Rear Speakers.

Torvic · 15-01-2011, 15:16

My lounge is not wide enough to allow for the placement of rear speakers on my home cinema system to get the desired effect.
So the best I can think of is to put a pair of speakers immediately behind each of the armchairs that my wife and I use.
The question is do I put two speakers in parallel or series with the pair I have which are 6ohm or do I need four new speakers or some splitter network.

chrisjr · 15-01-2011, 16:48

Series wiring would be better than parallel as it will not load the amplifier output as much. If you connect in series the combined impedance is 12 ohms. In parallel it will be 3 ohms. You are far more likely to cause damage by using too low an impedance than too high.

However whatever way round you do it there will be compromises involved. The volume from each speaker will be reduced by half in series wiring. Plus running the wires will be a bit of a pain. I assume you will be having a left and right pair behind each seat so will wire both lefts in series and both rights which will involve having a cable or two across the back of the seats interconnecting the two pairs. Bit messier than just a single pair to each speaker.

Not to mention the audio interaction. Unless you build some sort of sound proof screen between the seats (handy to avoid the nagging from the wife I suppose

) you will each be able to hear the other pair of speakers. Which will compromise the sound each of you hears to some degree.

But in my opinion the best option of all is don't bother. After all I very much doubt you have two pairs of front speakers do you?

It is probably more hassle then it is worth to be honest.

Pugwash69 · 15-01-2011, 18:31

If you feel adventurous, wire the +ve from left front to the left rear speaker, and +ve from right to the right read speaker, then wire the two rear -ve terminals together.
Passive surround or poor-man's-dolby

15-01-2011, 15:16	#1
Torvic Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Coventry UK Posts: 107	Rear Speakers. My lounge is not wide enough to allow for the placement of rear speakers on my home cinema system to get the desired effect. So the best I can think of is to put a pair of speakers immediately behind each of the armchairs that my wife and I use. The question is do I put two speakers in parallel or series with the pair I have which are 6ohm or do I need four new speakers or some splitter network.

15-01-2011, 16:48	#2
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Series wiring would be better than parallel as it will not load the amplifier output as much. If you connect in series the combined impedance is 12 ohms. In parallel it will be 3 ohms. You are far more likely to cause damage by using too low an impedance than too high. However whatever way round you do it there will be compromises involved. The volume from each speaker will be reduced by half in series wiring. Plus running the wires will be a bit of a pain. I assume you will be having a left and right pair behind each seat so will wire both lefts in series and both rights which will involve having a cable or two across the back of the seats interconnecting the two pairs. Bit messier than just a single pair to each speaker. Not to mention the audio interaction. Unless you build some sort of sound proof screen between the seats (handy to avoid the nagging from the wife I suppose ) you will each be able to hear the other pair of speakers. Which will compromise the sound each of you hears to some degree. But in my opinion the best option of all is don't bother. After all I very much doubt you have two pairs of front speakers do you? It is probably more hassle then it is worth to be honest.

15-01-2011, 18:31	#3
Pugwash69 Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: The Sticks Posts: 3,720	If you feel adventurous, wire the +ve from left front to the left rear speaker, and +ve from right to the right read speaker, then wire the two rear -ve terminals together. Passive surround or poor-man's-dolby

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Rear Speakers.