4 Ohm Speaker with an "8 Ohm Minimum" Reciever

My brother was "sold" a reciever with such a warning as part of a package with speakers that were a nominal 4 Ohm load. Needless to say, at anything near loud volume, the the reciever would cut out. These "salesmen" should be ashamed of themselves. Rather than selling the speakers, I would suggest returning the reciever.

I don't know if this is useful in your situation but I used to have a pair of older Monitor Audio 4-ohm speakers that worked quite well with a Parasound amp. When I switched speakers I sold the Monitor Audio's to a friend who planned to use them in his new house.

When he hooked them up to his inexpensive multichannel receiver it almost immediately shut down every time he turned it on. Fortunately, the receiver had an overload protection circuit. I went over to have a look and noticed he was using 18 gauge lamp cord for speaker cable. When we replaced it with the same 12 gauge cable I had been using it worked fine and he's still using the combination several years later. The speakers were just pulling too much juice through too small a wire and the resistance was causing major overheating.

Sfar...What are you thinking!! The smaller wire would slightly INCREASE the impedance seen by the amp and make the load easier to drive. Something else caused the change.

Sfar, my bet is the lamp cord had a short

The smaller guage wire has a higher resistance and uses more of the current to heat itself. I have seen systems where less than half the output makes it to the speakers. I well remember a "Professional" sound man using at least 75' of 20 gauge wire.