Powering nine home speakers


Hi. I have a large open living room and want to increase the wattage I have running my speakers. I currently have an Onkyo 7-channel amp and took the front left and right outs and have them going to an OSD Audio ATM7 7-zone speaker selector. However the Onkyo amp is not powerful enough to drive all 9 speakers strong enough. It sounds very weak. 

The only device I want to connect is a sonos connect that I have. Currently I connect the optical out of that to the Onkyo amp. Should I introduce a second amp? How exactly would I connect them? Would I run the sonos connect into one amp and take the preamp outs to the other amp? Can you have a standard front left and right out AND a preamp out at the same time?

i only want/need stereo sound not surround. 

Thanks!
jj91709

     Okay. 

     You can connect the left and right front outputs on your receiver to a separate multi-channel amp.  This allows you to connect some speakers to the speaker outputs on the Onkyo receiver and the remaining to the multi-ch amp's speaker outputs. Whatever source you select on the receiver will play through all speakers.

     You didn't state your budget and there are many types of multi-ch amps with a wide variety of channels (3 channels plus), a wide variety of watts per channel and a wide range of prices.  I'd recommend matching the watts per ch on your multi-ch amp to the watts per ch on your receiver.  If all your speakers are all the same brand and model, this means they'll all have the same efficiency rating (listed as decibels at 1 watt).   This means each speaker will be producing the same volume output at any setting your receiver's volume knob is set at.  

     Just google "multi-channel home audio amps" if you'd like to see the various amps available.
Tim

     

 
Well if this is a stereo set up, then your answer is to do more of a pro/distribution type setup.

If you are using this for movies, why oh why do you have 9 speakers in your ceiling??
The OSD Audio ATM7 7-zone speaker selector dose not provide impedance matching, try one speaker distribution selector with impedance matching, if still has insufficient music volume then add a higher power stereo amp connect to the Onkyo front R/L pre-out to drive those speakers.
https://www.amazon.com/5-Zone-Stereo-Speaker-Distribution-Controller/dp/B01G7TW8W0
Onkyo R/L pre-out ---> stereo power amp ---> speaker selector with impedance matching ----> speakers