four speakers, one amp, two channel?

J

Jason

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Apr 30, 2016
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Is there any reason why I cannot run four speakers off a single amplifier? Four identical speakers, two per side, with jumpers between the left side speakers and another set of jumpers between the right?

Speakers would only be about 2 feet apart.

Not running a surround sound system, just some vintage gear while I look for a set of high-end speakers. A single speaker on each side just doesn't seem like enough.


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You need to consider the resulting impedance that will be seen by your amplifier depending upon how you connect two speakers to each channel. If you connect them in parallel (by either running separate pairs of cable to each speaker from the amp's terminals or using jumpers as you described) it presents an impedance their individual impedances multiplied divided by their sum. So let's say each speaker is rated as an 8 ohm impedance, (8*8) / (8+8) would result in a 4 ohm load being seen by each channel of your amp. Similarly if they are 4 ohm speakers running two in parallel would present a 2 ohm load to each channel. If your power amp is rated to be able to drive the resulting impedance it should be fine, but if it can't handle the lower impedance it should not be done. Alternatively connecting speakers in series (by running + of the amp's channel to + of one speaker, with a cable running from that speaker's - terminal to the + of the other speaker, and finally connecting the remaining - of the second speaker back to the - on the amp) simply adds the two speaker's impedances. Hope this helps!
 
You're incredibly detailed response lends credibility to my perception that I know very little about home audio and should probably not be screwing up my system! I think I would rather just stick with adding another amplifier for each additional set of speakers I wish to add, I guess my only concern would be the different Amps becoming out of sync with my tube amplifiers, probably degrading the sound quite a bit.


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Jason, just remember the smoke inside your tubes is magic. Once released, the magic is gone.
 
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