re: 6 speakers - Stereo ONLY- Outside hookup How?

I dont have a receiver outside yet. I needed to know how I could do it relatively easy before I bought a receiver. I looked at the selectors switches but didnt know if that was needed if I could easily just plug 6 stereos into the receiver. 2 in fronts, 2 in rears, and 2 in heights I believe. The porch would be a seperate receiver than the one inside. I knew i couldnt pull all six outside and the 7 inside off one receiver without getting expensive.

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The powered Zone 2 and 3 from quote looked like the AVR that TigerWise mentioned. The OP never mentioned what AVR he has. I have a Onkyo 676, which has a Zone 2 only. I could not find any data anywhere that mentioned how much power the Zone 2 output. My plan was to wire the Zone 2 output to a speaker selector, and have my speaker pairs back to the amp. The AVR states it is 4ohm stable so the speaker selector would provide 4-8 ohms back to the receiver. I'm just not sure if it'll be enough power.

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Skimmed through the manual and the way I read it...zone 2 should be able to run 100w x 2 @ 8ohms. Think of it like this that reciever has the ability to run 7 channels with one of 7 onboard amps. In the setting you should be able to assign the amps to whatever speakers you want. You have your typical 5 and you can then add front heights or you can bi-amp your main speakers if they are built for it (amp for tweeters amp for mid woofers). Or you can assign amp 6 and 7 to zone 2. Let’s say you had a 7.1 system already...you would then have to buy another amp and run the pre-amp signal from zone 2 to the separate amp.

With that said if you have a 5.1 system I think you should be able to run zone 2 with a 100x2. It says in the onkyo manual 4-8ohm dynamic (not all channels driven) power readings. They are usually 4ohm stable. I used to run one of mine with some Axiom speakers that were 4 ohm. It’s less resistance so the amp pushes more power bit “could” make it trip into protect mode if running at max volume. Turn power off and back on and it’s good to go.

What I don’t know is how the amp acts if you have 8ohms in the 5 channels and 4ohms on the zone 2. They should be independent amps so it should still work. I’d try that before any ohm adjusting volume switch’s. You could also call onkyo themselves and see what they think.

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I dont have a receiver outside yet. I needed to know how I could do it relatively easy before I bought a receiver. I looked at the selectors switches but didnt know if that was needed if I could easily just plug 6 stereos into the receiver. 2 in fronts, 2 in rears, and 2 in heights I believe. The porch would be a seperate receiver than the one inside. I knew i couldnt pull all six outside and the 7 inside off one receiver without getting expensive.

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I see what your saying. You would just run that reciever in the “all channel stereo” mode. I run my denon like that when I am listening to music. Everything is stereo except for the center channel that is mono.

So in theory that should work imo since it’s going to solely be for your 6 stereo speakers outside. If there is any chance that the area will have a TV and placement is flexible enough in how it’s all mounted you could pull off a semi surround sound out there. First set of speakers flank TV (fronts), second set of speakers mid way (surrounds) third set of speakers, opposite side of the porch from TV, Could be back surrounds. Then you should be able to set it with no center channel and it would blend that dialog out the front Set if speakers. Not that you would every want it...but if it’s possible I’d wore it that way. Still allows for sub usage down the line as well.

Or if the amp you get has a powered zone 2 and 3 you could set it up that way. Same as my last post. You assign one of the onboard amps to the zones.

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This thread has provided

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Happy to be of service. You know about 25x more shite than I do about all of this, but it pleases me to make one small contribution.

I'm assuming you also have the HEOS app? I dont use it much but I think I use it to play Amazon music through alexa over my system so I can control everything with my voice.

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I'd be shocked if a lot of people were running 4 ohm speakers. At least at the level OP was talking about.

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It’s def not the norm. 8 typically is home audio and 4 is car audio. But years back a bunch if not all the Bose speakers (pre tiny cubes) were 6ohms. Before the def tec’s I have now I had some from a company called Axiom and the main towers were 4ohms and were power hungry.

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Curious because I’m far from a expert but I don’t think that’s how it works.

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Two speakers would present a 16 ohm load if both speakers were rated at 8 ohms. However, the OP wants to run six speakers. Say it's three off the right channel and three off the left. That would present an impedance of 24 ohms if the speakers were wired in series. That won't play loud and as I indicated each subsequent speaker would play at a lower volume level that the previous speaker in the series.

If the speakers are wired in parallel the opposite is true. The three speakers would present a load of 2.66 ohms. Neither option is good for the receiver.

Yes, he could combine series and parallel but in this simple application with better options (surround receiver in all channel stero mode or an impedance matching speaker selector) it simply isn't necessary.

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RC80, RC60, and Atrium6s. Each channel from my speaker selector will be a pair wired in parallel, so a 4 ohm load at each channel on the selector.

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Why are you running pairs in parallel ?

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200W at 8 ohms, going into 4 pairs of speakers (8 total) at 4 ohms load, is that enough for ambient fill/music (not earth shaking) from the Polks?

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The AVR shouldn't be running 4 ohms. Typically a speaker selector fixes this problem if it's an impedance matched selector. But to answer your question I think you are cutting it close power wise and if you are gonna jam on it at all I would get more power.

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Yes, he could combine series and parallel but in this simple application with better options (surround receiver in all channel stero mode or an impedance matching speaker selector) it simply isn't necessary.

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Gotcha yes I know just series alone would not be a good idea. Yes I admit I go about things differently maybe not always the easiest

I think for the OP the AVR in all channel stereo would be good. I fooled around with the denon app some and agree. It didn’t seem to let me get into the settings...that’s generally the only time I use the denon remote over the harmony.

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Hogkiller10

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I know you don’t need surround sound outside. I was just bringing it up in case you haven’t mounted speakers or ran wires yet. If speakers laid out naturally to where they could also perform surround sound I’d at least hook the speakers up as such. Never know

Looking forward to see how that wireless transmitter works out for you and the WAF

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I have Polk Audio 8ohm speakers. RC80, RC60, and Atrium6s. Each channel from my speaker selector will be a pair wired in parallel, so a 4 ohm load at each channel on the selector. The 4-ch selector is more for balancing the load at the AVR when a set is on/off.

200W at 8 ohms, going into 4 pairs of speakers (8 total) at 4 ohms load, is that enough for ambient fill/music (not earth shaking) from the Polks?

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I don't know as much as others (as I've admitted) but those are not large speakers and should be easy to drive with any "average" AVR.

I have polks as well...my mains are RTi10s and I had no trouble driving them with a $400 Pioneer AVR that's now 12 years old (I've since upgraded the AVR to a better Denon). Though there were a few times where I was able to clip the sub when I was listening to a movie much louder than I should have.