Receivers & speaker selector boxes.

[Sealion4000]

I'm a home theatre newbie - please help! Here's my issue: I just had installed in my house six pairs of speakers in the walls of six separate rooms. I went to my local home theatre store (Sound Advice) and was told that I could hook up my Niles SS-6 Speaker Selector Box to either Zone Two or Zone Three on the back of a Yamaha RX-V1700 AV Receiver, which I then bought.

However, I just opened the receiver's owner's manual and was disappointed to read: "The SP1 or SP2 speaker terminals of this Receiver should not be connected to a Passive Loudspeaker Selector Box or more than one loudspeaker per channel" because doing so "could create an abnormally low impedance load resulting in amplifyer damage."

Two questions: 1. Does anybody know of a receiver that can handle and be used to control all the speakers in all six rooms plus my home theatre speakers in a seventh room? 2. Is there a difference between a "passive" speaker selector box and any other kind of selector box? I'd appreciate any help that anybody out there might be able to offer!

 

[MDS]

A 'passive' speaker selector would be a simple switch that switches between multiple pairs. A speaker selector like Niles can often be configured to present a specific impedance regardless of how many pairs of speakers are connected.

The Niles manual should tell you what load (impedance) it presents to an amplifier. If it is not the type that can be configured, it likely presents a 4 Ohm load to the amp and that is what the receiver manual is warning about.

 

[AVRat]

Does each room have an impedance matching volume control, or are the speakers home run directly back to the receiver location? None of the receivers' zoning amps should be used to power that many speakers. Some of Niles' manuals state that their gear should be used with amplification that can handle 2 ohm loads. The Niles SS-6 "Requires An Amplifier That Is Compatible With A 4 Ohm Load". You could add a separate amp like the Behringer A500 to accomplish this. How much more are you willing to spend for the additional multi-room audio because there are other options?