Do you recommend hooking up 4 speakers in a two channel stereo?

Hi. My two channel stereo receiver has inputs for two sets of stereo speakers. Right now I only have the Harbeth hooked up, not the Dahlquist compacts I have. The Harbeth are placed on top of the Dahlquist, so I am using the Dahlquist as speaker stands. What would happen if I also hooked up the Dahlquist? Would the two sets of speakers work against each other?

 

It would halve the impedance seen by the amp to 4 ohms if both pair are 8 ohm speakers. That's not the best for the amp. It also would cause imaging to go from accurate to overblown, ala "wall of sound" with possible odd phasing effects. That might actually help the soundstaging if the speakers were placed side by side in an arc rather than a vertical array, but it would be a "spacy" sort of sound by comparison to the single pair.

I've also tried placing a second pair of speakers in the rear of a room. Even when driven by a separate amp with independent level adjustment, it was just a distraction and I used it less and less until I got rid of the rear ones completely. I'd either move the Dahlquist speakers to another room and system or sell them.
-Bill

 

There is a natural "crossover" that occurs. Sometimes it's complimentary, sometimes one speaker can "cancel out" the others qualitys. How does this arrangement sound to your ears? - I agree with Bill, keep them separate.

 

I don't know Chris, I've never had both pairs of speakers hooked up. However, I think I'll just keep one set of speakers hooked up based on the responses so far. Thank you both, Chris and KT88, for your advice.

 

The only time I've utilized a 4 speaker setup with great success was a home theater setup for movies. This was before 5.1 was common. Had main 3-way speakers w/12" woofers stacked on top of some 15" woofer monstrosities with horns, the latter being run from a 2 channel surround processor. Sounded absolutely huge. Worked great because the 15 inchers didn't have much by way of midrange or treble, but the bass was there.

KT88 is right about the odd phasing effects, as I recall. One of the reasons why that setup didn't work well for music. I'd turn off the second set of speakers when listening to music.

 

If the receiver has hook-ups for 2 sets of speakers, it ain't gonna hurt it if you hook up 2 pairs as intended. With 2 different brands of speakers it may give you a little different sound coming through each pair. If you want to have a faux surround effect, you would set the speakers in a 4-corner of the room, reverse the polarity on the rear set and also swich the left-right channel placement compared to the front speakers. This is similar to the way the original Dolby surround worked, except that you rear channels with be stereo and the Dolby was mono.

 

Try it. Only way to find out.

However, matching speakers would probably work better.

 

Actually, many amps can be damaged by connecting multiple sets of speakers, regardless if they have connections for them. Some receivers include warnings on the back; some even have a switch to help the amp deal with the impedance difference, but it's always more taxing on the amp.

Reversing phase on rear speakers is somewhat common, but not channel reversal. Phasing differences can help some recordings parts and hurt others. Incorrect channel assignment just results in improper panning, which would be distracting for audio and basically hobble video soundtracks.
-Bill

 

I've got two sets of speakers on mine, but one is a pretty low quality set and I don't usually have them both running at the same time. What I usually do is use the smaller, low quality set late at night, when I want to listen to stuff but want to manage the volume for obvious reasons.

 

I have 4 speaker stereo arranged in a quadraphonic format. All 4 speakers are the same. I only use the rears when I'm cranking it LOUD or listening to quadraphonic music. I never use them when I'm sitting down because as others said, it introduces all kind of weird phase issues. If you've got the power then you can do it, but be aware that it will tax your amp if you're cranking it...heat is the number one enemy of electrical components. I have a cooling fan hooked up to my amp. Also if youre cranking full blast and the amp can't double the power output per channel at half the impedance, then you have to turn the volume control down. Otherwise you'll be clipping, which is the number one enemy of speakers!

 

Due to some upcoming renovations I will be downsizing to a 2.1 system in a smaller room for an extended period. I have PSB Stratus Silvers as my mains and Stratus Mini's as surround. I'd like to either stack my Minis on top of the Silvers or possibly builds stands for the Minis to align the tweeters setting the Mini's to the outside of my Silvers.

I was thinking I would use my 5 channel Rotel power amp to power the minis(possibly biamped) and my XPA 2 to power my Silvers. I would have to use double Y connecters in order to connect these to my Rotel front inputs.
Should I bother or just put the Minis into storage?

 

Put them is storage.

 

Dead of night .
Speakers work best under some preferred technology .example ..
a speaker rated at 10 watts hooked up to a 250 watt amp will result in all probability..a blown speaker or a speaker rated at 250 watts run by a 10 watt amp will also have difficult results.
Next is your room , are you in a theater ,or are the speakers just next to your computer , each require a different combination for good results to be"perfect" , so lets assume your in a average room hoping to enjoy the musics production quality , and not say a recording studio were your set up should have a different purpose .
Now if you have four matching speakers , run by one amp , you will notice some thing different but it is not , the same frequencies are similar from each speaker and as mentioned above you will now be taxing your amp by the load required , and it is possible now the amp will have to work harder to accomplish the same levels of sound , there for heating up the amp faster harder , especially if there are dynamics in the recording.In your situation you have two different sounding and designed speakers, still masking off the bottom "speaker stands" tweeters could result in "different" bass reproduction ,be it better or worse you ears will have to tell , but aside form the concerns of the amp , blocking off one set of higher (tweeter)frequencies will cut the "fighting "down
So here are some suggestions , if you feel compelled to use all the speakers , consider , taping off the tweeter or opening the box and temporally while in this application remove the positive connection to the one set of drivers on the bottom , your phase problems will be reduced, and in turn you will noticed you hear more bass , adding a driver to your system , remember two 3 inch drivers equal the sound of a 6 inch driver in the low end or two 6 inch drivers can equal the sound of a 12 inch driver .
Now there are other creative possibilities ,say you can find a extra amp there are tons of them at the goodwill for cheap that are out dated mostly because of the HD connection , say a amp that has some delays in them , theater or concert or jazz room , or hall , these are just pre designed delays , split you source to the two amps add some delay to the bottom speaker , here you have the options of "tweaking" your sound , option one , listening to the top speakers can be just a clean critical listening sound , while the option two can give the room a more ambient sound , say for a television or guests or just a more dimensional s sound while also offering some fun adjusting of applied bass tone , "mixing" a disable low end to the combo with tone controls

 

Can you play both speakers at the same time on your Reciever?

I had an amp with four sets of speaker terminals and their principle use was for bi-wiring.

 

I have four original Advent stacks in quad and it's fabulous. No soundstage deterioration, no weird phasing effects, no distraction. Just great audio experiences.

Doug

 

I also have four New Large Advents stacked together connected to a Marantz 2285B, and as Doug mentioned above; it's fabulous!!! Though I'm not sure what would happen if one were to mix manufacturers and/or different models together.

 

I actually should have included that caveat. It's better to stick with identical models. Acoustic anomalies are much more likely with speakers of different responses or dispersion characteristics.

Doug

 

Wow, three year old "thread from the dead".

In general, it is hard on amps to run multiple pairs of speakers. Some amps can handle impedance loads below 4 ohms but it will tax most amps, especially those in receivers. They also don't build receivers like the used to, so using vintage ones which can go up in smoke or modern, el cheapo crap (which can also go up in smoke) is not advised. Even when using a real beefy power amp which is capable of driving low impedance loads, using multiple speakers means using multiple tweeters and x-overs, leading to a blurred sound. Not my cuppa joe.
-Bill

 

I Run double stacked Klipsch (side by side) with no problems. Very loud.

 

The few times I've tried this (with amps with two sets of speaker outputs) it's sounded weird. Amusical.

I vote no.

 

My wee Sherwood $100 amp (often recommended here) has 2 sets of speakers, A or B or both AB. One set of speakers are giant old 70's enclosures, the other Polk Monitor 30s. No matter how loud it's cranked it never has a heat problem, and the sound I get is rather well balanced although directionally odd. It's in the bar which is not where I usually listen to music so it's fin just blasting while doing chores.

 

I have two different pairs of speakers connected to my integrated stereo amp and have never had a problem. I primarily use all four speakers when watching movies, and occasionally for music (usually live recordings). Whatever speaker sounds the best, I listen to.

 

I have been experimenting with my jbl 4313's stacked on my Jbl L26's

The 26's really round out the bottom, sound is big and full I don't hear any phase problems

Amp is a sansui au-7700 seems to be fine even at loud volumes. It does have an impedance switch at the back which I'll flip both speakers are 8 ohm

 

The time I was into 4-channel stereo was in a more "proper" configuration. I used a Vincent 236mkII intergrated for front speakers and the pre-amp outs into a McIntosh 7270 amp which powered the same speakers that I have upfront-DefTech 7000s.
I loved it at first but it became alittle tireing or gimmicky and so the second amp and speakers went to my video setup.
Do whatever you like but be carefull when using one amp for 4 speakers for the reasons mentioned by the other posters. Take care, John M.

 

I will add that I have a separate stereo amplifer for each pair of speakers because I agree that, even though there may be no problem with a particular amplifier or setup, generally it is hard on solid state amplifiers to run them into 4 ohm loads. An 8 ohm load is optimal for these amps.

Doug