Amplifier Wiring

[Batten]

I have always been disapointed with center speakers. They do the most work in a system, and rarely seem to sound as good as the front left/right.

I recently dug deep into my pockets and splurged on a RSX1067. It was the right choice, but my pockets are empty (at least my wife says so!). I have now set up a 6.1 configuration, but want to use two DM601 speakers as the center channel. Even though there is one spare amplifier channel in my receiver, I am forced to share the one front center amplifier with the two speakers.

The obvious answer is to get a dual channel power amplifierand slave it, but avoiding that solution, which is best for the speakers?
Serial or parallel wiring

[Taito]

Hi Batten, if you've decided to hook up two centre speakers, then it is probably best to hook the speakers up in series. This will present twice as much impdance to the amplifer of the centre channal, and hence the amp will not have to work as hard as it will be delivering half as much current (thankyou Ohm's law).

You will have to set the gain appox 3dB higher on the centre channel though, as half the current = half the power. I hope this helps, and make sure that your centre speakers are equidistant from your listening position.

-Ben

[GosonFletchy]

I would use an impedance matching speaker selector box. Rotel makes one, the RSS-900 (info: http://rotel.com/products/specs/rss900.htm ). This will allow you to hook up two without taxing the amp at all. It will cost you a little bit more but nothing like a seperate amp.

G.

:grab:

[Kevin D]

You typically give up sound quality and power running through a speaker selector. I would advise against using one in any type of high end audio. I would think the series wiring like Ben suggested would be best, no chance of the impedence going to low, and no sound degredation.

Kevin D.