How should I connect four speakers to one zone?

[Xabe]

I have a Yamaha RX-a2030 and want to wire two pairs of ceiling speakers to zone 2. I've read the difference between wiring in series vs. parallel, but I'm having a very hard time figuring out which is more optimal or even compatible with my receiver.

All the speakers I'm wiring to it are identical 8-ohm speakers, so as I understand it, wiring them in parallel = 4 ohms of resistance and series should still be 8 ohms. There doesn't seem to be a clear answer as to if my receiver can even tolerate a 4 ohm load on zone 2, or which would sound better.

Any help? Thanks for helping a noob!

 

[Adam]

Hi. Just curious - are you running presence speakers or a Zone 3? If not, you may be able to hook up one pair of your ceiling speakers to the "EXTRA SP1" connectors and the other pair to the "EXTRA SP2" connectors and get what you want. I just didn't see in the manual if you could assign both of those to Zone 2, or if you'd end up running one of them as Zone 3.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

All the speakers I'm wiring to it are identical 8-ohm speakers, so as I understand it, wiring them in parallel = 4 ohms of resistance and series should still be 8 ohms.

No, two 8-ohm speakers wired in series gets a 16-ohm load. That is definitely an easier load on the amp, but there’s no free lunch, because series also divides the power between the two speakers. For instance, if your amp is 100 watts, with a series connection each speaker will only get half of that - 50 watts.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[TLS Guy]

No, two 8-ohm speakers wired in series gets a 16-ohm load. That is definitely an easier load on the amp, but there’s no free lunch, because series also divides the power between the two speakers. For instance, if your amp is 100 watts, with a series connection each speaker will only get half of that - 50 watts.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

No, they will get 25 watts. The amp will only deliver half its power into 16 ohms, so each speaker will get 25 watts.

 

[Xabe]

Hi. Just curious - are you running presence speakers or a Zone 3? If not, you may be able to hook up one pair of your ceiling speakers to the "EXTRA SP1" connectors and the other pair to the "EXTRA SP2" connectors and get what you want. I just didn't see in the manual if you could assign both of those to Zone 2, or if you'd end up running one of them as Zone 3.

Zone 3 powers my outdoor speakers, so I do need to figure out a way to drive four speakers off one zone.

No, two 8-ohm speakers wired in series gets a 16-ohm load. That is definitely an easier load on the amp, but there’s no free lunch, because series also divides the power between the two speakers. For instance, if your amp is 100 watts, with a series connection each speaker will only get half of that - 50 watts.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Gotcha. So I'm either going to be running these speakers at either 16 ohms or 4 ohms. Which would be more optimal? These will be for some casual listening so all things being equal, I'd rather sacrifice a bit of sound quality or loudness if running them in parallel would risk damaging the receiver.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

No, they will get 25 watts. The amp will only deliver half its power into 16 ohms, so each speaker will get 25 watts.

Y’know, I’ve been telling people that for years, but for some reason tonight I was thinking I’ve been over-analyzing things. Thanks for clarifying.

Xabe, as I said there’s no free lunch. Series connections means drastically reduced power to each speaker, which means you’ll probably be driving the amp harder to compensate. Running it wide open, or nearly wide open, isn’t going to do anything for its longevity.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Xabe]

Y’know, I’ve been telling people that for years, but for some reason tonight I was thinking I’ve been over-analyzing things. Thanks for clarifying.

Xabe, as I said there’s no free lunch. Series connections means drastically reduced power to each speaker, which means you’ll probably be driving the amp harder to compensate. Running it wide open, or nearly wide open, isn’t going to do anything for its longevity.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Right. But what about wiring them in parallel? It seems like that would be better overall sound quality, even though it would require more work from my receiver.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

If the receiver is rated for 8 ohms, with a 4-ohm load (e.g. two 8-ohm speakers wired parallel), the amp is trying to double its output. That can make the amp overheat; with some receivers will go into “protect” and shut down. If you have to make a choice between series 16-ohm or parallel 4-ohm, the former is better. The best thing to do however would be to use the receiver’s Zone 2 RCA outputs to drive an outboard amp.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Impedance matched speaker selector??????????????

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Impedance matched speaker selector??????????????

Same as what I said in Post #3. The impedance selector keeps the amp seeing an acceptable load, but the amp’s power will be divided out to the speakers. IOW, each speaker will get an equal fraction of the amps rated output. Saddled with reduced power, the amp is driven harder to compensate.

For instance, let’s assume we have two pairs of speakers on the second zone, through an impedance switch. If you have the main channels and zone speakers all going at the same volume, the zone amplifiers will have to be putting out double the power to maintain the same volume level as the main speakers.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Same as what I said in Post #3. The impedance selector keeps the amp seeing an acceptable load, but the amp’s power will be divided out to the speakers. IOW, each speaker will get an equal fraction of the amps rated output. Saddled with reduced power, the amp is driven harder to compensate.

For instance, let’s assume we have two pairs of speakers on the second zone, through an impedance switch. If you have the main channels and zone speakers all going at the same volume, the zone amplifiers will have to be putting out double the power to maintain the same volume level as the main speakers.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

...like I actually read threads that aren't about me....

 

[highfigh]

I have a Yamaha RX-a2030 and want to wire two pairs of ceiling speakers to zone 2. I've read the difference between wiring in series vs. parallel, but I'm having a very hard time figuring out which is more optimal or even compatible with my receiver.

All the speakers I'm wiring to it are identical 8-ohm speakers, so as I understand it, wiring them in parallel = 4 ohms of resistance and series should still be 8 ohms. There doesn't seem to be a clear answer as to if my receiver can even tolerate a 4 ohm load on zone 2, or which would sound better.

Any help? Thanks for helping a noob!

How will they be used- more than background, or will you be pushing them harder than the 25W will do?

If I install a system, I don't like to do series/parallel wiring for the speakers because, if something goes wrong, the amp gets it. Also, if the speakers are far apart, mono is best because the sound form two distinct channels won't ping pong (think early Beatles vocals). If I have more than two speakers and I'm not using a remote volume control, I might use an impedance balancing module- Jamo, Niles, Russound and other companies sell them and they maintain an amplifier-friendly load for lower powered systems. Impedance matching volume controls do the same and this would be the easy/cheap way to go about this if the speaker wires were home run. If they were daisy-chained, it's not as easy.

Given a choice, I use a separate amp for un-powered Zone 2 and/or 3. The quality of the amp depends on your budget and expectations for sound quality. I have used several brands- Audio Source isn't the best, but they're reasonably priced and they work well. Some have A & B speaker terminals, auto turn-on, level/balance controls and Stereo/Mono switch. Other brands offer the same options.