Sherwood Receiver Question - Ohms/Speaker Issues

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jackfo10

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Jan 22, 2017
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I have an outdated Sherwood RX 4109 receiver. I have two speakers wired in right now. They are each Definitive 800 Bookshelve speakers. The Sherwood receiver has been passed down to me so I don't have much info on it, but I keep reading that if you use the A and B speaker function at the same time you must use 16 ohm speakers. At the moment my two speakers are plugged into A only. But, I was looking to use both A and B soon, because I was interested in hooking up a sub or maybe some more speakers. So, at the risk of sounding stupid, is this a cumulative ohm or should each speaker have to be 16 ohm? I can't find the manual for the definitives or find the ohms of them online, but I have a multimeter I was gonna test on them (perhaps someone knows off hand). They say this could really make your receiver shit the bed and it was a hand me down that I was really lucky with, don't want to have to wake up one day to find out I gotta go get a new one just cus the speakers ohms were over working it. Thanks to anyone who can help.
 
Solution
That receiver is not old enough to assume 16ohm speakers so it was designed to either handle a four ohm load so you can use two pair of 8 ohm speakers in parallet or when you select A+B they are not in parallel but in series. That would add the impedance of the two pairs so the receiver would see 16ohms and not go boom.
16 ohm each, and good luck finding any. Because home speakers are standard 8 ohms and these days, not uncommon 4-6.

Instead of using A+B, you can just use A and wire 2 speakers in series like this:

(+)--------SPEAKER#1------SPEAKER#2--------(-).

The Sherwood won't mind this configuration (won't damage it) but you will get lower output. But you knew there was a price to pay, can't keep throwing stuff at it expecting it can handle anything.
 


Alright thanks. that's how I set them up in A right now. and I know that's why I'm worried going forward, any suggestions for the sub? it would be the coinciding (for the speakers) 800 definitive sub.
 
That receiver is not old enough to assume 16ohm speakers so it was designed to either handle a four ohm load so you can use two pair of 8 ohm speakers in parallet or when you select A+B they are not in parallel but in series. That would add the impedance of the two pairs so the receiver would see 16ohms and not go boom.
 
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