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Nigan
Starting Member
3 Posts |
 Posted - 09/23/2019 : 1:05:06 PM
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Hello everyone,,
We recently moved into a new (to us) house that has a "distributed audio" system. It is configured for a home theater (wiring for rear speakers) in the living room -- we have a Sony Receiver (STR DE595, can select A or B or A&B speakers) and 5 Bose speakers at that location -- and there are left/right inputs for the "distributed audio." Those support 7 pairs of in-wall speakers throughout the house, each with individual volume controls (no on/off controls). Basically a "single zone" set-up. [Note, our last house was true distributed audio, configured for 3 separate multi-component systems, multi-zone with keypads in each zone to select component, volume, on/off -- much more than we ever used or even hooked up!]
The first issue we ran into was to hear anything from the in-wall speakers we had to turn the volume to the max in the home theater. Next, the receiver would overload even if we just turned on the B speakers (distributed speakers) -- understandable since the poor thing was trying to drive 14 speakers!
Solutions? Would a second receiver for the distributed speakers solve the problem (and connect components to both receivers with 'y' connections -- other components are TV, CD player and DVD player), or a new 2 zone receiver to drive the home theater plus the distributed side? Or do we need an amplifier on the distributed speakers to drive all the speakers?
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Edited by - Nigan on 09/26/2019 11:37:58 AM |
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oberkc
Moderator
USA
4147 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2019 : 5:16:43 PM
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I assume that your seven pair are wired in parallel to each and, thus, your receiver is trying to drive seven speakers per side. Typical speakers are 8ohm resistance. Two speakers would be 4ohm. Three speakers would be 2.6 (approx.) ohms. It continues to get lower as you add more speakers. This is beyond the capability of the receiver (and most receivers), I suspect. No, I don't believe that two receivers can be joined together via Y-cable to provide more power. A separate amp for the seven pairs would fare no better. I do not know that I have ever seen an amp that could drive a load of seven speakers. I cannot think of solutions beyond breaking the seven speakers into smaller groups and providing an amp for each group, or driving each smaller group through a speaker selector device which maintains a sufficient load to the amplifier.
For the seven pairs of speakers, is there only a single set of wires, one set for left and one set for right? |
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Distributed Audio Question
