Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo kinda off topic -- how to wire 4 speakers stereo

Sure, John, but 8 ohms to 4 ohms were discussed.

Agreed... but I'm seeing two different discussions here -- one talking about 4 pairs of speakers and another talking about 2 pairs of speakers. Two pairs is no problem using the A and B ports, but four pairs is a problem unless series resistors are added (but this idea seemed to be rejected because of losses).

Do you think we are talking about 2 pairs or 4 pairs as the requirement ?

Hi,

To further complicate matters, some receiver manufacturers (JVC for one) used to wire the "A" and "B" speaker outputs in series--if you wanted A and B running at the same time--to prevent consumers from lowering the impedance to the point the receiver would overheat or shut down. You can't assume A and B speaker selectors are wired in parallel.

If all he wants is okay background music, the series connection will work fine. It's just that with series connection, the impedance curve of one speaker may affect the frequency response of the other, and vice versa. They'll interact with each other with unpredictable sonic results.

Regards,

thanks for the help guys. I think i got a handle on this now.

Adrian

>>To further complicate matters, some receiver manufacturers (JVC for one) used to wire the "A" and "B" speaker outputs in series--if you wanted A and B running at the same time--to prevent consumers from lowering the impedance to the point the receiver would overheat or shut down. You can't assume A and B speaker selectors are wired in parallel.

Cool !!

>>If all he wants is okay background music, the series connection will work fine. It's just that with series connection, the impedance curve of one speaker may affect the frequency response of the other, and vice versa. They'll interact with each other with unpredictable sonic results.

Not cool !!

Thanks, Alan -- I learn something new every day !!

Professional house audio systems are usually connected one of two ways.

1. A distribution amplifier provides a seperate amp channel for each speaker. A volume control in each room adjusts the level of 1 pair of speakers.

2. 2 amp channels with sufficient power are connected to impedence matching volume controls in each room. This insures that the receiver/amp sees an 8 ohm load with multiple (2, 4, or 8) pairs of speakers connected. The power is "divided" among the rooms so a 100 Watt/channel stereo amp could deliver 25 watts to 4 pairs of speakers.

3. This non-standard option might work if you are only using 2 or 3 pairs of speakers (4 or 6 total). Get a multichannel HT receiver. Set it in 7 channel stereo mode. Connect 1 speaker to each amp channel. Add volume standard volume controls if necessary.