[gregavi]

I’m looking for help in wiring speakers. Here’s my situation. I have a Marantz SR7000 A/V receiver. It has a setting (5 Ch Stereo) that makes the speakers connected to the “Surround” outputs into a second set of stereo “Mains”. I have a pair of 8” 2-way Earthquake in-wall 8 Ohm speakers connected to the “surround” outputs. I would like to connect an additional pair of speakers that will reside in a different room. The speakers I purchased for that are a pair of 6” 2-way Niles in-wall 8 Ohm speakers. It is too difficult to run another set of speaker wires to the new location from the Marantz but running an additional set of wires from the EQ speakers is easy. The question: Can I, Should I and How do I, wire the second set of Niles to the first set of EQ speakers? I’m somewhat familiar with “parallel” and “series” but not quite sure the proper/safest way to wire this. Also, I plan to run the second pair though a volume control placed on the wall near the second set. Does that complicate the wiring? Thanks in advance.

Specs from Marantz SR7000 owners manual.

AUDIO SECTION

Continuous Power Output

FRONT (20 Hz - 20 kHz) ............ 8 ohms 100W / Ch

Center (20 Hz - 20 kHz) ............ 8 ohms 100W / Ch

Surround (20 Hz - 20 kHz) ......... 8 ohms 100W / Ch

THD Front (20 Hz - 20 kHz) ....... 8 ohms 0.05 %

 

[TomBonge]

No. Series wiring will double your impedance, which won't hurt you amp but will sound bad at high levels. Parallel wiring will overheat your amp. Either way you will be splitting the power and your max level will be reduced. Just run the speaker wire, how ever difficult, it's a one time job. If you really want to you could buy another amp that accepts a power level source, but the Marantz amp sounds so nice you really should use it instead. You could also get a pair of DPDT switches to switch between the two speakers, only using one pair at a time, but with the correct impedance and at full power.

 

[Jason Turk]

I would not do parallel...as another said that will probably overdrive your receiver.


Question....are you running them off the rear channels or front channels?

 

[gregavi]

Thanks for the response. I'm running them off the "Surround" outputs.


Unfortunately it wouldn't be a one time job since I have already done it once. I tore my wall apart in order to run wire (CAT 5, speaker wire etc.), patched and painted last year. I have now decided to add speakers to the dining room and REALLY do not want to tear into my wall again. It is a vaulted ceiling in the room that the stereo equipment is in, so going through the attic is not an option. I have a 6 Ch Sonance Power amp to add to the mix for all the speakers I want to drive, but wiring is the problem. I guess I can run the wire outside into conduit and make my way around to the attic that way. Someone suggested possibly wiring them A combination of Series and Parallel shown here:
http://colomar.com/Shavano/speaker.html