House-wide speakers

[Jasmoe4]

I'm new to audio set ups and have a (hopefully) simple question.

I have 4 speakers throughout the house already wired. Each speaker has a single pair of wire coming out. One black and one red. They feed through a wall plate where I've connected banana plugs for easier connects/disconnects. I'm wanting them to plug into a receiver to boost the audio level but the only ones I've seen were either for surround or stereo. Each speaker will have all audio channels playing through them so I can't use something like the left and right channel found in most of the receivers I've seen.

I also have a speaker selector box that should let me turn on and off certain speakers. The source is coming from a music computer I built.

Basically I was needing to know what kind of receiver to be looking for and if a simple 3.5mm to speaker wire cable will be enough coming out of the computer.

Thanks.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

Just to clarify - do you want all four speakers to play the same signal?

If you are using your computer to generate the signal, then you just want a way to amplify what's coming from your computer's audio out jack to play through the speakers. There's a number of ways to accomplish that, and I'll just list a few. A multi-channel amplifier would do that, as would any receiver that has multi-channel inputs. So, if you can find a relatively inexpensive receiver with those inputs (5.1 analog inputs, for example), you could split your computer output into four channels, connect those to four of the receiver's inputs, and connect the corresponding speaker outputs on the receiver to your wall jacks.

One way to split the computer signal would be to use a 3.5mm to RCA cable like this one, connected to two RCA splitters like this one. Given that the computer output jack is stereo, I'm guessing that you're forcing it to play the same sound from both channels.

BTW, do you have a set of surround sound computer speakers? If so, and if they are like mine, you could use that unit to try out your house speakers - let me know if you would like some info on that.

 

[Jasmoe4]

Thanks for the reply

You're right. The 4 speakers should have the same signal playing through them. I have the 3.5mm to RCA cable and would just need to get the splitters. I'll read through how to setup the multi channel receiver.

You're also right about the computer output. I'll end up forcing the stereo to output mono basically.

A couple questions:
would a multi channel receiver allow simultaneous input so that the cables coming into it through the splitters could pass the signal through to all 4 speakers at the same time?

are there multi channel receivers that include the ability to specify which speakers the output is passed through (or which combination of speakers)? I have a speaker selector but it only accepts speaker wire, not RCA or even banana plugs and I'd like to keep things as simple as I can so losing this device is fine.

 

[Adam]

would a multi channel receiver allow simultaneous input so that the cables coming into it through the splitters could pass the signal through to all 4 speakers at the same time?

Definitely, if you get one that has multichannel analog inputs. The receiver will play whatever you send to it. While the inputs are labeled for front right/left, rear right/left, center, and subwoofer (in a 5.1 system), you can plug whatever you want into those.

I'm embarrased that I didn't think of this before. For four channels playing the same signal, you could also get a receiver with A/B speaker outputs (that are used to play two pairs of speakers). With that, you don't need the multichannel analog inputs or the extra splitters. You would connect the 3.5mm to RCA cable into the receiver, then turn both pairs of speakers on.

are there multi channel receivers that include the ability to specify which speakers the output is passed through (or which combination of speakers)? I have a speaker selector but it only accepts speaker wire, not RCA or even banana plugs and I'd like to keep things as simple as I can so losing this device is fine.

I know that you could do this in pairs. This would be easier using a receiver that had A/B speaker connections, as you could turn one or both pairs on. You could cycle that down to one (or a different pair) by using the balance knob to send the signal to only the speaker(s) connected to the left or right output.

Being able to select any given one, two, three, or four speakers though - that's where your speaker selector would come in really handy.

 

[Jasmoe4]

One more favor

I looked through and found a receiver but wanted to make sure that it is something I should be focusing on and not something that isn't going to meet my needs (which sounds like you have a good grasp of).

It's an Onkyo TX-8255

 

[Adam]

That's a nice receiver. As a price reference, Amazon has it for $155.

Do you know the impedance on your speakers? The manual for that receiver recommends speakers with an impedance between 8 and 16 Ohms if you run both A and B speaker pairs at the same time.

Other than that, I believe that it will do what you want, or at least very close. It has A and B speaker connections, and it has a balance control knob on the front. The more that I think about it, that will let you run anywhere from 1 to 4 speakers with some restrictions. Let's say that you connect speakers "1" and "2" to the right and left A terminals, and speakers "3" and "4" to the right and left B terminals. That will let you:

• Run speaker "1" only by selecting only the A speakers and turning the balance to right
• Run speaker "2" only by selecting only the A speakers and turning the balance to left
• Run speaker "3" only by selecting only the B speakers and turning the balance to right
• Run speaker "4" only by selecting only the B speakers and turning the balance to left
• Run speakers "1" and "2" by selecting the A speakers and leaving the balance in the middle
• Run speakers "3" and "4" by selecting the B speakers and leaving the balance in the middle
• Run speakers "1" and "3" by selecting both A and B speakers and turning the balance to the right
• Run speakers "2" and "4" by selecting both A and B speakers and turning the balance to the left

You just wouldn't be able to run the "1" and "4" speakers together by themselves, or the "2" and "3" speakers together by themselves, in this example. Well, if I'm thinking straight, that is. Three beers might impair that a bit.