# Connecting Surround Speakers in Parallel



## Sosumi (Jan 17, 2013)

I have a Pioneer HTZ818BDW home theatre system connected to my computer via HDMI. When I play music on it, it only plays from the front left & right speakers. I'd like it to play from the surround left & right speakers also.

I've tried connecting the surround speakers to the front speakers in series, but this made the speakers extremely quiet, and I noticed that sometimes I'd hear crackling from the speakers if there were any particularly loud sounds.

The front L/R and surround L/R are completely identical, and they're 4 ohm.

So I have connected them in parallel, and the volume is good, and there isn't any crackling when there are loud sounds. I'm just wondering if having 2 speakers connected to the same port is safe for my home theatre system, since connecting in parallel cuts the impedance in half, making the amp work harder.


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

Sosumi said:


> I have a Pioneer HTZ818BDW home theatre system connected to my computer via HDMI. When I play music on it, it only plays from the front left & right speakers. I'd like it to play from the surround left & right speakers also.
> 
> I've tried connecting the surround speakers to the front speakers in series, but this made the speakers extremely quiet, and I noticed that sometimes I'd hear crackling from the speakers if there were any particularly loud sounds.
> 
> ...


Not knowing the specs for your receiver, it is doubtful that it is made to drive that 2 ohm load with the speakers connected in parallel. Few amplifiers are specified to go below 4 ohms. I would not recommend running this way even though it seems to sound okay, you could end up damaging your amplifier.

And it is not clear why you would get crackling from running the speakers in series, but your amplifier definitely doesn't like that either, so that also is not recommend, damage could result. There are a number of possible explanations for why they are quieter in that configuration, but that is academic at this point, if your amplifier is crackling at you, it is telling you "NO, Stop Immediately."

This is not what you are asking, but running fronts and surrounds with the same signal will sound louder and fuller, but make any kind of realistic soundstage or imaging or faithful high fidelity reproduction next to impossible. If that is less of a priority than volume and fullness, your approach might get you there, but your amplifier is simply not cooperating. Someone else might be able to suggest a mode setting or alternative approach other than simply adding another amplifier.

Best of luck.

EDIT: Playing stereo music, it is typical that you would only have sound coming from the front left and front right speakers, and not from the surrounds. This is the normal stereo mode for any receiver I know.


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## Wardsweb (Apr 2, 2010)

Ditto - do not run the speakers parallel. You will fry your receiver.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

While it is probably good advice to not run parallel 4 ohm speakers on most surround amps, one must also realize that most surround channels don't run at very high levels at all. The resulting current drawn at such low power levels is likely not a problem IN SURROUND modes at MODERATE levels. But one must be very careful. Using an all channel mode where the surrounds are used for normal music or other programming at a higher level likely would cause most surround amp channels to overheat or shut down.


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## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

Running more than one speaker on a channel is never a good idea and a nice way to kill an amplifier section in your receiver.


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