? hooking up two different spkrs to same channel

Posted by Pete [IP: 149.112.117.50] on October 29, 1998 at 19:28:59:

In Reply to: ? hooking up two different spkrs to same channel posted by Scott Weakland on October 29, 1998 at 16:11:17:

: I have two types of speakers, Bose 201, and Boston HD9's. Both are 8ohms, and I like to hook up the two Bose, to the left channel and the two Boston's to the right, then I can use the balance control to weight the two types of speakers differently. Receiver is an Yamaha RX 770. I have not noticed any increase in static or distortion, but I wondered if this will cause any stress on the amp.

: Wishing they still put faders on receivers.

: Thanks Scott

Scott,
This will not hurt your amps, although it may eventually hurt your brain and ears (I'm making a bad joke here).
You might, however, check your amp to see if it has a 4-Ohm/8-Ohm switch OR a <6-Ohm / >6-Ohm switch. When you put these speakers in parallel, you are essentially creating a 4 Ohm load for the amp, so if you have such a switch, set if for 4 Ohm or <6-Ohm as the case may be.

May I make a suggestion? It may sound a little better if you put one speaker of each kind on each side since each speaker has a completely different frequency and phase response and sensitivity. This way, the balance will actually sound more correct and you won't need to try to use the balance knob. Unfortunately, even though the balance will be much better, the phase differences and time delays from the different speakers might actually ruin the sound a little (or a lot depending on the speaker designs to begin with).
On the flip side, putting the same speakers on the same side may then ruin the stereo imaging effect.
I'm not sure which is the least of the two evils.
I would try both ways and if they both sound the same to you, keep one speaker of each kind on each side of your soundstage - it'll be easier to balance and provide for better imaging by having greater left to right stage tonal consistency, even with a sacrafice in sound accuracy in terms of delay (at least the delay will be messed up the same on both sides). If you decide to keep each kind of speaker on seperate sides, I think you'll find yourself playing with the balance knob for every different listening level and every different kind of music and recording. This stuff just isn't linear enough for that kind of single setting tweaking.

pete

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