How to daisy chain speakers? (1 Viewer)

[Shawn O]

Could someone please tell me how to correctly "daisy-chain" two sets of speakers?

Thank you,
Shawn

 

[John F. Palacio]

Do you mean wiring them in series?

Wiring speakers in series is not recommended, due to sonic degradations. Complete explanations of why might be beyond the scope of this thread.

But if you must:
+ of the amp to + of spkr# 1
- of spkr # 1 to + of spkr # 2
- of spkr # 2 to - of the amp

 

[Phil_DC]

Intresting, I have wondered how some HT owners with long narrow rooms were able to place 4 to 6 side surrounds.I guess thats one way.

Would it not be better just to get an additional 2 or 4 channel amp and share the signal that way?

 

[Shawn O]

Thanks John,

Yes "series" was the word that I was looking for.

Shawn

 

[Aaron Garman]

Hello all. Is this how they wire surrounds in large movie theatres?

Aaron Garman

 

[James Bergeron]

No wire them in parallel. I have an extra set of surrounds for my 2nd and 3rd row. This set can be switched from a 7.1 setup to 2 set's for 5.1. I wired them in parallel, in other words plug 2 sets of wires into your amp.

Only do this if your amp can handle a 4ohm or less load.

 

[John F. Palacio]

Phil_DC says: Intresting, I have wondered how some HT owners with long narrow rooms were able to place 4 to 6 side surrounds.I guess thats one way.

Would it not be better just to get an additional 2 or 4 channel amp and share the signal that way?"

Additional amps are absolutely the right way to go. The original thread just asked about daisy chaining, not anything else.

 

[John F. Palacio]

"Aaron Garman says; Hello all. Is this (series connection) how they wire surrounds in large movie theatres?

Aaron Garman"

I would seriously doubt it. Al the ones I know of run separate amps for each speaker.

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

No wire them in parallel.

Before doing this, make sure they are not 4 ohm speakers or you will have one hot amp.

 

[Geoff S]

Be careful when running speakers in series you can seriously hurt your amplifier, or speakers, or both. You do need a 4 ohm or less load from the amp to do this, and on speakers higher than 4 ohms, and it can work successfully since surrounds are not used as hard as any of the other speakers, but be forewarned.
But for better sound quality, and no risk, get separate amps to drive multiple rows of surrounds. Everyone is recomending it, so if you can afford it, do it. Either a 2 channel amp with A/B speaker outs (4 speakers from 2 preouts), or a Y connector from each surround pre-amp going to two separate, two speaker amps.
I couldn't see any theater sensibly running the surrounds in series cause those speakers have to play loud and there are usually, 3, 5, sometimes 7 surrounds per side! 3 is a slim possibility, the rest, no chance. They would use separate amps, or specially made amps the would take a single surround channel from the processor pre-out to the amp, and that amp would have discrete power supplys and amps to run 5 or more speakers playing the same signal. But don't quote me on that cause it is a guess as to what they actually use... I'm tempted next time when I got to my local Edwards Cinema to sneak into the projection area to see what kind of equipment they're running.

 

[John F. Palacio]

"Be careful when running speakers in series you can seriously hurt your amplifier, or speakers, or both. You do need a 4 ohm or less load from the amp to do this, and on speakers higher than 4 ohms, and it can work successfully since surrounds are not used as hard as any of the other speakers, but be forewarned."
I have to respectfully but emphatically disagree. When you run speakers in series the impedance seen by the amp goes up and it won't be able to provide full output power to the speakers, but there will be no damage done. Two 8 ohm speakers in series will give you 16 ohms which means the amp (assuming a transformerless amp, which is the majority) will only able to deliver 1/2 the power it normally would. Same math will apply to 4 ohm speakers. Sonically it is not wonderful nor efficient, but you are not going to hurt anything with the possible exception of your ears.

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

Hate to pick on Geoff, but I also must disagree with another part of his post as well. In the second paragraph:

But for better sound quality, and no risk, get separate amps to drive multiple rows of surrounds. Everyone is recomending it, so if you can afford it, do it. Either a 2 channel amp with A/B speaker outs (4 speakers from 2 preouts),

A 2 channel amp with A/B speaker outs IS NOT a separate amp for each speaker. The A and B speaker outs share the same amp channels. They are ususally wired internally in the receiver (or amp) as the equivlent of being wired in parallell. They are intended to be used in as either A or B, not both at once.