Powering Four Speakers

[toobryant]

I am a little confused on how to power my four Cerwin Vega CLS-215's. I have a Marantz SR5002 receiver. What I want to do is get two external amps, I have been looking at the Behringer EP2500, and connect them to the Marantz pre-outs. What I am confused about is which pre-outs to connect them to. I basically want stereo sound but I want to do it with four speakers... I have seen a few systems where this was accomplished but I am not sure how.

Thanks in adance for your response

 

[TLS Guy]

I am a little confused on how to power my four Cerwin Vega CLS-215's. I have a Marantz SR5002 receiver. What I want to do is get two external amps, I have been looking at the Behringer EP2500, and connect them to the Marantz pre-outs. What I am confused about is which pre-outs to connect them to. I basically want stereo sound but I want to do it with four speakers... I have seen a few systems where this was accomplished but I am not sure how.

Thanks in adance for your response

Stereo sound means two speakers, not four. If you use four like you intend you will have a mess, and a big one.

 

[markw]

Are you now saying that you want to get two Behringer EP2500 amps?

 

[toobryant]

I really don't know exactly what I plan on doing. I want to incorporate all four of these speakers. Would it work if I used two cls-215's for fronts along with a center channel, then used the other two cls-215's as surrounds?

If I went that route I would probably just get one EP2500 and use it to power the left and right speakers and use the Marantz to power the surrounds and center channel... would this work?

Sorry, I am still a newb big time (obviously).

Thanks a lot guys

 

[toobryant]

Stereo sound means two speakers, not four. If you use four like you intend you will have a mess, and a big one.

Alright, thanks a lot.

 

[TLS Guy]

I really don't know exactly what I plan on doing. I want to incorporate all four of these speakers. Would it work if I used two cls-215's for fronts along with a center channel, then used the other two cls-215's as surrounds?

If I went that route I would probably just get one EP2500 and use it to power the left and right speakers and use the Marantz to power the surrounds and center channel... would this work?

Sorry, I am still a newb big time (obviously).

Thanks a lot guys

That is a realistic plan.

 

[toobryant]

Alright... thanks a lot. I tend to get ahead of myself.

 

[markw]

What you say in post 4 makes more sense than anything else you've posted here.

Now, take a step back and think a little.

You can power those five speakers with the 5200 without an external power amp. Hook up the four you have now to the right and left front and rears. Use the phantom mode to emulate a center channel for now.

Then, concentrate on getting a matching center speaker, or at least something as close as possible.

Then worry about a decent sub-woofer. Then sit back and see where you stand.

...then see how badly you need a power amp. Watts is not the solution to every problem.

 

[lsiberian]

I am a little confused on how to power my four Cerwin Vega CLS-215's. I have a Marantz SR5002 receiver. What I want to do is get two external amps, I have been looking at the Behringer EP2500, and connect them to the Marantz pre-outs. What I am confused about is which pre-outs to connect them to. I basically want stereo sound but I want to do it with four speakers... I have seen a few systems where this was accomplished but I am not sure how.

Thanks in adance for your response

You can hook up the two speakers in parallel on each side of the amp. Just make sure your load doesn't dip below 2ohms.

You might consider a more robust amp. The Crown XLS series might fill the bill pretty well.

 

[lsiberian]

Now, take a step back and think a little.

You can power those five speakers with the 5200 without an external power amp. Hook up the four you have now to the right and left front and rears. Use the pantom mode to emulate a center channel for now.

Then, concentrate on getting a matching center speaker, or at least something as close as possible.

Then worry about a decent sub-woofer. Then sit back and see where you stand.

...then see how badly you need a power amp. Watts is not the solution to every problem.

This is the plan I'd recommend.

 

[toobryant]

Now, take a step back and think a little.

You can power those five speakers with the 5200 without an external power amp. Hook up the four you have now to the right and left front and rears. Use the pantom mode to emulate a center channel for now.

Then, concentrate on getting a matching center speaker, or at least something as close as possible.

Then worry about a decent sub-woofer. Then sit back and see where you stand.

...then see how badly you need a power amp. Watts is not the solution to every problem.

The only reason I was even thinking about the external amp was because I didn't want to stress the receiver. I guess I could hook it all up with a center channel speaker and run a few tests and make sure the receiver can power the speakers loud enough without any distortion and still maintain good sound quality.

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[lsiberian]

The only reason I was even thinking about the external amp was because I didn't want to stress the receiver. I guess I could hook it all up with a center channel speaker and run a few tests and make sure the receiver can power the speakers loud enough without any distortion and still maintain good sound quality.

Thanks a lot for your help.

I doubt you will ever stress the receiver. It's a Marantz not a piece of junk.

External amps are nice, but only after you got all the speakers.

 

[toobryant]

I doubt you will ever stress the receiver. It's a Marantz not a piece of junk.

External amps are nice, but only after you got all the speakers.

Very true, I guess it is better to use what I have right now and see if it works rather than spending money on an amp when it might not make it perform any better.

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[skers_54]

Your Marantz has a listening mode called "All Channel Stereo." This will output stereo sound to all your speakers regardless of what terminal they are connected to. It's designed to provide background music. You can give that a try and see how you like it. Dolby Prologic will create a surround mix from a 2 channel input as well. Your manual will give you the details on these listening modes.