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Kenwood KM206 power rating at 4 ohms

K

King Ghidora

New Member
I recently picked up a Kenwood KM206 amp to power my center channel speakers that I also got recently. They are 4Ω speakers. The amp is rated to handle that load but I have been getting confusing information about the power the amp puts out. Every place I look on the net people say it puts out 200 wpc rms but the owner's manual I got from hifiengine says it is only 130 wpc. I can't figure out why there is such a disparity. Every place I checked (including the Craigslist ad where I found the amp) says it's 200 wpc. Anyone have an explanation for the discrepancy?

Whatever the case it has plenty of power to run my center channel setup (2 Cerwin Vega DX-9 speakers) even with the front channel amp (Kenwood Basic M2) running 325 wpc into 4Ω also pushing CV DX-9's. Yes it is very loud. It also sounds very good. The speakers were free. I bought the amp to push them since I only had 8Ω amps laying around. My Denon is supposed to run OK at 4Ω but that's only 110 wpc and it takes some serious power to get the center loud enough that the fronts don't drown out the center.
 
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I downloaded the manual and it also says 150 wpc for the KM-206.
Click to expand...

That's at 8 ohm. I asked about 4 ohm. I also mentioned the manual says 130 wpc at 4 ohm. And it's not just places other than Canada and the US that have a 4 ohm listing. That listing in the manual claims 155 wpc at 8 ohm. There is no mention of what the amp puts out in the US and Canada for 4 ohm but it certainly does work with 4 ohm. It has a switch on the back to select 4 ohms (actually anything less than 8 ohm but it's there for a 4 ohm setup mainly - you can find that info in the manual also) You may want to read my question again. I know what the manual says. I also know that many sites on the web report 200 wpc at 4 ohm. Like the second post in this thread:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/any-info-on-kenwood-km-206.405013/

I've seen several examples of people saying it's 200 wpc into 4 ohms. Not 130. I wonder why so many say that when the manual says 130.
 
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It's most likely the manual is correct. The Kenwood KM-206 probably uses some sort of current limiting when set to 4 Ohms. The result would be the 4 Ohm rating being lower than the 8 Ohm rating. The KM-105 I gave to my brother dispensed with the switch. It connected two pair of speakers in series. I suppose it's one way of assuring no loads below four Ohms are applied.
 
Those types of switches are not uncommon on AV receivers. They are not labeled as current limiters. Usually the manual calls for engaging the switch when the speakers are anything but "8 Ohm" speakers.
 
Put the switch in the 8 ohms position and leave it there, regardless that you are using 4 ohm speakers.
 
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