I would like to get everyones opinion on driving 4 ohm speakers rated at 100 watts like the Rainmakers with a 8 ohm amp like the Bryston 3b. Sonic improvement,can you drive to clipping? I just picked up the Totems, exchanged them for JBL monitors and we started the ohm thing. Brewster
My concern is will the 4 ohm 100 watt speaker blow up at full volume,full volume meaning just below clipping,thats how the 8 ohm JBL's were played for years.Plus will the resistance difference effect the amp in a negitive way sonically?
Your Bryston will be just fine Brewster...trust me.
I'll be running Rainmakers this weekend with a 40 watt per channel Creek 4330 and a 60 watt per channel Rega Mira 3 and I 've heard them run with a 60 watt per channel Rotel (not ideal)...none of those are nearly as ideal to drive Totems with as your Bryston...as I said it'll be fine.
BTW why would you want to play your speakers so loud. Seems like a waste to me.
I don't believe anyone understands what "the Ohm thing" is. Here are some facts. There are no 100 watt speakers. Speakers don't got no watts. There are no 8 Ohm amplifiers. And speakers rated at 4 Ohms probably aren't "four Ohms" - they exist most likely on a wandering impedance curve that can be both higher and lower than any single spec. You can blow up any speaker if you try hard enough and you will find it easier to do so with less power than you would with more power.
I suspect you are not hearing your music played as loudly with the Totems as when you used the JBL's. That would be a function of speaker sensitivity and not impedance.
I'm not sure how you define "clipping" but if you keep the amplifier beneath the point where it runs out of steam, you should be OK with the reliability of the system. As to sound quality, no amplifier prefers to drive low impedance loads. Place "tube friendly speakers" in a search engine to find out why that is.
Totems are known for a lot of things. Getting rock concert level SPLs isn't one of them.
JBLs are famous for few things. Getting rock concert SPLs is one of them.
Just because a speaker is louder doesn't mean its better. I've heard plenty of JBLs and Totems to know this. Everyone listens for different things and in different ways. Just because we like the Totems more than JBLs doesn't mean everyone will. To each his own.
Your Bryston amp will drive just about anything on the planet to uncomfortably loud levels. Forget the speakers' specs. Its like having a Mack truck diesel engine.
Like Stu says, the Bryston will drive just about anything. Bryston is built a bit like Classe amps. Each will run down to 2 ohms, but that value is not advertised, as it is not encouraged, as somebody will run car subs with the thing. Bryston is well vented, above being a cool running amp by design. Classe not so much...
You're right there, Nuck. I've used my Brystons to drive 6 ohm speakers to very, very loud levels, without the amps even getting remotely warm to the touch. Tried the same thing many times with NAD amps and cook an egg on them.
My somewhat uneducated thought on this matter is not all about a speaker's "ohm spec". Rather it is a combination of ohm, the speakers efficiency and perhaps the cross-overs employed.
My Naim Arivas spec'd at 4 ohms, and surely they dip below that on demanding passages.
But as Art, I believe, explained it. They are "easy ohms" based on the speakers relative efficiency.
I am sure he could shed some light on this discussion.