Wiring 2 speakers in parallel

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Drunkpenguin

Audioholic Chief
Greetings! I'm new here and would like to post my first question. I have some speakers laying around not doing anything so I'm considering doubling up my side surround speakers and putting some towers for the rear surrounds. If I were to wire 2 Infinity Beta Surrounds (8 ohms) into 1 channel on an Emotiva XPA-5 amp should the amp handle the 4 ohm load ok? The Emotiva (gen2 I think, I bought it in 2011) specs say it should but I want to confirm that I won't risk damaging anything. Also, for surround duty would this work out ok or be a waste of time? I currently have 4 of these speakers in a 7.2 config. But I also have some Infinty Beta 50's in a storage closet that I'm considering putting in the back of my theater as the rear surrounds, and then putting all 4 of the Beta Surrounds on the sides for dual SR and SL. Worth doing or waste of time? My goal is to give me some more low end in the back of the room and space out the surrounds a bit for a wider surround field.
 
D

Drunkpenguin

Audioholic Chief
It's a dedicated room, 22x17 with 2 rows of seats. I'm really mainly interested in the front rows audio experience. The back row is rarely used. I have very good PSA 210s up front and the infinitys just dont quite keep up. I thought this might be a good way to increase the volume a bit and make them a little more competitive. I know the best plan would be to just buy better surrounds, but I thought I Have all this laying around so maybe I could use it?

The link you posted is for the Beta 50s, the 2 floor standers that I have which are currently sitting in a closet un-used. I thought I could use them as rear surrounds. Those would be wired normal, one speaker to one output.

The other speakers I have times 4, are the infinty beta surrounds. Which are these. These are the guys I was thinking about doubling up so I could have 2 side surrounds on each side.
(still cant post links), the model of the surrounds is Infinity Beta ES250.
 
T

transchris11

Audiophyte
My speakers are 4ohm and my xpa5 handles them with no problems...

Sent from my Z557BL using Tapatalk
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
It's a dedicated room, 22x17 with 2 rows of seats. I'm really mainly interested in the front rows audio experience. The back row is rarely used. I have very good PSA 210s up front and the infinitys just dont quite keep up. I thought this might be a good way to increase the volume a bit and make them a little more competitive. I know the best plan would be to just buy better surrounds, but I thought I Have all this laying around so maybe I could use it?

The link you posted is for the Beta 50s, the 2 floor standers that I have which are currently sitting in a closet un-used. I thought I could use them as rear surrounds. Those would be wired normal, one speaker to one output.

The other speakers I have times 4, are the infinty beta surrounds. Which are these. These are the guys I was thinking about doubling up so I could have 2 side surrounds on each side.
(still cant post links), the model of the surrounds is Infinity Beta ES250.
They were discussing those speakers in the review but didn't notice they didn't measure them, just the others. Sorry about that. They did call the others 6 ohm and measured down to 5ohm and suspect the surrounds may have similar spec. For the load of a surround I'd probably at least try it and see what happens. You could play it safe impedance wise if you have amp channels to spare, and just y-split the signal into more than one amp channel..

Aside from cancellation/comb filtering potential issues, again may as well give it a try and see what you think. I've heard of others doing such...but usually to give more rows of seats coverage...never tried something like that myself.
 
D

Drunkpenguin

Audioholic Chief
Thanks for the info! I once tried doubling up a center and didnt work out at all, but I thought with surrounds maybe I could get away with it. I thought about running 2 wires since I do have plenty of extra amp space, but I was hoping to avoid another attic run. Maybe I'll just try it this weekend and see how it sounds. Worse case scenario, the amp would likely shut itself down if it ran into a problem right?
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
This does seem the week for "over egging the pudding" Adding speaker surplus to requirement can be pretty much guaranteed to spoil the results.

The other issue is that the impedance of speakers is usually significantly less than what is stated by the manufacturer. So be careful!
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Yeah, don't bother adding in more speakers by wiring them in parallel. 1: it screws up the intended sound, 2: impedance loads aren't a single number. Impedance varies by frequency. You could be creating a very low impedance load and nasty phase angle if you don't know the full electrical behavior of your speakers.
 
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Drunkpenguin

Audioholic Chief
Let me run another wacky idea by you guys then. Another thought I had was to steal the 4 woofers out of the floor standers, build some custom boxes that would include one woofer for each of the 4 surrounds, and of course the original speakers from the surrounds. Frankensurrounds. Of course Id have to come up with another crossover over I guess. IDK, maybe I just need to buy new surrounds lol.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
The solution to your problem will more likely be found with adjusting the balance among your front, side, and rear speakers. You do this with your receiver or preamp/processor. If your front speakers seem to overpower your side & rear speakers, it seems like your front speakers could be set too loud. Balance them so they are all equally loud.

If your receiver or pre/pro allows you to adjust the crossover frequency separately for the side & rear speakers, try adjusting that and see if it helps.

Your last idea is – by your own admission – wacky. I agree :). Try balancing your existing speakers and adjusting the receiver's crossover frequencies if possible.
 
D

Drunkpenguin

Audioholic Chief
Theyre balanced. I run audyssey and then calibrate with an spl meter. Its just a difference in sound. The betas lack base due to smaller drivers. They are competing with 6 10" woofers from the 3 PSA's up front. I just don't wanna drop 2600 bucks on PSA surrounds. Trying to cheap out here if I can.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Theyre balanced. I run audyssey and then calibrate with an spl meter. Its just a difference in sound. The betas lack base due to smaller drivers. They are competing with 6 10" woofers from the 3 PSA's up front. I just don't wanna drop 2600 bucks on PSA surrounds. Trying to cheap out here if I can.
OK, rule out the balancing idea. What about the subwoofer-to-speaker crossover frequency? What happens if you try varying that?

I agree about not wanting to drop 2600 bucks for surround speakers. There are many less expensive options. But I'm not at all sure what you want or need. An idea is Affordable Accuracy Monitors, sold online by Philharmonic Audio. They're inexpensive, $200/pair plus shipping (limited to no more than $30). They're 14" H × 9" W × 11" D and weigh 16 lbs. They deliver honest bass down to 48 Hz and have a truly flat frequency response across the mid range. How does that compare to your Infinities?

In my own simpler 5 channel system, I use small NHT SuperZero speakers as rear channel speakers. They don't deliver bass below roughly 80-90 Hz, and I don't think of that as a problem, as long as I'm watching video. For most music, I listen with 2-channels.
 
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