Wiring Question with 4 rear surrounds (1 Viewer)

[Brian Johnson]

Thanks for reading.

I am upgrading my front mains and planning on experimenting with a 4 rear surround setup. I was planning on running in a series, but I think this leave a ugly mess of speaker wire.
My question is this, what would happen if I split the wire going to each rear speaker into a "Y" and run wire to the side rear and one to the back rear.
I know ideally you dont want any spliced connections. I am more concerned about any impendence change.

 

[ross ish]

purchase a decent speaker selector. make sure that the selector has an impedance matcher built in. with the selector, you can choose which set to play or multiple at the same time. the selector would also keep the impedance constant..no matter how many speakers are playing.

 

[Jeff Engel]

I think your impedance concerns are very valid and would just run the extra speaker wire myslf. That is the least headachey(?) solution. SPeaker wire is easy to buy and install rather than try to find a selector switch with impedance matching and all that. .02cents

Jeff

 

[RayJK]

Without knowing if you can easily run wire in the walls or ceiling I'll tell you what I have done in the past. I ran my wire from the amp to the side speaker banana plug and then another wire in series to the rear speaker. This was all done in the walls and ceiling but it meant I only had one wire from the amp to each group. I've since changed to real 7.1 so each speaker has it's own wire now. Something you may want to think about before you decide how you are going to hook up your speakers.

My rear/side speakers were 4 ohms so this gave me an 8 ohm load. If you have 8 ohms rear/side speakers then pun the lines in parallel to get a 4 ohm load. If one set is 8 ohms and the other set is 4 ohms I'd still run in parallel (3 ohms) if you had a good amp. I wouldn't run 3 ohms from a receiver.

 

[Brian Johnson]

Thanks for all the help.
I was reading my manual for my receiver (Denon AVR1602) it states:
"Speakers with an impedance of 6 to 16 §Ù/ohms can be connected for use as center and surround speakers."
It also states: "The protector circuit may be activated if the set is played for long periods of time at high volumes when speakers with an impedance lower than the specified impedance (for example speakers with an impedance of lower than 4 Ω/ohms) are connected. If the protector circuit is activated, the speaker output is cut off. Turn off the set’s power, wait for the set
to cool down, improve the ventilation around the set, then turn the power back on."
If I run a Y split, will this be a parallel connection?
Seeing as how my speakers are rated 8 ohm will running parallel create a 4 ohm load? Seeing as how my receiver has the protector circuit & I rarely listen at high volume for long periods of time I should be ok. Yes??
Thanks for any help =)
Brian

 

[RayJK]

You don't need to run a "Y" adapter, just run a wire from the + terminal of the amp to the + term of Speaker 1 and then from the + term of Speaker 1 to the + term of Speaker 2. Do the same with the - wire. This will be a parallel connection. A "Y" adapter will be the same electricly. Either way results in a 4 ohm load.

 

[Brian Johnson]

Well, I wasnt planning on using any type of "adapter", just cut the end & splice 2 wires off of the main line. I figure just use large wire nuts to hold everything together.
I have stands for the rear/side, the wire runs through the base up to the speaker, so running a line from that speaker to the rear/rear surrounds wouldn't work. If I run a Y then I can keep my wires hidden very well.
So all in all,if running two lines off the main line is considered parallel I (or should I say the receiver) should be fine.
I'll snap a few pictures when I get everything setup.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

Denon has strong amps, so a 4 ohm load shouldn't cause any problems. Just monitor the heat.