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Anonymous | I have a 4 ohm speaker that I would like to hook to a 2 channel reciver that already has 2 8 ohm speakers hook up to it in parallel.The only problem is that its a 8 ohm amp.even if it was a 4 ohm amp 3 speakers with 2 on on one side would bring the ohms down too much.any help is welcome |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 6535 Registered: May-04 | Buy a speaker selector switch box which has the ability to raise, or maintain, a higher impedance. This company probably has what you need: http://www.russound.com/ |
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Anonymous | anyway to do it without that? |
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Gold Member Username: Edster922Abubala, Ababala The Occupation Post Number: 2892 Registered: Mar-05 | quick question, Jan: the Tweeter salesman told me, before starting the demo, that if I were runnning my system at home through a system switchbox like theirs, I'd be wasting my money. This was in the room where I was listening to some Polk and Focal bookshelves running through a Yamaha 1600 and Denon 2910, so not really their top-end setup. True, or a strategic exaggeration designed to suggest that all his gear will sound even better in the customer's home? |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 6570 Registered: May-04 | Anon - That's the safest way to do what you say you want done. You can always play just one pair at a time. That wouldn't require a switch box with impedance loading. ed - I have no idea what the salesperson meant by that statement. Was his intent you would be wasting your money to run your system through any switchbox; or you would be wasting your money to run your system through a switchbox similar to what the shops use? Certainly buying a switchbox similar to what the shops use would be a large waste of money. They are expensive because of what they do and how they do it. But if you intended to switch between a handful of sources, a dozen receivers and two dozen speakers on a continous basis, I guess you could justify the cost. On the other hand, how much damage is done to the signal by running it through a single high quality double throw switch is debatable for most people. Surely a high quality switch, in good condition, should be able to pass a 20 - 20kHz signal with little degradation. The other factors that make a good comparison are still a bit suspect even with the best switch. Quite a bit of what you will and won't hear will obviously depend on, firstly, what you are listening for; and, secondly, what the listening conditions are. Well designed switchboxes in today's shops are much better than when I first began selling. But none are capable of the fine adjustment that should be done to match levels accurately. At low levels, the major problems of switchboxes are minimized. Sufficient current is available, though the problem of shared ground paths still exists. Ideally each amplifier should still be switched off when the other unit is playing. That doesn't make for simple comparisons. Picking a single source and distributing it across a dozen receivers isn't the most effective way to ensure the best sound, though once again, things are much better today than in years past. As volume levels rise and current is demanded of an amplifier, most switchboxes are made for convenience and not sound quality. Soundstaging and imaging, those favorites of comparison shoppers, are destroyed by subtle phase shifts. Switchboxes are not meant to deal precisely with phase relationships but instead with, "which sounds better - A ... or ... B". Will a system sound better at home than in the shop? I would hope so. Not many people have a dozen or more speakers in the room to soak up the energy from the main pair or to limit where the main pair can be placed. (Linn has long advocated "single speaker" demo rooms where even an additional telephone speaker was prohibited.) While you would hope the shop employs people who have an interest in getting the best sound from any component, in real life in an audio shop, most of the time compromises have to be made for convenience. When I sold equipment, I would help the client with set up whenever possible, if they requested the service. For clients who insisted that equipment and speaker placement was wholly dictated by things other than the best sound, there wasn't much I could do except wish them luck and point out a few strategies to get the best results possible. Due to traffic patterns in shops, that is too often the way speakers get set up in stores also; the day to day life in the store dictates where speakers can sit. Even in the best showrooms, unless a room is strictly dedicated to one system only, speakers get moved back and forth constantly. In the best systems I've sold, it was often the last 1/8" to 1/4" of toe in or the final few degrees of tilt to the spikes that made everything come together. Under the best conditions most demo rooms are often just generically "treated" for sound absorption, if at all. A shop with just two salespeople can have one who is very lazy about returning things to their proper place and setting. To expedite the demonstration, the salesperson who is left having to replace speakers and amplifiers while the customer waits will get what they can quickly, and hopefully effectively. Speakers that demand a particular placement, or are just ungainly to move (some high end speakers can easily top 100 lbs. each), often get left in place while other speakers are placed around them. Do you spike a speaker you're going to have to move or just let it rock on the carpeting? One shop I worked in had three foot diameter foundation piers poured for the main speaker room. That worked great for the speakers that worked well that distance from the walls. Certainly no one would have the conditions that exist in a shop for their own system. So the music should have the potential to sound extraordinarily better in your own home than in the shop. In either case the final result comes down to effort. But, I've not seen nor heard a switchbox that I would want in my main system. Besides, there is little point in such an instant switching capacity unless you have someone who can become an independent party to a more sophisticated blind testing. I personally have little use for blind tests; my opinion is they worked fine for showing the difference between a Yamaha and a Nakamichi cassette deck. However, if you are going to use the blind testing method, when you know what is being switched in and out at any one time, you've defeated your purpose. If you want an ABX switchbox, they are available for less money than a comparator that a shop would use. If you are interested in such a device, put "ABX switchbox" into a search engine and you can probably find a number to choose from. |