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2 pair of speakers on one amp


wpines

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NOTE: Running 2 pairs of speakers off of the same amp unless in a dedicated HT amp is just asking for bad music reproduction and electrical bad failure mode karma

The above is one of the replies in a previous thread. I had stated that sometimes I run my Cornwalls and Heresies wired in parallel, most times the Cornwalls alone. I'm no electrical engineer so I need some help here. I understand the impedance drops to 4 ohms when wired in parallel. A solid state Mcintosh MA 5100 preamp-amp is driving these speakers until I can get one of the new NOS stereo amplifiers (I'm sending the deposit next week). The MA 5100 is rated for 4, 8 or 16 ohms output impedance. The Cornwalls alone are sweet, but when wired together with the Heresies, the sound is different and it sounds better than the Cornwalls alone for particular types of music, mostly hard rock and loud.

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The Cornwalls at 8 ohms are wired directly to the amplifier with a Monster cable or similar (came with the Heresies) with straight pin connector ends. Then I've got 12awg copper zip wire from the Cornwalls to the Heresies, also 8 ohm, wired + to + and - to -. My understanding is that this is a 4 ohm load now.

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8 ohms for Cornwalls is an average load.....it drops much lower in the woofer section.


You need to check your amps power specs and determine the min load it can handle.  Some amps are fine down to 2 ohms others only to 6 ohms.  

Yoyr amplifer can be damaged if it was not designed to run low impedance loads.


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I believe that is correct..........but as you increase the load on the speaker, can't the Ohms rating drop below 4 ohms with the speakers wired in that manner...........I pose more of a question........not an answer..........I have been under the impression that it is not a good way to run your speakers.........Some one with more knowledge needs to jump in.............

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if you want to run 2 pair of speakers off 1 amp i would suggest running them in (i beleive they call it) series where the pos lead from the amp would go to the pos on the cornwall, then the neg on the cornwall would go to the pos on the heresy and the neg on the heresy would go back to the neg on the amp, this would make the speaker pair in essence more efficient and put them at 16 ohm, then you have no worry of clipping te amp trying to push a load blow its ability

on a side note i ran the exact combination i mention above for awhile with great results on a phase linear(notorious for burning up if they were pushed to drive a bad load) i had te pairs setting about 2 feet out of a corner with the heresy atop the corns imaging was great and sound was very good

Joe

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The K-33 is a 4 ohm driver, you could present a load to the amplifier that is less than that, wired in parallel with a heresy. This will cause the amplifier to put out more current in the outputs. Some can handle this, and others will not. Most professional power amplifiers will drive a 2 ohm load in stereo all day long, but they are robust in construction, usually fan cooled and have multiple output devices per channel.

They may also use othter techniques to lower the amount of heat generated, such as class G or class H topologies. ( using multiple rail voltages, keeping the voltage across the output transistors low until the output is large enough to switch to a higher voltage rail ) Some are class T as well..

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I'm running a pair of cornwalls (hooked in parallel) off a single channel. The sound quality sounds great to my ear's, and better than when I had just the single. Assuming your amp can handle the load (which it probably can), I see no reason why you can't do the same.

The impedance (or resistance/load) that the amp's channel circuitry (i.e. Left Channel, or Right Channel) see's for 2 speakers connected in parallel is half the impedance of a single speaker. That's just the way the math works out. Hence, (2)-8 ohmn speakers connected in parallel will present a 4 ohmn load to the corresonding amp's channel. But, don't worry about that stuff, just hook'er up and go.

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If I'm understanding this right, the 16 ohm load imposed by wiring them in series, is preferable to the 4 ohm load when wired in parallel. I guess if the load dropped below 4 ohms when wired in parallel, then it would be below the rating on this amp. I'll try the series wiring but will there be less volume or any other noticable sonic change from the parallel?

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The Cornwalls at 8 ohms are wired directly to the amplifier with a Monster cable or similar (came with the Heresies) with straight pin connector ends. Then I've got 12awg copper zip wire from the Cornwalls to the Heresies, also 8 ohm, wired + to + and - to -. My understanding is that this is a 4 ohm load now.

OK - just to confuse things - isn't the above a description that more closely resembles a series connection? If so, we are talking a 16 ohm load. That means the amp is probably safe, but I can't talk to the sound. I see the overall efficiency of the set up decreasing, but if there is enough clean power that may not be much of an issue. If your amp has a toggle for 8 or 16 ohm that would be an easy fix.

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The Cornwalls at 8 ohms are wired directly to the amplifier with a Monster cable or similar (came with the Heresies) with straight pin connector ends. Then I've got 12awg copper zip wire from the Cornwalls to the Heresies, also 8 ohm, wired + to + and - to -. My understanding is that this is a 4 ohm load now.

OK - just to confuse things - isn't the above a description that more closely resembles a series connection? If so, we are talking a 16 ohm load. That means the amp is probably safe, but I can't talk to the sound. I see the overall efficiency of the set up decreasing, but if there is enough clean power that may not be much of an issue. If your amp has a toggle for 8 or 16 ohm that would be an easy fix.

No, it is not series. POS to POS & NEG to NEG is a parallel type connection.

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The Cornwalls at 8 ohms are wired directly to the amplifier with a Monster cable or similar (came with the Heresies) with straight pin connector ends. Then I've got 12awg copper zip wire from the Cornwalls to the Heresies, also 8 ohm, wired + to + and - to -. My understanding is that this is a 4 ohm load now.

OK - just to confuse things - isn't the above a description that more closely resembles a series connection? If so, we are talking a 16 ohm load. That means the amp is probably safe, but I can't talk to the sound. I see the overall efficiency of the set up decreasing, but if there is enough clean power that may not be much of an issue. If your amp has a toggle for 8 or 16 ohm that would be an easy fix.

No, it is not series. POS to POS & NEG to NEG is a parallel type connection.

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