This question began in the receiver thread on THX certification and was suggested to be its own thread. Is there any inherent engineering/sound quality benefit to designing a speaker with a given impedence?
I just bought an H/K receiver that suggests not to use speakers of more than 8 Ohms. Am I losing anything with respect to sound quality by following H/K's direction?
If you connect 4ohm speakers, you might lose sound quality. If you're shopping for new speakers, I'd recommend taking heed to HKs advice, and stick with 8ohm.
Generally the lower the impedance of the speakers, the higher current the receiver or amp must be able to put out in order to run those speakers---in other words the bigger and more expensive the receiver/amp required.
So unless you are willing to drop some major cash on a higher end receiver/amp (I'd start at $1000 and go up if working down to 4 ohms) then 8 ohms is the safest way to go.