[mackaz]

Greetings:


I am in the process of building a new home. I am installing 10+ ceiling speakers and plan to run the cabling to the rear of my amp. Each room will have it's own volume control.


The question: is there some sort of a terminal block that I can attach all room speaker cables to, then simply run a double cable to that block from my amp to power-up the ceiling speakers?


Thanks!!


Rich

 

[catapult]

Wiring that will be a bit tricky. Running that many speakers in parallel will present a very low impedance load to the amp and will most likely toast it. I assume you have 5 stereo pairs so divide the impedance (ohm rating) of a single speaker by 5 to see what kind of load you are looking at.


The good news is you can make it work with a series parallel arrangement but the odd number of speakers means they won't all be at the same volume. In the sketch below the set with 2 in parallel will be louder than the set with 3. But it should be a friendly load for the amp, approx. .8 times the impedance of a single speaker.

Code:

(amp+)---|(+)speaker(-)|---|(+)speaker(-)|---(-amp)
         |(+)speaker(-)|   |(+)speaker(-)|
         |(+)speaker(-)|

You can wire up such an arrangement at the amp using terminal blocks as you suggested but it will be tough keeping all the wires straight. Do it at your own risk and don't blame me if you goof and toast the amp.

Radio Shack has the nice euro-style blocks.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family

 

[Looneybomber]

This might be a better option. 10way distribution block.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=300-542

Split it however you need to.


Then install an impedance matching volume control wherever you need.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=300-552

 

[catapult]

Yeah, Looney's solution is more elegant, albeit more expensive. The impedance matching volume controls let you wire everything in parallel.

 

[chasw98]

If you are going to use individual 'high level' volume controls in each room, make sure you can get the specification for the frequency response of the volume control you choose. (Ideally measure it yourself!). You would be surprised how many controls only have an upper response limit between 5K and 10 K. If you really want to go for good sound and flexibility, wire all of your speakers to a central location and then hook them up to a distribution amp. In each individual room you will have a low level volume control and a remote selector switch going back to the distribution amplifier. That way you get the best fidelity and each room can choose to listen to the radio, dvd, cd, etc. independently. It is also possible to install remote jacks in the individual rooms to plug in MP3 players, etc. But no need to go crazy, right?

Look at some of the schemes from Xantech or Niles for more ideas.


Chuck