Two receivers to one speaker? (1 Viewer)

[Timothy_A.]

I'm maybe getting to the point of starting to understand and be curious enough about going to the next levels to be getting a little dangerous to my gear. I have a mellow Onkyo receiver that I prefer for simple 2 channel music over my HT receiver. I have some vintage speakers that I love for classical music and use as my mains sometimes for HT, just for fun. Can I run a set of speaker wires from each of the two receivers to each of the two (L & R) speakers? To clarify, one set of speaker wires would run from the Onkyo to the main speakers. Another set of speaker wires would run from the HT receiver to the same main speakers. Each speaker would then have two speaker wires on each of the two binding posts. I could then use the same set of speakers for either the HT receiver or the 2 channel reciever without changing the wires.
Perhaps this is done all the time but I don't want to wreck the speakers, receivers, or sonic qualities. Any advice appreciated!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

It’s not hard to do, Timothy. All you need is this speaker selector from Radio Shack.

It’s designed to let you use two pairs of speakers with one receiver. You can select speaker pair “A,” “B” or both ”A+B."
All you need to do is connect it backwards to accommodate your situation. In other words, you would connect your speakers to the “Receiver” terminals, and your two receivers to the two sets of “Speaker” terminals. Make sense?
Just make sure you never use the “A+B” position, especially if both receivers are turned on.
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Selden Ball]

I'd suggest talking to the manager of one of your local A/V stores about getting speaker selection switches like they have. They're designed to do exactly what you want: select different speakers to be driven by different receivers so you can do A/B comparisons. They'll eliminate the worry of damaging a receiver by forgetting to change one of the A/B switches on one of them.

 

[Timothy_A.]

Thanks for the replies, Wayne and Selden. It did seem like there was some risk with simply running concurrent speaker wires from each of the two receivers to one pair of speakers. Not that I would have both receivers powered up at the same time (on purpose!)

...Tim