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4 speakers in a large room

Would appreciate some opinions about connecting four bookshelf speakers in a large room at home (the room is an open space where I have kitchen and dining/living room).

I have 4 bookshelf speakers (Dali Spektor 1) at the corners pointing towards the center. This is for ambient sound, easy listening while I’m cooking.

I don’t have them connected to an amplifier yet and my question is: should I hook them as two stereo pairs (A and B to an amplifier with two sets of outputs); Or should I search for an amplifier providing mono outputs, so all speakers play the same? Which option is the best for this kind of arrangement? I know in Pro Audio, the speakers at a venue work in mono. Should I do the same? Will two stereo pairs sound “strange”?

128x128migueca
erik_squires
16,021 posts
 

Switching a stereo source to mono usually sounds pretty flat and hard to engage with to me.

The electrical parts of this are fairly easy so no reason to buy a different amp just for more outlets.  However the big issue is the impedance.  Most bargain amps only do 4 Ohms, so you can only put 8 Ohm pairs in parallel.

Another alternative is to get a semi-pro/installer grade amp like the Parasound Zonemaster amps which are ideal for this type of setup.

dekay's avatar
dekay
5,527 posts
 

If you already have a stereo amp to use stack them tweeter to tweeter (wired in series) and position them to cross towards the middle of the space (for starters).

Series wiring would be amplifier + to speaker 1 +, speaker 1- to speaker 2 +, speaker 2- to amplifier -.

You could try this with cheap speaker cable to see if they will properly fill the space when stacked.

Another trick to get more ambient/room filling sound would be to place them on very low stands or even the floor, but with the front tilted up a bit (you could try this with a single pair or a stacked pair).

Series wiring (your speakers are rated 6 ohms) would theoretically let the amp see 12 ohms, but realistically the load would probably be closer to 8 ohms.

Stacked 6 ohm speakers wired parallel would most likely drop well below 2 ohms - not a good thing.

 

DeKay

 

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