Any harm if I connect just 1 rear speaker?

I ordered a pair of rear speakers from Amazon, and they shipped one via next day and the other via ground. So I'm getting speaker stands and one speaker tomorrow. Rather than do nothing with it all weekend, will I harm anything if I connect that one speaker until the other arrives? And for the channel without a speaker, can I connect the speaker wire now, or is it better to not until I connect a speaker to it? Sorry if these are dumb questions, I just thought I heard somewhere not to run just one speaker.

 

I never have heard of that.

Is it a faulty theory that somehow...the one speaker would have too much power focused on it?

And blow out?

I really don't know.

I've had one speaker connected before...only because the other speaker wire got disconnected.

I would tend to not want to connect the other speaker wire yet...since it has nothing to connect to.

Yet, maybe this harms nothing.

 

Patience would be prudent.

 

Agree with other posters. No need to rush to connect the one speaker. And connecting the wire to the amp without a speaker is bad idea for the risk that the positive and ground wires might touch on the other end.

If it were me I'd position the one speaker and run the wire for both without connecting them to the amp. That way when the other one arrives you'll be all set, just have to connect the wire to the terminals.

Let us know how the rears are working once you've spent some time with them.

 

Man, not what I wanted to hear lol. I have no patience. Was so excited to finally have rear speakers again (moved from a house where they were in the ceiling). Was thinking 1 this weekend was better than waiting. Maybe I should.

 

I would wait.

 

Wait, your home theater receiver should have a phantom rear channel setting for systems with no rear channel speakers.

 

It'll be so much better to get the full effect all at once.

 

There's really no point in using the single speaker as you'll have to run the calibration program again when you get the second one.

 

If it's a solid state receiver (transistors), then it won't hurt anything, but it will sound unsatisfying.

If it's hollow state (tube), then you will burn out your output transformer.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Got also a new area rug for my all-tile living room to reduce echo, which will also hide the wires for the rears. The room environment will be quite different with the rears.

Yep, I'm running it on 3.1 now. Just doesn't have the same effect. Ordered the rears on Wed, and having to wait till Monday when I selected one-day shipping is torture. (They've since reimbursed the 1-day shipping cost)

 

Good luck and enjoy your setup!!

 

If you want to connect one rear speaker, go ahead and do it, it won't hurt anything.

Best if you can center it behind you.

 

This is the only post that actually answered the OP's question

 

Moot point now as both speakers have delivered and sound great! FYI, I waited.