DynAudio Audience 72

[cec174]

I am currently in the process of buying a new house, the new house has a theater room where the former owners are leaving their speakers because they are in the wall. I was able to find out that they are the DynAudio Audience 72 Series and I had a few questions. First, these speakers are rated for 4 ohms I have been reading about 4 ohm v. 8 ohm speakers and have not found an explanation of what the advantage is of 4 ohm speakers however it appears that most of DynAudio's speakers are 4 ohm speakers. I currently have a Sony STR-DA3600ES receiver which at 4 ohms will output 100 Watts. Will this be enough to run these speakers efficently? Second, the previous owners used one of the tower speakers for the center speaker which I had never heard of is this a common practice or should I look at purchasing a specific center speaker which is similar to the Audience 72's which are used as the R and L speakers?

 

[americanaudiophile]

It is not a matter of advantage but of the speaker designer choosing not to be concerned about how easy a speaker is to power vs the sound quality. If an amplifier is stable it will be able to produce more power into a 4 ohm speaker than an 8 ohm which is why car audio uses 2 ohm speakers. Your Sony receiver may not be too comfortable with these speakers and an upgrade will probably be required. Look for an receiver or separate amp that has a higher power rating into 4 ohms than 8 (double is perfect).

The reason that a specific center speaker exists is due to size constraints that make it impossible to use 3 identical speakers. This is considered the best way to set up the three front speakers if possible so stick with what is there.

 

[cec174]

Do you need double the power to get a similar sound level from 4 ohm speakers than from 8 ohm speakers?

 

[anwaypasible]

it takes double the power for an 8 ohm speaker to sound as loud as a 4 ohm speaker.. as long as the sensitivites of the speaker (as well as the BL) are the same.

amps lose their stability the closer they get to seeing the positive and negative speaker wires touching.
the lower the ohms.. the closer you are to touching the speaker wires together.
amps have to be made specifically to keep their stability at the lower ohms.
they also have to be designed to keep their 'energy' at higher ohms.

it is possible that an amp can look at high ohms and say 'this is too much work.. i dont want to do it'