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Yamaha M-80 Amplifier Connection Options

Hello to all,

Hoping to shed light on the best speaker hook-ups for a new (to me) Yamaha M-80 amplifier. The amp will power (1) pair Boston Acoustics VR-3's. The BA's are 15-250 watts, 8 ohms and have 93db efficiency. Until now I've bi-wired the speakers c/o my Yamaha AV5990 (rated at 120 watts 20-20). Not bad, but I'm looking for much better from the new M-80 rated at 250wpc @ 8 ohms.

The M-80 gives me the option of using speaker pair A, pair B and/or pair C either separately or in a variety of combinations. However Yamaha qualifies this with the following verbiage...Scenario 1; Connect (2) pairs of speakers in parallel using A and then using either B or C --- OR --- connect (2) pairs of speakers in series using B and C.

Now Yamaha recommends that speakers run in parallel be 8 ohm minimum and then add that speakers run in series be 2 ohm minimum. I'm determined to keep bi-wiring but I'm not sure what's my best option given all the different combos???

Here is the PDF version of my owners manual... http://www.usersmanualguide.com/yamaha_audio/separate_amplifiers/m-80

I sincerely appreciate any good opinions...

Mike S.
mako20ft

Showing 1 response by hlemel

hlemel
1 posts
 
I also have a question on a bi-wiring set-up. My speakers are JMlab 8 ohm speakers capable of 50-150 watts and bi-wireable and my amp is a Luxman L-430 (105(?) w rms/channel. The amp has an A (L+R) and B (L+R) speaker inputs. It accepts 4-ohm - 16 ohm speakers if only the A-output is engaged and 8ohm-16 ohms if A+B speaker outputs are used.

The crux of my question:

I can bi-wire either to A speaker output on the amp alone or separate out the BASS/mids to A and the tweeters to the B speaker outputs on my amp. In fact I did this for a while with great sonic results.

However, I noticed that the amp was getting very hot and so I wondered if by this setup, the nominal 8-ohm resistance of my speakers had been reduced to 4 ohms which is below what the amp specifies for A+B speaker outputs being used simultaneously. When I limit the bi-wiring to the A-speaker output, less heat is generated, but the sound isn't as nice (better separation, depth, etc.)

If I am reducing the ohms to 4 with the A+B bi-wiring setup, is there ant conceivable way to get the same advantages by hooking up the 2 speakers in series. My mind blows a fuse when I try to think about this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Harold
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