Matching speaker and amp?

[admin_exported]

I'm just starting to build up my home stereo system and there is a puzzle I just cant figure out anymore. I have a set of speakers available with a really good sound picture - 8ohms, 86dB sensitivity, 100W max. The thing what worries me is the low sensitivity figure, cause the receiver (I don't have it in my hands yet) to drive them is only 50 watts per channel at 8 ohms with the linear damping factor of 150. Is this receiver enough to drive these speakers in a room of 15x15 room? In addition, the receiver has the option to switch the output to 4-8ohms and 8-16ohms, so which one I should use?

Thanks

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, that should work fine, assuming that 15x15 is feet, and not metres! Use the 8-16ohm setting.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Andrew. And yes these are feet. Is it so that with this set a distortion will be an issue since the sensitivity of speakers are low, receiver is quite weak and it needs much turning of the volume button to reach to certain volume level, hence the distortion will come to sound picture?

About the ohm selector. I have heard that sometimes the speaker impedance can fall lower than given figure, or in reality be even lower than advertized, so will it harm the receiver if I will select 8-16 ohm on receiver but the speaker will fall/is in reality 7 ohm's for example?