What can you tell me about amplifiers?

[Tuomas]

Hiya.

I've just come to realise, that there's a problem with my amp, and I was for long looking for new ones to replace the old.

But then I noticed, that it's only the right side speaker that doesn't work. So basically music sounds a bit one-sided. My set is rather old, from the 80's, but I love it because it has my grandmas old vinyl player. And having this one break down would mean, that I'd have to buy a new one, and one for fiddling around with old C-casettes.

My amp says in the back 45W and speakers at the minimum of 8 Ohms. I realised my speakers have an 8 Ohm limits, so they should fit. But! I tried one speaker from my gf's set, that was 6 Ohms, and it played well, though a bit more quiet. This was before I found out the amp wants a 8 Ohm minimum... Here what I did:

The old speaker has a cord too short. So there's an extension added to it. I figured, There was a problem with the extension cord or the speaker itself. So I removed the extension and attached it to a new speaker (mentioned before). There was no sound, so I thought it could be the extension cords fault.

Then I plugged the old speaker in without the extension, and heard nothing. so I figured it's either both the extension and the original one, that of the amp's busted. Then I plugged in the new speaker without the extension, and it played as said. So it shouldn't be the amp, but the 2 cords???!

BUT! I plugged my working speaker into the right-speaker-out, and it didn't work at all... So could the right-out have gone incompatible with my speakers? Because the "broken" speaker did work plugged into left-out. So it's not broken after all. So the thing is: my right speaker won't work for some reason, no matter which one I use as right. But, the new speaker, that shouldnät be very good fit does.

I just don't want to use there "new" speakers because the amp says min. 8 Ohms, and the speakers are 6 Ohms. But does that matter. And should I buld a new set from insurance fraud money, what should I look into? 220V? the Watts? or at least if the speakers are compatible?

Due to lack of money i haven't really been an audio whore yet, but I'd like to become one

[Phemar]

I can tell you that you should always match the imdepance of your speakers with the impedance marking on the amplifier. So don't connect the 6 Ohm speakers to the 8 Ohm output.

[zabnat]

Connecting a 6 ohm speaker to an amplifier that says minimum of 8 ohms will usually just make the amplifier to heat up more.
Maybe you should check the cords with a multimeter and check the connections for corrosion.

And should I buld a new set from insurance fraud money, what should I look into? 220V? the Watts? or at least if the speakers are compatible?

Due to lack of money i haven't really been an audio whore yet, but I'd like to become one

Ofcourse you should build a new set from insurance fraud money. Yes, 220V (or rather 230V) is a good feature on an amp if your wall socket gives that much voltage. If you're getting a new new amp then you should think about if you need a surround amp, since those are about the same price as the stereo amps. Or maybe build your own amp.

[shbaz]

The impedance of the speaker is matched to the output impedance of the amplifier.  Every circuit has a resistance of sorts also.  Impedance matching works like this -

Ohms law says that Voltage = Current(Resistance)
One definition of a Watt is = Voltage(Current)
Therefore Voltage = Watts/Current and Current = Watts/Voltage
You can derive from that - (Current^2)(Resistance) = Watts

Say you have a resistance (impedance) of ten ohms, but your load is 5 ohms.  Now your power amplifier is dissipating 2/3 of the power that might be dissipated by your load as sound..

So basically, your six ohm speaker will work.  If you start cranking up the volume, however, you may find that your heat sinks inside aren't compatible with the extra heat load, and your transistors will lose their magic smoke.

I suggest you look for a pair of speakers to salvage from a Hifi someone doesn't want.  Why a pair?  Because it sounds like you have a stereo amplifier (two different ones, one for each speaker) and your tone will be off-balance if the speakers aren't matched.