Should I Parallel wire speakers, or cut down the number of speakers? (1 Viewer)

[eddified]

I've got a 7.2 receiver w/ Atmos. I'm building a theater in a room that is about 12' x 19'. There will be two rows of seating. My concern is that with only two surround speakers (one left surround, and one right surround), and two ceiling speakers (one left, one right), only one row of the seating will get good sound. So my plan was to buy 4 more speakers so that there is a total of 2 left surrounds, 2 right surrounds, (one pair for each row), and similar setup for the ceiling. However, I'm not so sure doing this is a good idea.

I don't really care how many speakers I end up with - what I really care is about the Atmos experience and how it will play out with 2 rows of seating. I do not want to optimize for only the front row. I want the surround experience to be fairly equal between front and back rows.

I'm open to advice about this. Two sets of speakers (one set for each row of seating) wired in parallel (or series) --- OR is it better (from a sound quality perspective) to just use one set of speakers and place them kind of half way between the seating rows?

Receiver is Yamaha RX-V683.
Speakers for the left and right surrounds are Polk 265-RT and for the ceiling: Polk 80 F/X RT.

 

[eddified]

The receiver manual is making it sound like 6 ohms is the minimum impedance that the surround amps will support. Paired with the Polk 265-RT (whose manual doesn't specify the impedance, so I'm assuming is 8 ohms - and I don't have the speakers yet, so I can't look at the speaker for this info).. that means parallel wiring is not an option.

So, should I wire in series, or just do with 1 speaker per amp?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

It’s hard to discern these things long distance without seeing the room, but to be safe it would be best to go with two of each. Especially with those surround speakers, as speakers with a woofer-tweeter-woofer design tend to have minimal wide high frequency dispersion (i.e. a focused soundstage, not broad).

You’re already aware of the problems with parallel wiring, but with series you’ll end up with at best only 45 watts total output for that channel. That will be divided between the two speakers, meaning each one only gets 20+ watts. Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me.

One speaker per amplifier channel is obviously the best way to go. However, your receiver does not provide RCA output jacks to utilize outboard amplification. That seems to leave you with three options:

- Go with one pair of 266’s and 80FX’s and hope for the best.
- Wire two pairs of each in parallel or series and hope for the best.
- Get a new receiver with individual channel outputs and add additional amplifiers.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[eddified]

@Wayne A. Pflughaupt Does it change anything if I choose a different speaker with a different design? Such as the Polk 65-RT: https://www.polkaudio.com/products/65-rt .... It doesn't appear to be a "woofer-tweeter-woofer" design like the 265-RT.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

You might be able to get by with one pair of speakers using those. It really depends on how close they will be to the viewers. If they are at least 4’ or so from the closest seat, and at least 6’ high on the wall, you should be able to get away with a single pair.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[eddified]

You might be able to get by with one pair of speakers using those. It really depends on how close they will be to the viewers. If they are at least 4’ or so from the closest seat, and at least 6’ high on the wall, you should be able to get away with a single pair.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Thank you. I want to make sure I understand: it is your belief that the speaker should be 4' or less (closer) to the closest seat, in order to get away with a single pair?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Just the opposite - no closer than 4’ from the closest seat, and 6’ high. Further away is better than closer. The distance allows for some dispersion from the speaker, meaning the sound “spreads” over a wider area.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JohnRice]

Just a comment, if you orient MTM speakers vertically, their horizontal dispersion should be as good or better than regular bookshelf models.

 

[JohnRice]

Also, just to contribute my $0.02. I think your goal should be to use the equipment that's suitable for the layout, rather than rigging it with parallel/series channels. It is clear to me that you need an 11 channel (7.x.4) receiver/processor to suitably create your surround system. Side and rear surrounds and forward and back in-ceiling Atmos speakers. Then calibration will pretty much get everything going as it should. Also, as Wayne has mentioned, with the limited side dimension to the room, it's extremely important that your surround/Atmos speakers have as wide a dispersion as possible. I'm not sure Polk is going to produce that.