Resolved - New speakers

[Jankovski]

Name: P. Jankovski

Rank: WO

Type of issue: Hardware

Brief Description of Issue:

Okay here is the thing.

A the moment i got some bad speakers so i want to get 2 3way speakers.

Thing that i was reading about and cant figure out is Ohm impedance. Most speakers that i'm seeing are 4 ohm or 4...8ohm impedance.

I'm scared that i may burn my receiver if take the wrong speakers that are too strong or something .

Sticker on my reciever says 120wx5 .

So how much watts per speaker can my reciever handle and how much ohm impedance should i look?

My receiver is Kenwood KRF V5080D.

Also it would be helpful to give me a tip which manufacturers should i look for example Technics or Heco or Marantz.

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Edited January 4, 2016 by Woz 1st MRB

[Lafy BAR]

I believe your receiver is 8-16 ohm, you can use speakers with an ohm rating anywhere from 8 to 16 ohms, if you look at the back the answer may be printed under the speaker connectors.

A speaker generally only has 1 ohm rating, if some manufacturer is advertising a range like 4-8ohm, I would assume there are 2 ways to wire the speakers to the receiver, but you should check the manual to see or don't buy speakers that don't specify a single ohm rating.

[Kirkendall 1st MRB]

My tip for ohms ratings: Don't pay too much attention to them. You won't burn out your system by having different ohms ratings. Ohms offer resistance for power coming into the speakers. For the typical setup, stay around 8 ohms. Your receiver doesn't list resistance in the manual, so the safe assumption is 8 ohms. If you have different speakers hooked into the system, you will start getting odd sound distortion since the reciver has to drive each speaker differently. Typically if a speaker is offering 4 ohms, it's telling you to crosswire the speakers. I won't go into that here, but it's basically splitting the power output from a receiver.

Your receiver is pretty legit, if a bit aged. When receivers give out ratings they can do a couple of different things. If your receiver is saying 120x5 that means it's a 600 watt receiver that's spreading it's power across 5 channels. Pretty simple really, 600 / 5 = 120. So you have 120 watts per speaker connection to work with. That's probably "topping out" power in that it can't pull much more than that. Disclaimer: Don't be fooled by "Home Theater in a Box" systems that advertise outrageous amounts of power (like this). That system is expected to power both the blu-ray player inside the receiver as well as the passive subwoofer.

Anyways for recommendations, I'd really like to know a price range that you'd like to stay within, but I can highlight some of my favorites.

If you ever get me going on sound equipment, I'll gush about Klipsch. I own 3 Klipsch soundbars, 2 wireless speaker sets, a set of Klispch earbuds, and the ProMedia 2.1 PC speaker set. I'm a huge Klipsch fanboy and I always recommend them, but they can be a tad pricey. Here's a starting point for Klipsch.

Don't get scared by the max wattage listed on any speaker recommendations. Look at the running power, not peak. Peak would be if you jacked the receiver to the utmost highest volume it can do. I don't recommend that for your eardrums, your neighbors, or your sound quality.

One brand who has been putting out just a fantastic line of entry speakers is Pioneer. Seriously, their starting speakers are great quality, I highly recommend reading any reviews of them online. Really a great price for a heckuva pair. Example.

If you're just looking for price efficiency, you could do a lot worse than Polk Audio. They've been in the game forever and give out a great sound at hard-to-compete with pricing. Check out the T15s.

Those are three brands I have experience with so my recommendation will be obviously biased. If you have a certain price range you're looking for, please let me know. Otherwise, if you have a specific kind of sound you want to hear (you like to slappa da bass, or get some of those Freddy Mercury high notes) let me know as well. (If you're wondering Klipsch is phenomenal at capturing high notes)

Either way, let me know if this is what you're looking for or if you have any other questions.

[Jankovski]

Your reply Kirk is all i needed to hear. Thanks

I heard about Klipsch speakers however i can't find them here in Serbia, well i can but they are all above 200 euros which is too much for me. Honestly i love vintage stuff. Here are some speakers i found and im interested in.

Pioneer CS 777

Pioneer CS 701

Heco SM 640

heco SM 770

Canton fonum 100

Heco Profil 2008

Saba K-50

I listen to all types of music, today i will listen Freddy tommorow i will listen to some Electro etc. So yeah its kinda problem to specify what kind of sound i want to hear.

When you got time tell me which would be your choice of those i listed above.

Audio expert that fixed my turntable told me that if i want a nice warm sound i should sell my receiver and buy a vintage one like Sony str-6055 or a Pioneer SX 525 so idk should i listen to him or what.

[Kirkendall 1st MRB]

Heco, Canton, & Saba are all German speaker makers. They are ones that I won't have a lot of direct experience with. However, I do recall "Diamond Dave Bennett" (my old audio guy) once telling me, "Germans can make a great car... I just wish they'd leave the speakers to us. Bennett always made me exceedingly jealous since he had a nice old Mcintosh audio setup with Klipsch and Definitive speakers.

But as I said, I won't have a lot of direct experience with the German ones. The Pioneer CS 777 is definitely the choice I would go for. I like the specs on the Heco speakers, but I don't know what kind of pricing you're getting on any of the choices. So unfortunately I don't have a grand amount of input. All the reviews I'm reading of the Canton's are less than stellar, there's that at least.

As for a receiver swap-out, I usually peg those into the "audio-snob" category. The expression "warm sound" gets thrown around a lot these days for old audio equipment that gives out more of the original sound that the artists heard when they were recording old music. Older generations dislike digital music as it gets "cleaned up" to sound crystal clear. Vinyl records go a long way for making older music sound like what the artists were listening to, but you'd need a full analog receiver to pair with that to give the true "old warm" sound.

In short, I don't personally believe it's worth the effort. If you're looking for a wide view of music, Basing yourself to an old receiver limits modern music. The "warm sound" that people look for in older music is not present in a lot of modern music. So if you are looking for older music, go with an old receiver. If you're looking for newer music, go with a newer receiver. If you're looking for both, stay with the new.

[H. Stone 1st MRB]

Pioneers are great I agree with Kirkendall

[Jankovski]

Yeah i'll check into Pioneer, but with my limited budget i will have to check for the market. I have lots of German brands here but not so much American or Japanese ones.

[Candy 1st MRB]

This ticket appears to be solved. Closing ticket.

[Jankovski]

Please do. I forgot to mention it. I traded my reciever for a integrated amp Sony TA-1150 and got some awesome Canton Fonum 90 speakers.