How do you wire a pair of speakers to act as a single channel? (1 Viewer)

[Nick Graham]

I have a pair of JBL N24 IIs to act as the center rear channel on my new Kenwood VR-6060. However, I obviously only have one set of binding posts on the back of the receiver for the rear center channel. How do I effectively wire both N24 IIs to be my rear center channel?

 

[John Garcia]

You don't, you use one, to keep the nominal resistance consistent.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Nick,

To clarify what John said, it’s critical for most home theater receivers to have a proper load – typically between 6-8 ohms per channel. Running both speakers to the same channel will most likely result in a 4-ohm load, which will demand roughly double the power output from that channel. This could eventually cause that amplifier channel to fail.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[John Garcia]

Sorry, I gave the short answer. :b

Not only could you strain this particular channel to failure, you will also reduce the total amount of power available to all of the channels since all are powered by the same power section. Now, these speakers are not extremely demanding, however, to be on the safe side, I would still not recommend them being run off a single channel.

If you have pre-amp outputs for the rear channel(I am not familiar with this receiver), you could use an external amp to run both channels without issue.

 

[Mat_M]

Well he could run them in series. This would effectively create a 16 Ohm load, which would not be demanding at all. The 4 Ohm load comes from running them in parallel.

The only problem I see with a series setup is that output SPL levels might be too low. I think it's worth a try. Compare a series setup to just one speaker and see what you like best.

Series wiring is like this:

Receiver red -> speaker 1 red
speaker 1 black -> speaker 2 red
speaker 2 black -> receiver black

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Actually, series isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you start with say, 100 watts, the series connection will suck that down to 50 watts. When that 50 watts is divided between the two speakers, they are each getting only 25 watts each. So yes, there will probably be a considerable SPL issue. With demanding scenes, you will run out of headroom in a hurry.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt