[trevzilla]

So, I recently bought a Yamaha RX-V675 Receiver and with it, I purchased 7, 8ohm Polk Audio Speakers. I'm using 6 of them for 6.1 surround sound in our home theater set up.

The last speaker is set up in our kitchen as a "zone 2" speaker. In addition to this speaker, I have 2 older KLH outdoor speakers on our patio. These speakers are 4ohm speakers. I've wired up these two speakers in Series as to mimic the 8ohm rating, and I have also wired up a switch to these speakers so that we can turn them off easily if we only want the speaker in the kitchen to be on, but if we want both the kitchen and patio speakers on then it's easy to switch them on.

Anyway, it seems that everything is working really well except for the fact that the new Polk speaker in the kitchen is significantly louder than the two KLH outdoor speakers. Essentially if I turn up the volume to a good listening level on the patio, we are getting blasted out of the kitchen. Is there a way I can normalize the audio somehow with this AMP? Or do you think it has anything to do with the wiring (2 speakers in series with a switch, plus about 60 feet of 14 guage speaker wire) that is causing the drop in volume?

Any other suggestions out there? Thanks for your help!

 

[RayGuy]

Add a volume control to the kitchen.

------------ Or ------------

If your receiver has pre-out capability, add a second stereo receiver (used and cheap on Craigslist) and connect the outdoor speakers to that receiver, which will allow separate volume control of the outdoor speakers.

 

[trevzilla]

My receiver does have the pre-out capability but when I have attempted to do this it seems like there is a ever so slight delay in the sound coming from the two amps. Not a problem except when walking from the patio to the kitchen, you can certainly notice the 1/8 second or so delay...

It's good to see the volume control option. I'm seeing a bunch of in wall options though. I don't think this problem is worth cutting holes into the wall yet though. So, short of just buying an in wall control and setting it up behind my amp, do you know of any stylish, yet cheap volume control "boxes" that could sit inside my AV cabinet? (I'll certainly keep looking myself, but if you know of anything off hand I'd love to hear suggestions!)

Thanks again!

 

[joeyvaz]

It's good to see the volume control option. I'm seeing a bunch of in wall options though. I don't think this problem is worth cutting holes into the wall yet though. So, short of just buying an in wall control and setting it up behind my amp, do you know of any stylish, yet cheap volume control "boxes" that could sit inside my AV cabinet? (I'll certainly keep looking myself, but if you know of anything off hand I'd love to hear suggestions!)

Thanks again!

You can use an outdoor volume control that is in its own box. No need to cut into the wall. Just run the wires to the volume control, volume control to speakers. And the box can be screwed or double sided taped in a cabinet or something. A little easier than cutting in the wall to mount one.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=109&cp_id=10903&cs_id=1090304&p_id=8240&seq=1&format=2