe everything you read on the internet. If that sticky got you worried.
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There's no information on the rear of any of my SS amplifiers that give a clue as to there impedance capabilities. As I stated, the owners manual only gives ratings into 8 ohms, this is usually indicative of not being tested or rated into lower resistance loads. Genealizations that it's rating along with others of the time are just scare tactics help little.
 
I looked at google images of a 7300. At the speaker terminals it said 4-16.

Post a pic of the spkr terminal area. Maybe yours doesn't have the info. Photos drag and drop works.
 
The service manual states 85wpc into 4ohms. If you do not overdrive your Kenwood KA-7300 for extended periods of time, you will be fine. I have the KA-8300, and it drives my Altec Segovias without breaking a "sweat".
 
Blue Shadow said:
I looked at google images of a 7300. At the speaker terminals it said 4-16.

Post a pic of the spkr terminal area. Maybe yours doesn't have the info. Photos drag and drop works.
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Without a lot of work it would be difficult to get pictures of the rear of the amp, but I also looked at pics online and stand corrected it does mention above the terminals 4-16 ohms so it would seem the amp is capable of driving 4 ohm speakers.

As mentioned I've run Infintys with no issues, but the AR's mention of 3.2 ohm minimum and the 9's reputation for melting inferior amps had me wondering.

I do have amps rated for 2 ohms if necessary, but would like to keep this system as simple as possible leaving just the Kenny integrated doing the heavy lifting.

Thanks for getting me on the right track.
 
jcamero said:
The service manual states 85wpc into 4ohms. If you do not overdrive your Kenwood KA-7300 for extended periods of time, you will be fine. I have the KA-8300, and it drives my Altec Segovias without breaking a "sweat".
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Ah, should have looked there on vinyl engine, the owners manual makes no mention of its capabilities into 4 ohms the sneaky little bastiches.
 
Specs on thevintageknob.org list the speaker impedance as 4 ...16 ohms.
 
That being said, even though it will drive them, it doesn’t mean it is feeding them as it should. However, I find Kenwood in general is pretty good for 4 ohm loads.
 
BilboBaggins said:
That being said, even though it will drive them, it doesn’t mean it is feeding them as it should. However, I find Kenwood in general is pretty good for 4 ohm loads.
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BB, I used a Kenwood KM-105 to power my AR-3a's. Now, to be fair the KM-105 just powers the 12 inch acoustic suspension woofers. The mids and tweeters are driven by a different, lower power Kenwood integrated amp.

By having two totally independent amps, I am able to control speaker voice simply by varying power sent to each speaker half.

One final issue is impedance over It's limited range is far better behaved by the woofers alone. Impedance variation of the mids/tweeters is far greater, but then ... these drivers do not draw anywhere near the current that the woofers require.

Regards,
Jerry
 
onplane said:
BB, I used a Kenwood KM-105 to power my AR-3a's. Now, to be fair the KM-105 just powers the 12 inch acoustic suspension woofers. The mids and tweeters are driven by a different, lower power Kenwood integrated amp.

By having two totally independent amps, I am able to control speaker voice simply by varying power sent to each speaker half.

One final issue is impedance over It's limited range is far better behaved by the woofers alone. Impedance variation of the mids/tweeters is far greater, but then ... these drivers do not draw anywhere near the current that the woofers require.

Regards,
Jerry
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That would work!

I’m actually considering bi-amping my Kef 105s. I’m planning on doing a vertical biamp. Been planning it for about a year. I’ll get to it one of these days.
 
BilboBaggins said:
That would work!

I’m actually considering bi-amping my Kef 105s. I’m planning on doing a vertical biamp. Been planning it for about a year. I’ll get to it one of these days.
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I've been vertical biamping for yrs, as stated twin Belles 1 amps are currently biamping my Infinity Modulus, one channel driving the Emit-K, the other the 5.25" mid/bass driver lol.

I've used different amps, even twin Kenwood KA-4006 integrateds with Klipsch Heresys. This allowed using the balance control to tilt the output by decreasing high frequency response and or increasing bass response. It worked rather well I must admit, I've often wondered why no one has ever mentioned trying it before to offset it's lack of bass response so many complain about. I actually liked the way it worked much better than pots on the high frequency drivers.
 
I have had a number of Kenwood receivers and amps over the years and they were solid units that had no problems with low impedance speakers.
 
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