What's the best way to do this?

[starfish]

I have acquired a 7.1 speaker system but own a 6.1 surround receiver. How should I wire the rear left and right speakers to this receiver?

 

[MDS]

You can wire the rear surrounds in parallel or in series. In parallel, the impedance will be halved and may present a loud that is too tough for the amplifier to drive efficiently at high volumes. Series is safer.

 

[markw]

Simple answer.

You don't.

Just because you have that exrtra speaker doesn't necessarialy mean you HAVE to hook it up, particularly in light of the previous posters ominous and potentialy true warning for hooking them in parallel.

And, should you consider wiring in series, be aware that the volume in both of them will be lower than the other speakers and you may, or may not, be able to compensate by boosting it and thereby running the possibility of running out of power.

 

[Nomo]

I agree with Markw. You'll gain very little by hooking up two speakers to the rear channel. And you may end up overworking the reciever.

 

[Nomo]

I agree with Markw. You'll gain very little by hooking up two speakers to the rear channel. And you may end up overworking the reciever.

 

[MDS]

One benefit to using 2 rear speakers over 1 is that one speaker behind you often causes a psychoacoustic phenomenon known as 'back to front reversals'. This is the effect whereby sounds that originate behind you are confused by the brain to appear to originate in front of you. For this reason, many consider 6.1 to be a flawed format.

Using two speakers behind you, spaced 60 degrees apart, eliminates the effect. It's better to use an actual 7.1 receiver, but you can connect two rear speakers to a 6.1 receiver. Parallel wiring is not recommended and series wiring causes the issue markw raised. If you really want 2 rear speakers, wire them in series and calibrate them to overcome the reduced volume - or better yet stick to 5.1.