How do I run 2 sets of monitors from one amp?

octoruss

octoruss

New member
Howdy pardners,
I've got an Alesis 300W amp which I use to run my main monitors. Someone recently gave me another pair of speakers which I's like to use as a second reference pair, but the amp only has one output. Do you have any ideas? Can I run both speaker wires into one output on the amp, or would I need to get one of those speaker selector boxes from Radio Shack?
 
Depends..........the amp may or may not be comfortable with the impedance you'll get hooking two sets of speakers to the same out. Plus.....you'd have both pair on all the time with no way to turn one off.....so if it were me; I'd get a speaker selector switch.
 
As mentioned... it all depends upon the amp.

There are, however, ways to work around it.

When you put two speakers in series, the resistance is added together. For example, two 4 ohm speakers wired in series will yield a resistance of 8 ohms.

The same two speakers wired in parallel will yield a resistance of 2 ohms.

So, if you have a amp that is rated at 4 ohms, and four speakers rated at 4 ohms, you can wire two sets of two speakers in parallel (giving you 2 ohms each) THEN wire the two sets in series (which brings the resistance back up to 4 ohms)

I know it sounds confusing, but I can't think of an easier way of explaining it without drawing a picture.

Now the question is: Does the amp have adequate power to drive the four speakers? 300 watts isn't a lot of power.

That's the $64 question.:D
 
Doug's correct in his description of parrallel and series wiring....however, if they're monitors....then they would be hooked to a stereo amp. Therefore you couldn't use a series-parrallel wiring because you only have two speakers on each side. So you end up with two choices.....parrallel which will end up being half the speakers nominal impedance (assuming that both speakers are the same) or series; which would double it.


The way it works is: Parrallel....you take the nominal impedance and divide it by the number of speakers or: Series...you multiply the impedance by the number of speakers.

IMPORTANT: This assumes that the speakers all have the same impedance. If they are different; it gets much more complicated.
 
But more importantly than impedance is that you don't really want to use two sets of speakers at the same time. You need to be able to switch between them to really get any benefit so that's a bigger reason to get a switcher.
 
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