How would I hook up two normal stereo speakers as a single center channel (or dual in this case)

You should put either one directly above and below the TV or directly on each side. Normal stereo speakers are generally most conducive to each side.

Ian Colquhoun
President & Chief Engineer

I meant, "technically" how do you hook them up? Won't putting both the positive and negative wires of EACH speaker in EACH hole reduce the power going to each speaker since the center is expective ONE speaker?

If I read this correctly, if you wire from a channel on your amp to speaker A, then continue on from speaker A's terminal to speaker B's cooresponding terminals, you will have created a Parallel Circuit. The laws of Electricity dictate that this will REDUCE the overall resistance placed on the amp. So technically it could look like a smaller load, which would allow more output. However some amps can not handle too low of a load. (8ohms in parallel with 8 ohms = 4 ohms, and with 4 ohms speakers, 4 and 4 =2)

* This is a theoretical discussion of resistances and loads of speakers. As with all theories, there are complicated calcualtions, and we also are limiting a speaker to being a resistance - when it actually is complex load of inductance, capacitance and resistance. The stance taken is to reduce complexity, and still maintain an accurate explanation.

I have experimented with this:
- wire a SINGLE channel to the speakers general area
- wire the positive to speaker A positive terminal
- wire the negative to speaker B negative terminal
- connect Speaker A negative to Speaker B positive

This does the opposite of the above Parallel Circuit, and creates a series circuit. A series circuit is the addition of both loads ( example 8ohms +8ohms = 16 ohms,and with 4 ohm speakers, 4 + 4=8 )

Again, this has worked, and was recommended by NAD on some of there amps.

Regards,

BBIBH

This might be a stupid question, but despite the fact that I've SEEN and heard of people using two speakers for a center channel, most people are asking me why in god's name would I WANT to use two speakers?

Other than the fact that it might be cheaper than buying a proper center.

Jordan, I have done the same thing since I could not afford to buy a proper set of home theatre speakers.
I had 3 pairs of speakers and no sub, so I put my pair of old Technics speakers (/w tweeter control, which I found under the stairs when I moved into my house) under my TV and wired them with a set of wires each coming from the receiver(in parallel). This worked fine for me until I bought the Epic 80 system (w/o the sub, getting an SVS).

I did it that way because I felt the speakers would not produce enough treble/midrange using only one for the type of speaker.

You just have to be careful how you wire it due to your receiver's minimum speaker ohms.

BBIBH

Wouldn't your first example be in series and the second be in parallel?

series:
receiver/wire/speaker/wire/speaker

if the first wire(circuit) is broken then no signal gets to the first or second speaker

parallel:
.............../wire/speaker
receiver-
.............../wire/speaker

if the first wire(circuit) is broken then the second still gets a signal

I hope this will clear up any confusion for either of us.

In terms of a broken connection stopping the speakers from working, it would depend in the parallel example where the break occurrs. If it occurred in the main feed, neither speaker would work. If it occurred in the feed from Speaker A to Speaker B, then A would work, but be would not.

You have the concept down correctly, but have reversed the names (Series vs. Parallel). This is kind of hard to describe with words, so lets try it again:
Parallel
- Amp (+ and -) to cooresponding Speaker A terminals ( + and -)
- Speaker A (+ and -) fed to Speaker B (+ and -) amp====SPeakerA====SpeakerB
Series
- Amp +-------(+SpeakerA-) ------(+SpeakerB-) ----------Amp -

Please see the attached file.

Regards,

BBIBH

The file did not attach on the first attempt. Hopefully this time!

Regards,

BBIBH

BBIBH

I see what you mean now, I think I was over analysing it.

You had the concepts correct, but reversed the terminolgy. I was speaking purely on Theoretical Electrical Concepts of Series, and Parallel Circuits. That would confuse people if they do not have a background in this area.

Regards,

BBIBH