Changing speakers

[Peter Twydell]

My Panasonic Home Cinema system has 7 ohm speakers, a front pair and a rear pair.. Can I safely replace the front pair only with 8 ohm speakers, i.e. without damaging the speakers or the amp?

[meow2222]

yes

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes.

[Dave Osborne]

In a word, yes. The dynamic impedance of a loudspeaker is all over the place anyway (i.e. it varies with frequency and may drop as low as 2 Ohm in places). Normally, speakers are a nominal 2, 4, 8 or 16 Ohm impedance which relates to their average impedance. Calling a speaker 7 Ohm is a bit of a nonsense. There's no reason why they couldn't have called it 8 Ohm and eliminated any confusion.

What may affect the end result is the sensitivity of your new speakers. If they are more sensitive that the old speakers, then they will be too loud compared with the other speakers in the setup. If they are less sensitive then they will be too quiet compared with the other speakers. Usually, on your cinema amp, you can adjust the relative volume of each part of your setup.

Also, if you are replacing smaller speakers with larger speakers, you may have a setting on your amp where you can tell your amp you've connected full-size speakers. This will send more bass frequencies to the new speakers.

HTH

[Peter Twydell]

Thanks everyone for the swift replies.

The system is indeed adjustable for front/rear bias, delay, etc., and the bass is also adjustable. As is practically everything else

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - the figure is only a nominal one. And any amp will happily drive a higher impedance speaker - just at reduced level. But not in this case.