Looking for help on a new home audio system, blow amp's

[JakeDW]

Hello, I am new here and also new to the home audio scene. I just build a new home installed a home audio system when building and I am having some issues. I sourced all my equipment and also installed everything myself. Everything worked fine for a while however I have one amp that is blowing the fuse on power up and another one I just lost the negative post on channel 2. Before I replace with a new amplifier I am thinking I would ask for some input here and I may have something set up wrong.

Here is a rundown of my equipment:

Zone1 Outdoor Deck:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient AW650 Speakers (Left and Right)

Zone2 Kitchen:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone3 Living Room:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone4 Garage:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone5 Master:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
1 Proficient C621 speaker

I was running 2 Pyle PAMP1000's each zone was on a channel and the master was doubled up on zone4 with the garage. I have a 16/4 ran from the Amp to the Volume Control and then ran to the first speaker, Red and Black do the right and Green and White are passed thru to the Left.

Do I have too much load for the amplifiers? or do you think that it was mostly due to using cheap amplifiers in the first place. Again, I am new to this and do not have much experience except maybe what not to do's. Your help is appreciated.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello, I am new here and also new to the home audio scene. I just build a new home installed a home audio system when building and I am having some issues. I sourced all my equipment and also installed everything myself. Everything worked fine for a while however I have one amp that is blowing the fuse on power up and another one I just lost the negative post on channel 2. Before I replace with a new amplifier I am thinking I would ask for some input here and I may have something set up wrong.

Here is a rundown of my equipment:

Zone1 Outdoor Deck:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient AW650 Speakers (Left and Right)

Zone2 Kitchen:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone3 Living Room:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone4 Garage:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone5 Master:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
1 Proficient C621 speaker

I was running 2 Pyle PAMP1000's each zone was on a channel and the master was doubled up on zone4 with the garage. I have a 16/4 ran from the Amp to the Volume Control and then ran to the first speaker, Red and Black do the right and Green and White are passed thru to the Left.

Do I have too much load for the amplifiers? or do you think that it was mostly due to using cheap amplifiers in the first place. Again, I am new to this and do not have much experience except maybe what not to do's. Your help is appreciated.

Your plan seems sounder than most we get here. We get a regular collection of posts of failures of these type of schemes.

I strongly suspect you have made a mistake. With those power amps, you need to make sure you have wired those impedance matching controls correctly.

What is not clear is how you have distributed the sound. mono or stereo. I note you volume controls are two channel

I note you have four amp channels available but nine speakers. You need to wire it so each amp channel sees an impedance of 8 ohms. I would not wire for four ohms.

I do not know how you have allowed for that single ninth speaker. So you need to tell me exactly how that fits into the equation.

You need to check everything carefully with a multimeter. I strongly suspect you have a bad mistake and have ruined an amp. So check for shorts or miswiring, that is producing too low an impedance load.

A more detailed drawing of where each wire goes from each amp speaker terminal, to each speaker and control would be very helpful.

This really needs sorting out before you turn on the system anymore and particularly before hooking up any replacement amp.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I think those amps are the weak link. Pyle in not synonymous with quality in any way, shape, or form. Obviously make sure your connections are good also.

I don’t know if Audiosource is still the same quality as it once was, but they used to make some good budget amps. No idea who carries that mantle anymore these days.

 

[JakeDW]

Your plan seems sounder than most we get here. We get a regular collection of posts of failures of these type of schemes.

I strongly suspect you have made a mistake. With those power amps, you need to make sure you have wired those impedance matching controls correctly.

What is not clear is how you have distributed the sound. mono or stereo. I note you volume controls are two channel

I note you have four amp channels available but nine speakers. You need to wire it so each amp channel sees an impedance of 8 ohms. I would not wire for four ohms.

I do not know how you have allowed for that single ninth speaker. So you need to tell me exactly how that fits into the equation.

You need to check everything carefully with a multimeter. I strongly suspect you have a bad mistake and have ruined an amp. So check for shorts or miswiring, that is producing too low an impedance load.

A more detailed drawing of where each wire goes from each amp speaker terminal, to each speaker and control would be very helpful.

This really needs sorting out before you turn on the system anymore and particularly before hooking up any replacement amp.

Thank you for your response.

I will draw up a more detailed write up. I obviously know that what I had wired was probably not correct. with only 4 channels and 5 zones, the ninth speaker was doubled up with the garage zone.

Each zone has a left and a right ceiling speaker, I would assume these would be stereo correct? The ninth speaker is a single speaker and would need to be mono then I believe.

Channel A and Channel B are each separate zones with 4 posts Left +&- and Right +&-. My red and black conductors of my 4 wire land on my right +&- and go to one pair of input terminals on the VC and then from the output terminals go to the right speaker. The same goes for the left speaker using the green and white pair. I looked at my VC's and they were set at the lowest setting witch I'm assuming should have been set for 9 as 8 is not an option.

As my amplifier is no good do I need to replace it with something that will provide 5 channels?

Is there a trouble shooting document on what to look for with wiring? all connections are clean and tight. I have not ohm'd anything out at all but if I measure across the speaker should I see 8ohms? proving everything is ok and nothing is shorted?

Thanks again, for the help.

 

[JakeDW]

In reality this is what I am trying to accomplisha a single source multi room system. I just believe I approached it the wrong way with 2 separate amps and improper impedance matching. I still am not sure what to do with the "Master zone" single speaker that would need to be set up as a mono zone.

I am assuming that I need to obtain a speaker selector and then a replacement amp that can handle the load of all the speakers and given that the wiring and speakers are all fine. Here is the article that I had found. https://www.audioholics.com/diy-audio/how-to-use-a-speaker-selector-for-multi-room-audio

 

[TLS Guy]

In reality this is what I am trying to accomplisha a single source multi room system. I just believe I approached it the wrong way with 2 separate amps and improper impedance matching. I still am not sure what to do with the "Master zone" single speaker that would need to be set up as a mono zone.

I am assuming that I need to obtain a speaker selector and then a replacement amp that can handle the load of all the speakers and given that the wiring and speakers are all fine. Here is the article that I had found. https://www.audioholics.com/diy-audio/how-to-use-a-speaker-selector-for-multi-room-audioView attachment 44043

View attachment 44043

What you really need is a distribution amp. That is the best way to keep you out of trouble. With your current setup that single speaker needs to be a left or a right speaker. It cannot be both. I have a feeling that speaker is the cause of your trouble. What you really need for that system is to do four stereo pairs and one mono, is a distribution amp

If you want stereo in four of those rooms, then you need a distribution amp with at least four channels. For the mono room you will need a buffer amp, between the receiver and the amp channel for that mono speaker, as otherwise the whole system will be mono.

I am not sure what quality you are aiming for, but is you are using wall plate volume controls those are for background systems.

Since this is a ceiling speaker system, quality is not going to be of the highest anyway, as it is a background system basically. In which case there really is no advantage in making it stereo. If you redesign it as mono, it will be a lot simpler and cheaper and just as good.

 

[JakeDW]

What you really need is a distribution amp. That is the best way to keep you out of trouble. With your current setup that single speaker needs to be a left or a right speaker. It cannot be both. I have a feeling that speaker is the cause of your trouble. What you really need for that system is to do four stereo pairs and one mono, is a distribution amp

If you want stereo in four of those rooms, then you need a distribution amp with at least four channels. For the mono room you will need a buffer amp, between the receiver and the amp channel for that mono speaker, as otherwise the whole system will be mono.

I am not sure what quality you are aiming for, but is you are using wall plate volume controls those are for background systems.

Since this is a ceiling speaker system, quality is not going to be of the highest anyway, as it is a background system basically. In which case there really is no advantage in making it stereo. If you redesign it as mono, it will be a lot simpler and cheaper and just as good.

Thanks,

I agree with you. I am not looking for the highest quality but merely just background music playing while at home or outside. If I wanted higher quality I definitely would have spent more money and had someone else design it for me. The single speaker is not a deal breaker for me. It is placed in the master bath and to be honest will probably be used the lease over all the others.

I am fine with doing mono if that seems to be the best avenue to go down. Can you suggest to the missing pieces to my system that I will need, obviously a replacement amp. I'm unsure on what size it will need to be to get good volume out of the speakers.

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks,

I agree with you. I am not looking for the highest quality but merely just background music playing while at home or outside. If I wanted higher quality I definitely would have spent more money and had someone else design it for me. The single speaker is not a deal breaker for me. It is placed in the master bath and to be honest will probably be used the lease over all the others.

I am fine with doing mono if that seems to be the best avenue to go down. Can you suggest to the missing pieces to my system that I will need, obviously a replacement amp. I'm unsure on what size it will need to be to get good volume out of the speakers.

What is your receiver? Maybe we can power your system with that if you ditch the bathroom speaker.

 

[JakeDW]

What is your receiver? Maybe we can power your system with that if you ditch the bathroom speaker.

I do not have a reciever, I am using a sonos connect for streaming into the amplifier.

 

[TLS Guy]

I do not have a reciever, I am using a sonos connect for streaming into the amplifier.

Sonos Connect is discontinued and Sonos say they will no longer support it.

Since you have blown gear up, it probably is not a good idea to spend money on an amp to pair with an obsolete unit. I think your best bet is actually a receiver, and you can use HEOS if you choose a Denon or Marantz receiver to do your streaming.

If you are prepared to look at that, then we can make sure your speaker system is configured correctly. If you hang on to the Sonos Connect, with that many speakers a decent distribution amp will cost you more than a receiver. A receiver can be configured to be a poor man's distribution amp.

As usual with people who plan these schemes, proper design and installation is a lot more complex than people think. You have lots of company, and join a long line of people posting here, thinking these systems are a slam dunk, and ending up on the rocks right away.

 

[highfigh]

Sonos Connect is discontinued and Sonos say they will no longer support it.

Since you have blown gear up, it probably is not a good idea to spend money on an amp to pair with an obsolete unit. I think your best bet is actually a receiver, and you can use HEOS if you choose a Denon or Marantz receiver to do your streaming.

If you are prepared to look at that, then we can make sure your speaker system is configured correctly. If you hang on to the Sonos Connect, with that many speakers a decent distribution amp will cost you more than a receiver. A receiver can be configured to be a poor man's distribution amp.

As usual with people who plan these schemes, proper design and installation is a lot more complex than people think. You have lots of company, and join a long line of people posting here, thinking these systems are a slam dunk, and ending up on the rocks right away.

The fact that the Connect is disco'd means nothing- it will work fine until they no longer support it and at that point, he can replace it.

 

[highfigh]

Hello, I am new here and also new to the home audio scene. I just build a new home installed a home audio system when building and I am having some issues. I sourced all my equipment and also installed everything myself. Everything worked fine for a while however I have one amp that is blowing the fuse on power up and another one I just lost the negative post on channel 2. Before I replace with a new amplifier I am thinking I would ask for some input here and I may have something set up wrong.

Here is a rundown of my equipment:

Zone1 Outdoor Deck:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient AW650 Speakers (Left and Right)

Zone2 Kitchen:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone3 Living Room:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone4 Garage:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
2 Proficient C621 speakers (Left and Right)

Zone5 Master:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
1 Proficient C621 speaker

I was running 2 Pyle PAMP1000's each zone was on a channel and the master was doubled up on zone4 with the garage. I have a 16/4 ran from the Amp to the Volume Control and then ran to the first speaker, Red and Black do the right and Green and White are passed thru to the Left.

Do I have too much load for the amplifiers? or do you think that it was mostly due to using cheap amplifiers in the first place. Again, I am new to this and do not have much experience except maybe what not to do's. Your help is appreciated.

Your amplifier looks like the AudioSource amplifier but it's A LOT less expensive- in theory, it could work but you need to show how you ran the speaker wires. If it's less than half of the AudioSource amp's price, there's a reason and it's likely that any corners they cut had to do with its power supply and that's not a good thing.

**********Did you home run all of them (each zone's wires go from the amplifiers to the volume controls before going to the speakers for each control), or daisy-chain (run cable from the amps to a control and connect the next zone's input cable parallel to the feed)?

(I'm assuming the amp used for 3 pairs is blowing the fuse- am I correct?)

Did you set the impedance switch correctly for the 4th and 5th pairs?

Did you measure the resistance on the speaker wires AT the amplifier, BEFORE connecting them?

Did you have adequate lighting, to see which connections you were using for the Amp and Speaker connections on the controls? When in a hurry or in low light, reversing these can happen.

Disconnect the speaker wires from the amplifier that's having problems. Turn it on and if it stops blowing the fuse, you have a wiring problem and in that case, you need to measure the resistance on the speaker wires.

Where did you buy the amplifiers? If they have a multi-channel amplifier like the one in the link, consider using that, rather than two separate amplifiers. I have used them and they work. Auto-turn on, separate channels for each zone, bridgeable, groupable (switches on the back for main bus line 1/line 2 or separate line in for each channel) and each zone will turn on only when it receives input, which makes using more than one Sonos (or whatever you end up using for streaming) for each zone possible without needing to change anything, other than grouping the streaming devices.

This amplifier will also allow you to bridge two channels to one, so if you have one pair of speakers that need to cover a larger area/play louder, you would create two channels from four, but connect two speakers with each amplifier channel delivering about 80W instead of 40W.

Read the info about using in-wall volume controls- it would apply to the Pyle amplifiers or any other brand.

Dayton Audio - MA1240a Multi-Zone 12 Channel Amplifier

MA1240a Multi-Zone 12 Channel Amplifier

www.daytonaudio.com

*****Measure the resistance at the input of each volume control without any connection to the amplifier- if you see less than 6 Ohms, you would need to disconnect the speakers and re-measure.

The reason for measuring the resistance to the control's input is from personal experience- I received a message from a customer whose receiver went into protection and disconnecting all of the speaker wires didn't help. When I measured the resistance to the volume controls, I found that the one for the kitchen showed .6 Ohms on one channel and that caused the amplifier to fail. The control was very similar to yours, other than the impedance switch. I replaced it and had the receiver repaired, but I measured the resistance before making connections to the receiver because I didn't want to repeat the failure.

IF you need to connect two pairs of speakers to one volume control or two controls to one cable from the amplifier, make sure to set the impedance switch correctly- this is critical.

 

[highfigh]

Thanks,

I agree with you. I am not looking for the highest quality but merely just background music playing while at home or outside. If I wanted higher quality I definitely would have spent more money and had someone else design it for me. The single speaker is not a deal breaker for me. It is placed in the master bath and to be honest will probably be used the lease over all the others.

I am fine with doing mono if that seems to be the best avenue to go down. Can you suggest to the missing pieces to my system that I will need, obviously a replacement amp. I'm unsure on what size it will need to be to get good volume out of the speakers.

You can set the Sonos to Mono in the menu- that way, if the speakers are too far for stereo to work well (due to sounds bouncing form one speaker to the other), it's not annoying- don't worry about stereo if it's not a main listening area.

I'm using a variation of the Dayton amp from another company to deliver sound to three outdoor zones- one pair is above a deck, one pair is below and the third pair is at opposite corners of a paved area around a fire pit. Each pair of speakers is connected to its own Sonos Connect and they can be used separately if only one area will be used or grouped together. Since the Connect is discontinued, adding the new version still works, you just need to download and use the S2 app. I find that using separate channels for speakers works far better than A/B switched or speaker selectors with volume controls because the amplifier isn't going to produce more power by setting a switch to A+B or a multi-channel selector to feed 4, 6 or 8 pairs because the power is shared- using the multi-channel amplifier sends each pair its own output. If an amplifier produces 80W/channel, setting it to A+B means each pair of speakers receives half of that minus whatever is wasted by the control.

 

[TLS Guy]

You can set the Sonos to Mono in the menu- that way, if the speakers are too far for stereo to work well (due to sounds bouncing form one speaker to the other), it's not annoying- don't worry about stereo if it's not a main listening area.

I'm using a variation of the Dayton amp from another company to deliver sound to three outdoor zones- one pair is above a deck, one pair is below and the third pair is at opposite corners of a paved area around a fire pit. Each pair of speakers is connected to its own Sonos Connect and they can be used separately if only one area will be used or grouped together. Since the Connect is discontinued, adding the new version still works, you just need to download and use the S2 app. I find that using separate channels for speakers works far better than A/B switched or speaker selectors with volume controls because the amplifier isn't going to produce more power by setting a switch to A+B or a multi-channel selector to feed 4, 6 or 8 pairs because the power is shared- using the multi-channel amplifier sends each pair its own output. If an amplifier produces 80W/channel, setting it to A+B means each pair of speakers receives half of that minus whatever is wasted by the control.

For him though a receiver would be an easy solution, and he could still plug the Sonos into it. However time will run out on that as it is not supported.

If he runs rooms one and two right and left on the respective front and left outputs, and room 3 on the surround left and right and the single bathroom on the center channel.

The ires the impedance matching controls to present 8 ohms to each of the five channels he will be good. All he has to do then is set the receiver to five channel stereo. The receiver would have plenty of power, add function and be stable and reliable with an 8 ohm load to each channel. I think that is his simplest and best solution.

 

[highfigh]

For him though a receiver would be an easy solution, and he could still plug the Sonos into it. However time will run out on that as it is not supported.

If he runs rooms one and two right and left on the respective front and left outputs, and room 3 on the surround left and right and the single bathroom on the center channel.

The ires the impedance matching controls to present 8 ohms to each of the five channels he will be good. All he has to do then is set the receiver to five channel stereo. The receiver would have plenty of power, add function and be stable and reliable with an 8 ohm load to each channel. I think that is his simplest and best solution.

There's an assumption that all of the parts in this system are working properly and I doubt that's the case. SOMETHING caused the amplifier failures and I think it was the price point. As I posted, I would recommend using an amplifier with separate channels for each zone and speaker- whether the source is a Connect (or something like it) or an AVR is really immaterial. Most of what an AVR does is absolutely useless for this application (streaming audio only)- why pay for things that will never be used or needed?

The issue would become "How do I turn one pair up or down without a lot of button presses?"- with an AVR, it's not as easy as having a remote volume control, but only if they want to raise or lower the level from one room. In addition, he's using five PAIRS of speakers, not five speakers, so impedance matching and power distribution aren't the same as when using an amplifier with separate channels for each speaker. Since only one source is being used, the multi-channel amp and volume controls handles it very well, very simply. The fact that the Connect will eventually be unsupported only matters if he needs the Connect to work forever but since they have a replacement that's interchangeable via setup in the app, that particular point is moot. If they were discontinuing the brand and operation of these devices, it would be different and at that point, it would only be a matter of looking for a different streaming device. Also, the prices do drop over time.

The beauty of a streaming device vs AVR is that most don't have a lot of buttons and controls, so it's more difficult for someone to inadvertently cause a problem. With the app, regardless of whether it's Sonos, HEOS, MusicCast, etc, it's easy to correct.

 

[TLS Guy]

There's an assumption that all of the parts in this system are working properly and I doubt that's the case. SOMETHING caused the amplifier failures and I think it was the price point. As I posted, I would recommend using an amplifier with separate channels for each zone and speaker- whether the source is a Connect (or something like it) or an AVR is really immaterial. Most of what an AVR does is absolutely useless for this application (streaming audio only)- why pay for things that will never be used or needed?

The issue would become "How do I turn one pair up or down without a lot of button presses?"- with an AVR, it's not as easy as having a remote volume control, but only if they want to raise or lower the level from one room. In addition, he's using five PAIRS of speakers, not five speakers, so impedance matching and power distribution aren't the same as when using an amplifier with separate channels for each speaker. Since only one source is being used, the multi-channel amp and volume controls handles it very well, very simply. The fact that the Connect will eventually be unsupported only matters if he needs the Connect to work forever but since they have a replacement that's interchangeable via setup in the app, that particular point is moot. If they were discontinuing the brand and operation of these devices, it would be different and at that point, it would only be a matter of looking for a different streaming device. Also, the prices do drop over time.

The beauty of a streaming device vs AVR is that most don't have a lot of buttons and controls, so it's more difficult for someone to inadvertently cause a problem. With the app, regardless of whether it's Sonos, HEOS, MusicCast, etc, it's easy to correct.

I have to agree, that your plan is the high road, and what I originally suggested. Yes, he has 9 speakers to power, four pairs and a single in the bathroom. If he goes mono that would require a five channel distribution amp and at least 9 for stereo and the one mono.

Since you do these installs you would know the cheapest reliable way to get the job done.

The trouble is people take on these complex systems with no idea of the complexity. Then the design and install turns into a nightmare with blown amps. I have lost count of the number of times we hear this.

 

[highfigh]

I have to agree, that your plan is the high road, and what I originally suggested. Yes, he has 9 speakers to power, four pairs and a single in the bathroom. If he goes mono that would require a five channel distribution amp and at least 9 for stereo and the one mono.

Since you do these installs you would know the cheapest reliable way to get the job done.

The trouble is people take on these complex systems with no idea of the complexity. Then the design and install turns into a nightmare with blown amps. I have lost count of the number of times we hear this.

The amp I linked to, to replace the Pyle and making sure the controls are OK is the cheapest way. The amp is sold under several names, but from experience, I know the Dayton works well- the first one was installed ten years ago and it's still working without problems and another is about 7 years old- the first is in a house, the other is in a fitness facility that is often open 12 hours per day. The house amp is also used to power the sub in the family room, since all inputs can be separate. I really like the flexibility and by having separate channels for each speaker, they aren't starved for power, as they can be if one amp channel is trying to serve multiple speakers through a device that causes power loss. A 100W/channel amp sends less than 20W to each speaker and even then, that's when it's operating at WOT. For maximum headroom and clean sound, a multi-channel amp will cover more area, run cooler/more reliably and with less distortion that an amp that's being pushed to its limit.

The most the Pyle can do is 80W/channel @ 8 Ohms, shared by the total of the speakers that are connected- at that point, each of the five speakers/channel will see 16W and only if no energy is lost between the amp and speakers. The Dayton amp is rated for 40W/speaker @8 Ohms, so it would be coasting at 16W/speaker and still have plenty of headroom.

 

[highfigh]

Zone5 Master:
Pyle PVC2 volume control
1 Proficient C621 speaker

BTW- Proficient has dual voice coil speakers for areas that will only have one- that would balance the load on the amplifier.

6½" Dual Voice Coil Polypropylene Woofer & Two 1/2" Hard Dome Tweeters | Proficient

C625TT Ceiling Speaker The C625TT is the most affordable way to get Proficient-quality stereo sound. With a dual-voice-coil woofer and dual tweeters, the C625TT reproduces both left and right stereo channels in a single, easy-to-install in-ceiling speaker. Super-high sensitivity makes the C625TT...

proficientaudio.com

 

[BMXTRIX]

I struggle with understanding exactly how this system was wired.

One channel of an amplifier is designed to power ONE SPEAKER.

By the accounts, it sounds like multiple speakers are being driven off of a single channel of the amplifier. It sounds like a 'stereo zone' is being wired off a single channel setup of the amplifier. It sounds like the A&B channels of the amplifier are being used to drive 9 speakers... instead of 2 or 4, like it was designed for.

I think the wiring to the speaker selectors (16/4) is fine. I think the wiring to the speakers (16/4) is potentially correct as long as it's one pair of wiring per speaker.

I think that the wiring back at the amplifier may not be correct and that this will lead to multiple problems down the road.

I would STRONGLY recommend that instead of a 2 channel amp and a SIX ZONE speaker selector (which is what should be used at a minimum) that you instead use a 12 channel amplifier from a quality manufacturers like Sonance, Speakercraft, or Niles.
ie: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonance-Sonamp-1230-12-Channel-30-WPC-Whole-House-Amplifier-Tested/313388463681?hash=item48f7687641:g:cTQAAOSwjJVgCENf

An amplifier like this will give you 12 total channels of amplification which you will need for your NINE separate speakers.

The 'Master', makes zero sense as that's a single mono speaker. This isn't something I ever recommend, especially in more budget oriented systems. Everything else is stereo, so how did you really think this 'one' speaker was going to work? It makes no sense.

Still, there are solutions and options. Realistically, unless you are keen on stereo everywhere, I would run the whole system as mono and just get good audio to every speaker with independent amplification. Make sure the amplifier has good airflow and isn't stacked in with 30 other pieces of electronics shoved into a drawer, which will kill everything. COOLING MATTERS!

While I think the foundation is decent, I think the implementation leaves a lot on the table and should be considered as the most likely culprit for your woes.

Remember, you have a 2-channel amplifier right now, don't overdrive it!

 

[JakeDW]

Your amplifier looks like the AudioSource amplifier but it's A LOT less expensive- in theory, it could work but you need to show how you ran the speaker wires. If it's less than half of the AudioSource amp's price, there's a reason and it's likely that any corners they cut had to do with its power supply and that's not a good thing.

**********Did you home run all of them (each zone's wires go from the amplifiers to the volume controls before going to the speakers for each control), or daisy-chain (run cable from the amps to a control and connect the next zone's input cable parallel to the feed)?

(I'm assuming the amp used for 3 pairs is blowing the fuse- am I correct?)

Did you set the impedance switch correctly for the 4th and 5th pairs?

Did you measure the resistance on the speaker wires AT the amplifier, BEFORE connecting them?

Did you have adequate lighting, to see which connections you were using for the Amp and Speaker connections on the controls? When in a hurry or in low light, reversing these can happen.

Disconnect the speaker wires from the amplifier that's having problems. Turn it on and if it stops blowing the fuse, you have a wiring problem and in that case, you need to measure the resistance on the speaker wires.

Where did you buy the amplifiers? If they have a multi-channel amplifier like the one in the link, consider using that, rather than two separate amplifiers. I have used them and they work. Auto-turn on, separate channels for each zone, bridgeable, groupable (switches on the back for main bus line 1/line 2 or separate line in for each channel) and each zone will turn on only when it receives input, which makes using more than one Sonos (or whatever you end up using for streaming) for each zone possible without needing to change anything, other than grouping the streaming devices.

This amplifier will also allow you to bridge two channels to one, so if you have one pair of speakers that need to cover a larger area/play louder, you would create two channels from four, but connect two speakers with each amplifier channel delivering about 80W instead of 40W.

Read the info about using in-wall volume controls- it would apply to the Pyle amplifiers or any other brand.

Dayton Audio - MA1240a Multi-Zone 12 Channel Amplifier

MA1240a Multi-Zone 12 Channel Amplifier

www.daytonaudio.com

*****Measure the resistance at the input of each volume control without any connection to the amplifier- if you see less than 6 Ohms, you would need to disconnect the speakers and re-measure.

The reason for measuring the resistance to the control's input is from personal experience- I received a message from a customer whose receiver went into protection and disconnecting all of the speaker wires didn't help. When I measured the resistance to the volume controls, I found that the one for the kitchen showed .6 Ohms on one channel and that caused the amplifier to fail. The control was very similar to yours, other than the impedance switch. I replaced it and had the receiver repaired, but I measured the resistance before making connections to the receiver because I didn't want to repeat the failure.

IF you need to connect two pairs of speakers to one volume control or two controls to one cable from the amplifier, make sure to set the impedance switch correctly- this is critical.

Yes every pair of speakers had a home run from the amp to the VC and then to the speakers ran with 16/4.

The amp that blew had 2 pairs on it on pair on A and one pair on B and a separate speaker set up as a right added on speaker B (probably the issue)

My VC's were original set up for for 4Ohms, I am assuming these need to be set on 9Ohms as 8 is not an option?

I am assuming if the VC is set correctly and if I ohm out that speaker loop reading thru the VC I should read 8Ohms mean that loop is correct? or does the VC need to be removed from the circuit.

My speakers and amp were purchased from ADI (we use them as a vendor for automation components in y line of work. for a multi channel option it looks like they offer these options:

https://www.adiglobaldistribution.us/Catalog/shopproducts/5000-Audio-Video/5520-AV-Components/UI-AMP800VS $543

https://www.adiglobaldistribution.us/Catalog/shopproducts/5000-Audio-Video/5520-AV-Components/RD-D850 $594

https://www.adiglobaldistribution.us/Catalog/shopproducts/5000-Audio-Video/5520-AV-Components/NN-SI1230II $649

I do not mind sourcing something somewhere else if there are better options, I just want something that will work good and is reliable. I would probably like to bridge my outdoor deck pair of speakers as these are mounted up in the eves aimed down.

What are the advantages over multi channel amp or amp and speaker selector if only using one source, I dont mind my sonos connect and would rather keep and and use it until something new replaces it.

Attached are some photos. I am only showing the 1 amp but the other is the same however I have the single speaker added to Speaker A Right.