how to wire this set up ?

[Jetblack3]

Been playing with a new sub in my man cave and have a set of Infinity alpha 60's that I would like to try as my new fronts. These are 8 ohm speakers. Everything I'm driving with this amp is 4 ohm. I know I need to wire parallel for the Infinitys and have seen many examples on the net how to wire the speakers but am a little confused as to which wire goes where on back of amp. These will hook up to my front outputs

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Can’t make much sense from that post. How many speakers are in a “set?” Everything else the amp is driving? What, do you have multiple pairs of speakers connected to a stereo amp, or is this a multi-channel amp with the multiple speakers? Sounds like you ultimately want to connect two speakers to the same amp channel. That’s silly, why would anyone do that? It doesn’t hurt for an amp to have an 8-ohm speaker on one channel and a 4-ohm speaker on another.

Regardless of whatever scheme you have going on there, the simple answer to your question about how to wire two speakers in parallel: Just run a separate speaker wire from each speaker back to the amp.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Jetblack3]

Sorry for confusing you. I'll try this another way, By a "set" I mean two. My amp is an Onkyo SR-805 with multiple zones so this receiver is currently running 6 speakers total. I have 4 polk LSI 9's which are 4 ohm speakers, that is why I have the Onkyo set to (4 ohm). One pair of Polks are coming off the front channels feeding into a Sherbourne amp to bump up the power to 150watts. The other pair is being fed from the rear channels feeding into the sherbourne to boost them. This is the only load the Sherbourne sees. Zone 2 is feeding a pair of (6 ohm) towers in another room directly from the Onkyo - no additional amplifier.

My quest here is; I still have the surround channels open on the onkyo. I would like to try the larger Infinity towers (8 ohm) in place of a pair of the polks (4 ohm) then move my polks to the surround channels.

This is where the wiring has me a little confused. In order to put the 8 ohm speakers into play I believe I need to wire them in parallel - correct ? I've seen the drawings where I connect + on amp to + on speaker jumped to + on other speaker and same thing for - / The confusing part: If I have only one + lead coming from amp to 2 speakers and one - lead from amp to the same two speakers then to me that means I have only used one channel be it left or right unless this is like a bridge situation where I'm + on left and - on right ?

 

[lovinthehd]

You are using pre-outs from avr to the power amp, yes? The way you say boosting I have this horrible thought of you putting your speaker terminals to your power amps, hopefull you didn't do that. If using pre-amps you're not even using the avr's amps for those channels.

Don't set your avr to 4 ohm, it just limits output (here's an Audioholics article on the subject http://www.audioholics.com/audio-amplifier/impedance-selector-switch-1

Don't do any creative wiring, you don't need to (I think).

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

It’s still a bit confusing. Like lovingdvd said, it sounds like you have the Onkyo’s rear channel speaker terminals feeding to the inputs of the Sherbourne. Not a good thing if you do. Regardless...

My quest here is; I still have the surround channels open on the onkyo. I would like to try the larger Infinity towers (8 ohm) in place of a pair of the polks (4 ohm) then move my polks to the surround channels.

This is where the wiring has me a little confused. In order to put the 8 ohm speakers into play I believe I need to wire them in parallel - correct ?

No. You can connect the 8-ohm speakers directly to the Onkyo. As I mentioned in my last post, there is no need for the various channels of a multichannel amplifier to all be the same load – IOW, you can “mix and match” 4- and 8-ohm speakers with no problem.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Jetblack3]

Had another look at receiver this morning, yes using the pre-outs on receiver from front channels out to power amp so all is good there. No rears to the sherbourne. My Zone 2 speakers (a single pair) are being powered directly from the AVR speaker outputs for zone 2. There are pre- outs for zone 2 but since there not being boosted coming straight off zone 2 speaker outputs seems to be working just fine. The surrounds are up the same way by just utilizing the AVR power. Select "All Channels Stereo" on listening mode and all seems to sound good

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm still not sure what you are referring to with "boosted" or "bumped up". The avr amp is not functioning when you are sending signal out to an external amp, you're just feeding an external amp with signal from the pre-out (pre-amplifier output). You have two pair of speakers in stereo mode in the main room?

 

[Jetblack3]

I'm still not sure what you are referring to with "boosted" or "bumped up". The avr amp is not functioning when you are sending signal out to an external amp, you're just feeding an external amp with signal from the pre-out (pre-amplifier output). You have two pair of speakers in stereo mode in the main room?

BY "boosted" I only mean that these speakers are being fed from the sherbourne amp via the AVR pre-out
Yes, two pair in stereo in main room

 

[lovinthehd]

They're merely amplified via an external amplifier; I know it is a similar word but there is a jargon in audio that's easier to understand when we all use it. There are ways of raising a signal's level in the pre-amp section which is different from amplifying it for the speakers, too, and wasn't sure if you were raising channel levels to "boost" them or something like that.

Everything up and running and sounding good? Did you change the avr impedance switch to the 6 ohm setting instead of the 4 ohm?

 

[lovinthehd]

Another late thought, what type of sub are you using, an active sub (with its own amplification, fed from the avr via the subwoofer pre-out) or passive sub (you supply amplification and hopefully not from the receiver) ?

 

[Jetblack3]

Another late thought, what type of sub are you using, an active sub (with its own amplification, fed from the avr via the subwoofer pre-out) or passive sub (you supply amplification and hopefully not from the receiver) ?

Sorry but this farm boy is not current on all the audio lingo, haven't been nearly as active in these fields over the years. Wife, kids and life got in the way. Got a good placement of sub (HSU - ULS 15) and sound has improved a lot. AVR ohm setting only gives 2 choices - 4 or 8. I have chose to leave it on 4 since this is where I have run it the past 2 years without issue feeding the polks. System in the beginning was a Yamaha receiver, 4 polks, and a Niles speaker selector. I added a large pair of Cerwin xls215's later down the road to fill my huge room 48x56x16. I later learned that the speaker selectors are a weak link so I ditched it. I then went looking for an AVR with more power and multiple zones so the absence of the speaker selector could be filled. Found the Onkyo on craigslist for a song. Gonna try the Infinitys this weekend just to hear them paired with the polks and sub. I'm kind of in the market for another set of towers because if I steal my Infinitys from house I'll have to replace them. Have always been a Polk fan but have considered Definitive and Monitor audio based on reviews. I know there are several others out there - budget $1000-1500