I have a receiver that needs surround sound speakers with 8 ohm, but I only have two ss speakers with 4 ohm. The inputs on the receiver for the front speakers needs 4-8 ohms and I have 2 with 6 ohms. When I only hookup the front speakers it says overload on the receiver.
Front (main) channel speakers should have an 8 ohm rating. 4 ohms is really too low, and this low impedance will test the quality of your amp. An amp must be specifically designed to deliver high current into a low impedance load, and remain stable. This increases the cost of the amp. Surround-sound amplifiers are traditionally even more wimpy. They prefer speakers with 16 ohm impedance! You might be able to run 6 ohm front-channel speakers, using low volumes and low bass (no 'loudness') but it might trip-out if you turn it up. 4 ohm surround speakers are junk - they're just NFG. They make poor speakers for use on any channel (but especially surround channel). So try to keep at least 8 ohms on your main front channel - the higher the better, maybe 6 ohm could work, I dunno. Surround sound speakers need to be higher-impedance than fronts, not lower; however they can be physically small as bass is not as important. You could connect two pairs of 6 ohm speakers, in series, to your surround channel. This will present a 12 ohm load to the little surround amplifier, and allow it to function Regards
