two surround sound speakers on 6.1? (1 Viewer)

[Douglas^H]

I'm planning on buying a 6.1 channel receiver soon, and I will probably go with the Pioneer vsx-d811s. I have two KLH surround sound speakers with 60 watt power handling from my original surround sound kit (I sold the other speakers and bought new ones as quickly as possible, as I was very unsatisfied with the quality). I would like to use these speakers on the rear surround (the 6th channel, not the regular surround channels), but they only handle 60 watts each. If I hook both of them up normally on the rear surround channel (which has left and right terminals), will the receiver split 100 watts to 50 watts per speaker? If not, could I wire it as one speaker on the receiver and then split both the (+) and (-) wires to run both speakers off of one 100 watt channel, thus dropping the wattage to 50 watts per speaker? I understand basic about wattage and ohms, but I'm not very advanced, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[Joseph_W]

Douglas,
You have three choices, all probably acceptable.

1) You can place just one back surround speaker even though the speaker is only rated for 60 Watts as long as you aren't trying to play it too loud.

2) You can place the two speakers in series (pos from amp to positive on one speaker and neg from amp to neg on the second speaker, and tie the two speakers together pos to neg). This will split the two speakers in half power wise. Since you are now driving a 16 ohm load (assuming 8 ohm speakers) the voltage on the amp will clip faster since voltage is split between the two speakers.

3) Two speakers in parallel (pos from amp going to both pos on speakers, neg doing the same)causes the current to double (now a 4 ohm equivalent), but the voltage remains the same as with one speaker. If your amp is high current and can drive a 4 ohm speaker, this would be the way to go IMHO. Again the power would split between the two speakers.

Joe

 

[Douglas^H]

Joe,

Thank you very much for that very informative reply. You managed to give a great response, despite the fact that I couldn't figure out how to clearly word the question. I do have one other question, though: The receiver I will probably buy (the Pioneer vsx-d811s) is not rated for a 4 ohm load, only 8-16 ohms. Given that, the best case that you gave me probably won't work. So, the second choice you outlined, placing the speakers in series, sounds like my best bet. The question is.... what does it mean when the amp's voltage clips?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Joseph_W]

Douglas,
Since the amp you are looking at says 8 to 16 ohms, series will work great.

Clipping is when the voltage reaches a point where it can no longer increase. Therefore the typical Sine wave will have a flat peak at both the top and bottom. But since the amp you are looking at specifies 16 ohms, you shouldn't have to worry about clipping!

Joe

 

[Douglas^H]

Joe,

Thank you very much for all your help!

Douglas

 

[DanielN]

If I hook both of them up normally on the rear surround channel (which has left and right terminals), will the receiver split 100 watts to 50 watts per speaker?

Thats how I have it set up on my 811...works great.