Sorry, if this is the wrong group. Maybe you can re-direct me. Thanks
I am building a built-in stereo system, with wires running in the walls. I have a good set of stereo speakers, connected to my main stereo amplifier.
Question: Can I permanently connect this set of speakers to another set of wires from another amplifier in another room? Normally, the speakers would be powered only by one amplifier at a time.
Would this connection cause any damage to the speakers or to the amplifiers.
You would change the impedance of the speakers by sharing it with 2 amps, which would result in poor sound output, not to mention overloading the amps.. They do make A/B switches which allow you to switch between amps.
Hi, First there are amps which has zones; like zone A, B, C. etc. With this you can drive each or all zones as you wish. If you parallel hook up speakers, the amps' load impedance halvens which means it can permanently dmamage your amp. If you parallel two 8 Ohm speakers, load impedance becomes 4 Ohms. In this case your amp better be able to take 4 Ohm load. Today's good solid state amps can take load from 2 Ohms and up usually. But I would not take chance at 2 Ohms, 4 Ohm is safe bet specially if you play loud. Also there is so called in-wall speakers for in-wall installation. My home theater is driven by Yamaha a/v receiver which has multi zone output. Main room has 7.1 surrounds, den has 5.1 surrounds I can control remotely. Probably you should visit home theater NG. Not knowing your speaker, amp specifics, I can't be more helpful to you. Good luck, Tony, VE6CGX
No, amplifiers could be damaged. You could take the line out (tape deck output) from one amp and input it to the line in (tape in) input to the amp near the speakers, try not to route the cables close to ac lines to avoid hum pickup.
Sorry to top post but from your description of what you intend to do you would be effectively hooking the outputs of the two amps to each other. This could result in both outputs being blown should they be on at the same time. There are selector switches as other posters mentioned. You should refer to the amp specs to see if operating unloaded would be a problem. Richard
I agree with the others -- this is a bad idea. Some amplifiers might have output stages that would tolerate the abuse, but you risk blowing out one or both, and the sound will likely be terrible.
It could damage one or both amplifiers, and would not sound right (impedance mismatch).
I had a situation like that once. I connected a DPDT switch to the amplifier's outputs (so only one would be connected at a time). Amplifiers SHOULD be protected from no-load operation, but to be safe don't turn on the amp that's not connected to the speakers.
Then, you could make that a 4PDT switch (or a DPDT for each channel) with dummy load resistors (don't forget about power here).
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