JBL Stage A130 on a Yamaha R-N800A: which impedance setting, and why the menu hides it
A 6 Ω speaker belongs on the 4 ohm MIN setting, which lives in Advanced Setup and not on a rear switch. 100 W and 84.75 dB per watt give 95.2 dB at 3 m; JBL publishes no impedance minimum at all.
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Safe, and the setting is the part people get wrong.
The R-N800A does not have a rear impedance switch. The choice is a menu item in Advanced Setup: «4 ohm MIN» for speakers of 4 Ω or more but less than 8, «8 ohm MIN» for 8 Ω speakers. A 6 Ω JBL belongs on the first. Because there is nothing to see on the back panel, this is the setting most often left wrong for the life of the amplifier — the sound is not obviously broken either way, so nobody goes looking.
What the calculation says. 100 W into 8 Ω, 20 Hz–20 kHz, 0.07 % THD, both channels driven — the strict figure from Yamaha’s own table, alongside a 145 W JEITA number at 10 % THD and IHF dynamic power of 140 / 170 / 220 / 290 W into 8 / 6 / 4 / 2 Ω. With the A130’s sensitivity of 86 dB at 2.83 V / 1 m into 6 Ω, which is 84.75 dB per watt, 3 m gives 95.2 dB, 9.8 dB below the 105 dB reference peak. 14 AWG over 15 ft costs 1.2 % and leaves a damping factor of 48.
The impedance figure JBL does not publish. Harman gives «Nominal Impedance: 6 Ohms» for the whole Stage line and no minimum anywhere. Treat the 6 Ω as an upper bound on what the amplifier will see rather than a typical value, and note the second-order effect: because the entire Stage line is specified at 2.83 V into 6 Ω, JBL’s own model-to-model comparisons are internally consistent, while comparisons against an 8 Ω brand quoted the same way are not. The safe verdict here comes from the calculation’s 4.8 Ω stand-in, not from a measurement.
Where the same amplifier is not safe. Put the KEF Q350 on it — 8 Ω nominal, but 3.7 Ω minimum — and at the same 3 m it returns 97.5 dB with a thermal overload hazard. The 8 Ω speaker is the risky one and the 6 Ω speaker is not, which is the opposite of what the labels say. That is also the case where the «8 ohm MIN» menu setting would be actively wrong: it is chosen from the nominal figure, and the nominal figure is the one that lies.