Rec room audio system setup and speaker wiring

[sliderstinks]

I have a decent size room (17'x18') that I would like to setup a system for. The room has a pool table, dart board, things like that- so I'm not trying to setup a home theater, or stereo setup w/ a small listening area, this is more like a bar. It has speaker wiring already installed near the four upper corners of the room - including these four little sony cube speakers. I just bought 2 pairs of ELAC OW4.2's to replace the cube speakers (my friend has them for surrounds, they seemed like a good compromise in terms of size). I had planned on using an old 5.1 receiver I have lying around in the basement for a little while for at least one pair of speakers, but I didn't notice it has a minimum impedance of 8 Ohms (the ELACs are 6) until I dusted it off.

So my newbie question is this - what kind of receiver/amp should I get for this kind of application? I think I need:
- A few basic audio inputs
- Digital input capability would be good
- The ability to power the 2 pairs of 6 Ohm / 80Watt max speakers
- The ability to feed a powered subwoofer, just in case I am successful negotiating with my significant other
- Do NOT need any type of video processing

I figured I would look at "multi-zone" 2 channel amplifiers (w/ "A" and "B" speaker output),but what I am finding is that a lot of them have a minimum impedance of 8 Ohms when you use both "A" and "B" outputs, even if they have minimum of 4 Ohms for one pair of speakers. Should I wire two speakers in series, and use a amp rated for "12 Ohms"? Or should I be looking at a speaker switch with impedance handing?

Thanks in advance for any advice. This seems like a simple question, but I am having trouble finding much information outside of the home theater or stereo setups.

 

[lovinthehd]

What's the make/model of the old receiver? It may work well enough at lower volumes with the Elacs (and if they're nominally 6 ohm there's likely a few points where it dips well below that). What's the budget?

Most avrs will do the job for the features you want, altho for a 4 ohm rating generally it's towards the higher end of the avr spectrum; most are rated for 6/8 ohms in any case. They will mostly have video capabilities but you don't need to use such. A/B outputs are generally meant for using A or B rather than A and B together...but somewhat depends again on the volume requirements; I'd look at 4 channel amps if not an avr, but not 2ch amps particularly. Might look around at accessories4less.com for deals/closeouts.

 

[sliderstinks]

Thanks for your reply! The old AVR is a Sony STR-DE895. I didn't have a real plan in terms of how to configure it for 4 speakers. I was going to use the front and surround channels, see if I can turn off the center channel in setup, and see what it sounds like. I really want the stereo signal pushed out to 4 speakers. Do you have any advice for how to configure an AVR to get close to this? If I hook up speakers that are less than the minimum impedance of the amp, am I only putting the amp at risk or the speakers as well?

I wasn't planning on spending more than $400-$500 on this part (honestly I was hoping to get away with just using the old AVR for a while). Thanks for pointing me toward accessories4less - that looks like a great site. I have been struggling to find a 4 channel (integrated?) amp - if anyone could point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

 

[lovinthehd]

The manual for the unit just in case https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W001/W0010617M.pdf

I have a similar unit, the DE597 but yours is a bit different. I'd think it will drive your speakers to a reasonable level, but if you raise the volume up enough you will likely trip the protection circuits.

It has speaker setup to turn off the center no problem (or enable a sub). I don't see an all-channel stereo mode which would be one way to go easily but you could probably use the multi-ch inputs with a stereo source split to two sets of inputs to enable four speakers in "stereo". I'd suggest perhaps mono but I don't see but an FM mode for mono. You could also just use one of the Dolby or DTS upmixers to create surround sound, maybe use for L/R the speakers nearest your activity and use the other pairs as surrounds for some room fill.

 

[-Jim-]

Gents,

Andrew Jones (the designer of these Elac speakers) maintains they are fine for receivers "rated" at 8 ohms. I used to have a Sony very similar to the Sony STR-DE895 / Sony STR-DE995 (a Sony STR-DE985). Sony's are more stable than folks give them credit for. This unit has A+B setting for a second zone. So connect one pair of speakers on one side of the room to Front Speakers "A" and the second set to Speakers Front "B" (Sony's description => see page 17 of the manual.

As lovinthehd said: "It may work well enough at lower volumes with the Elacs" I agree but start off at low volumes. I'd try the STR-DE895 before buying a new unit every time.

 

[lovinthehd]

Gents,

Andrew Jones (the designer of these Elac speakers) maintains they are fine for receivers "rated" at 8 ohms. I used to have a Sony very similar to the Sony STR-DE895 / Sony STR-DE995 (a Sony STR-DE985). Sony's are more stable than folks give them credit for. This unit has A+B setting for a second zone. So connect one pair of speakers on one side of the room to Front Speakers "A" and the second set to Speakers Front "B" (Sony's description => see page 17 of the manual.

As lovinthehd said: "It may work well enough at lower volumes with the Elacs" I agree but start off at low volumes. I'd try the STR-DE895 before buying a new unit every time.

I think it still shares the same amp channels using A/B, tho, think that would stress the amp quicker than just using a discrete amp channel via the surrounds....at least that's how I'd approach it; at least be extra careful with volume to test

 

[sliderstinks]

Thank you both for your replies. I wanted to give a quick update. I cut some wire to test with and tried out one pair with the Sony and they sounded fine at a pretty decent volume level. Whadayaknow - the guy who designed the speakers is right!

I chose to work on the wall mounting which took longer than expected (wires come out of the wall about 6 inches too high), and I didn't get a chance to hook up the second pair. I will carefully try both the Surround Channel and A/B setups and report back.

Anyway - thanks for talking me down from buying something new immediately. It seems like I can use the Sony in some capacity to give me some time to try the speakers out. First impression is that I am surprised how full these little guys sound - I think the walls help them. I'm less convinced I want to add a sub.

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you have issues with the speakers tripping the amp, you could always rewire them so that they are in series which would change the impedance to 12ohms, which is acceptable with the receiver.