Ohm load on my Marantz 2270?

[RunOutGroove]

I've been swapping around speakers run by my Marantz 2270 receiver (i have 2 sets plugged into it) which for a a while (nearly a couple of decades!) it had two 8 ohm pairs hooked up to it. When I moved to a couple of 6 ohm speakers I ran everything though a speaker switcher which has a speaker protection switch that's always engaged during the times when I have both sets of speakers running simultaneously. I understand that a combined 3 ohm load is too much for that amp and could fry it, hence the speaker switcher with that speaker protection button. recently I've been playing with another combo of speakers where one is 6 ohm but the other is 8 ohm and I'm wonder if this combo is likely to be to much for my amp if run together without that speaker protection switch engaged. That switch does seem to eat a little bit of the bass so I'd rather not engage it if I don't need to, but I'm wary about frying my amp (those things are VERY expensive in today's market!) and I'd rather err on the side of caution if there's any chance of damage.

What are folks' thoughts on this... am I safe to run the 6 and 8 ohm sets together?

 

[Steven Tate]

Don't do it. The 2270 is not the most forgiving amp when it comes to low impedance loads. I won't run mine with 4 ohm speakers, although technically, that's probably OK. But I would never run it at 3 ohms. It's just asking for disaster. Might you get away with it? Yep. But, like you said - it's an expensive unit, and doing that is a little like playing Russian Roulette.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Don't do it. The 2270 is not the most forgiving amp when it comes to low impedance loads. I won't run mine with 4 ohm speakers, although technically, that's probably OK. But I would never run it at 3 ohms. It's just asking for disaster. Might you get away with it? Yep. But, like you said - it's an expensive unit, and doing that is a little like playing Russian Roulette.

Cool... I'll only run the two together with that protection switch on. That's what I'm used to doing anyway and I certainly don't want to blow my amp! Thanks for that bit of advice...