Doing A+B Speaker tests with 8 ohm plus 6 ohm sets

Hi,
I just got my 2160 last week and must say I'm very happy with it. Its my first serious audio purchase in a long time.

I have it hooked up to ELAC B6.2 (6 ohm) and would like to compare them with a set of Mission 774 floorstanders (8 ohm) I already had. I would like to use the Speaker A+B switching for this, but wanted to be sure I wouldn't damage the amp.

The manual says you need to use two 8 ohm speaker sets to be able to drive both at the same time, and you could damage the amp if you have a lower combined impedance below 4 ohms.

My questions is does that apply ONLY if music is playing through both at the same time? Or do the speakers merely have to be connected as I hit the "A+B" setting that can't be avoided.

If you recall, the command cycles through the following setting: Speaker A, Speaker B, both muted, both on. You can't avoid the "both on" choice.

So if I play the music on A, then B, THEN stop/pause the music and cycle through A+B with silence, will that still damage the amp?

I don't want to accidentally let the magic smoke out of the box

Brian
RR 2160

You will not harm the amp. The only time the warning applies is if you are driving both sets at the same time. Turning the volume down or off while cycling through both is good but for the short duration you experience and at normal volumes it shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you for that; I tried it last night and everything was fine.