4 speakers on one channel

[royal crown]

OK, this is going to be quite a weird question- I tried googling my predicament, but due to the obscurity of what I'm asking, I didn't get too much results.

Pretty much, this is my story:

After upgrading to a new TV and sound system, my parents discarded their old sound system. I salvaged the receiver, and hooked it up to 4 old Sony boombox speakers (surprisingly, they gave quite good sound despite being cheap and old). Then, some time later I visisted my uncle, who also upgraded his sound system awhile back, so he unloaded two Sony tower speakers and matching satellites. Pretty much, I have the fixings for a surround system

Seeing as I'm a student and have no job, I want to ideally set this up without spending any additonal money, but if I must, I must. Basically, I want to use the two tower speakers as stereo, the 2 satellites as surround speakers, and as the center speaker- the 4 boombox speakers.

While the speakers are all Sony, I doubt they're matched whatsoever, but considering my goal (and that I'm still shocked I got all of this for free), I'm willing to experiment and try stuff out.

My main question regarding this is, will it work? I know 4 speakers would put a big load on the receiver, and while I'm experimenting with the receiver and speakers, I don't want to do something that will jepoardize the safety of the receiver.

Basically, is what I'm doing safe? And, if so, will it sound remotely good?
Also, are there any better alternatives, taking into account my inventory?

Thanks in advance

 

[MDS]

There is no reason to use all 4 boombox speakers for the center. You can use just one or use two and wire them in series. If they are just the speakers themselves that were taken from a boombox and are not in an enclosure of any kind like the other speakers, I wouldn't use them at all.

Realistically, you would be better off not using any of them for the center. Just tell the receiver you don't have a center channel and it will create a 'phantom' center by directing sounds destined for the center channel to the left and right speakers.

What brand and model of receiver will you be using?

 

[royal crown]

Thanks for the quick response,

The speakers from the boombox do have an enclosure, for intents and purposes they operate the same way a normal speaker does. However, when you say "wire them in series", wouldn't that double the impedance? I'm no expert, I could be wrong, but I just don't wanna overload and damage my receiver.

Oh, and my receiver is a Pioneer VSX-D457

Also, one more quick question:

My receiver has an "A" set and a "B" set. I hooked the 4 boombox speakers to each set respectively, and set the receiver for both A and B. The sound seemed to split between the two speakers, not necessarily a doubling of the stereo channel, but it actually split the channels up. Does this have anything to do with the "pro logic 2" feature on my receiver? I thought A and B were for two different sources in different rooms and whatnot.

 

[MDS]

Yes, wiring in series doubles the impedance but that makes them easier to drive (but will lower the volume a bit too). Wiring them in parallel lowers the impedance and makes them harder to drive - that is exactly what happens when you use the A+B speakers.

The B speaker terminals are for the front 2 channels only. While you can of course have the B speakers in another room, they will not play a different source. On the A+B setting you are just using 2 pair of speakers to play the front left and right channels. To play a different source in another room, the receiver must have multi-room/multi-source capability (aka zone2).

PLII is a matrix decoder that can take any analog or digital 2 channel source and turn it into 5.1. If you were to play a 2 channel source while you have both sets of speakers connected and set to A+B, both sets of speakers will play the same thing. It may sound like they are different channels due to speaker placement or your room acoustics, but they are not.

 

[royal crown]

Yeah, I wasn't referring to the fact that they were different from each other, just that they weren't stereo in themselves. Must be the PLII. Very nice feature for music though.

So I should wire two of them in series? Just wondering, but wouldn't it be better to run 4 speakers than 2? Not that I'm challenging your logic or anything, just wondering why.

http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/4spkr.gif this was what I stumbled upon on the net, would this be valid for usage?

Thanks for all the help

 

[MDS]

That diagram is valid. It puts the the two speakers of each pair in series and the pairs in parallel. That would be better than all 4 in series, which is what I thought was the original intent.

Try it and give us your impressions.

 

[markw]

Yeah, I wasn't referring to the fact that they were different from each other, just that they weren't stereo in themselves. Must be the PLII. Very nice feature for music though.

So I should wire two of them in series? Just wondering, but wouldn't it be better to run 4 speakers than 2? Not that I'm challenging your logic or anything, just wondering why.

http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/4spkr.gif this was what I stumbled upon on the net, would this be valid for usage?

Thanks for all the help

Assuming the speakers you will be using are all 8 ohms, this is a valid configuration.

 

[royal crown]

well, I tried it out, crossed my fingers, hoped for the best... my receiver didn't fry; that was by far my biggest concern, and thankfully nothing happened to it (seeing as it's pretty old I owuldn't be surprised if it died of old age).
As far as sound goes, I tried two speakers first, noted the sound, then tried 4. It does seem to be fuller and fills the room better than just the two. Sound clarity doesn't seem to be affectd in any way (as expected), but it does make the sound a bit more immersive.
Of course, I'm no audiophile (ironic, since I'm on an audiophile's website), so there might be some other factors that I haven't picked up on yet. Think of me as an audioapprentice

thanks for all your help guys. I guess this could be used for people out there like me, if they exist at all