More speakers?

Calibretto

Calibretto

VIP Member
this has nothing to do with computers but stereos rather. I want to hook up more speakers to my stereo but only two speakers can plug into it. The plug is a black and red port that you just slide the wire into and snap shut. Anyways I want to plug more speakers into it. Is there an adapter or something that allows me to plug more than two speakers in?
 
It is very possible to do that, though don't put too many high powered speakers onto a smaller amp, because you'll probly blow a fuse (no biggy, just replace it with another one). You can jam more than one wire into the snap on connectors.
 
My surround sound system came with 4 satellites, but I decided to just run in 2.1 mode. What I did was simply have one wire going to one speaker, then a wire spliced into what's in the little clamp and dasychained to the other speaker. So, 2 speakers on each channel. Sounds really nice.

Usally, I've found you have have two speakers per channel without really loosing power. Once you start adding more, it's more and more obvious and sound usally is degraded.
 
I haven't messed around with multiple speakers on the same pc audio channel but with hifi speakers you have to be careful you get the speakers in phase.

If one speaker cone is moving out and the other is moving in, they tend to cancel each other. The neighbours will appreciate that, you won't.

You check by swopping the wires of one speaker with both speakers side by side (helps if other speakers are muted). Changing polarity changes the phase. When the speakers are in phase the audio will be much better/louder, particularly lower frequencies.

Note that if you have the type of speakers where you can insert wires into the amp with either polarity (even just 2 stereo speakers), you should be checking speaker phase anyway. Mono or similar audio needed to both speakers for testing. May not be a problem if speaker wire polarities are clearly marked by manufacturer.

Starman*
 
Adding to speedyink's comment about high power speakers and damaging the amp, the type of speaker does not matter, the impedance does. Doubling up with similar speakers in parallel halves the impedance (in The_Other_One's photo, 8 ohms to 4 ohms). That puts a greater load on the amp output at high volumes which can cause the fuse to blow (or the components if the amp is unfused).

Starman*
 
I have 5 speakers on my rear right channel.

1 is the regular speaker
2 are spliced into that regular speaker
a wire goes from one of the spliced speakers to an old record player, where it is split, and put into the left and right input jacks
2 speakers on the record player.

The sound quality isn't great, but it sounds really cool. I have never had a blown fuse.
 
I'm not sure if you're referring to my last post but what you describe is not a huge overload.

Three 8 ohm speakers in parallel are about 3 ohms. That's a nominal dc rating. Since much of the load is inductive due to the speaker coil, it's difficult to say what the actual impedance is. In your case the load has clearly not been enough to cause damage.

The input to the record player is a high impedance and is negligible load. The speakers from that don't load up the originating rear channel amp because they're driven by the record player.

I just re-read Calibretto's original post and see it was to do with stereo rather than pc audio. With stereo/hifi it is easier to mix up speaker phases if you are connecting unmarked wires. If you have surround sound it is also important to have phases correct front to back as well as left and right, otherwise you are creating a dead spot in the middle.

Starman*
 
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