Vintage amplifier specifications


I've noticed when I read vintage amplifier specifications, and by vintage I mean 70's,80's maybe 90's, I do not see power output specified at 4 ohms. Did those older amplifiers not do well on 4 ohm speakers so leave that information out or was it not considered a a matter of interest to the buying public. Maybe something else?

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I should add that a lot of those old amplifiers, usually integrated had hookups for two sets of speakers which could really drop the total impedance. Maybe a lot of those old units had short lives or they could handle it without issue?

check hifiengine for those specs or audiodatabase for more detailed write-ups of the amplifier(s) in question. most of the time, vintage gear was rated in manuals at power output into 8 ohms / stereo.

Back then most speakers were called 8 ohm so that is all that mattered.

No issue with 2 pairs of speakers for any that I ever owned.

I have a vintage Marantz and a vintage Sansui, both stereo receivers. They have main and secondary speaker terminals. This was to have your main speakers and then a remote pair in another location. Most of the units of that era did not have a design that employed multiple impedance outputs ( 4,8,16 ). So they were rated for power at 8 ohms and would state acceptable load 4-16 ohms. Sometimes we’d stack two pairs of speakers and run A and B, or wire two pair in parallel. We were just kids then , but we’d listen for distortion and clipping. New gear has a higher degree of engineering.