# Connecting two sets of speakers to one amp



## leeborden (Dec 10, 2011)

I have four sets of speakers that I need my home theater to drive:

5.1 system in main room.
stereo pair on large porch.
stereo pair on small porch. The need for volume and quality sound is more acute on the large porch than on the small porch.
stereo pair in main listening room.
The fourth pair (Zone 2 playing in main room) is required because we like to watch our favorite college team on TV but listen to the play-by-play on FM, and this is the easiest way I found to do it.

Here's the list of sound related components:

Receiver is an Onkyo HT-RC370 - 100 watts per channel - 7.2 channels.
Main room speakers are (tentatively) all from Hsu Research. Center channel is HC1 MK2. Left and right front are HB1 MK2. Left and right surround are HIW-1. Subwoofer is VTF-3 MK4 . I say tentatively because we are scheduled to hear them when we visit our children in CA next week to make sure they're what we want.
I plan to purchase a separate Behringer Europower EP 2000 (350 watts per channel RMS into 8 ohms).
The stereo pair on the large porch and the small porch will be identical. OSD AP840 (8 ohms).
The stereo pair in the main room will be a pair of Sony SSB-1000 (also 8 ohms).
Each of the three stereo pairs (big porch, small porch, and main room) will have its own impedance matching volume control, an AudioSource AE100VC. The AE100VC appears to have twin transformers inside it.
NOW, here's my question for the wise ones (and in particular the wise ones who understand impedance and power). First, can I drive any combination of these speakers with the receiver and the amplifier I have selected? I hope the answer to this question is yes. Second, given the speakers and amps, what is the best combination and distribution? My TENTATIVE plan is as follows:

5.1 in main room powered by Onkyo receiver, which leaves two channels free to be allocated to Zone 2.
Use Zone 2 to power stereo pair on small porch.
Use Zone 2 line out from Onkyo to Behringer and connect BOTH the large porch stereo pair and the main room stereo pair to the Behringer speaker outputs. Use the individual volume controls to adjust volume. I'm assuming I would keep the Behringer amp turned down as low as possible while getting the volume level up where I need it on the large porch. It is my hope and expectation that the Behringer can deliver sufficient power to drive both the large porch stereo pair and the main room stereo pair without breaking a sweat.
Right now I plan simply to connect both sets of speaker wires to the speaker outputs of the Behringer amp. However, if it makes a difference, I can easily add a connecting block.


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## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

Did you get this figured out yet?


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## leeborden (Dec 10, 2011)

Thanks! Yes, I now have basic working confidence that this will work with two sets of speakers (the big porch speakers and the main room Zone 2 speakers) connected in parallel to the speaker outputs of the power amplifier, and the third pair of speakers (the small porch speakers) connected to the Zone 2 speaker outputs of the Onkyo Receiver. I won't know for sure until I can connect everything up and try it (probably in 4-6 weeks), but I'm getting comfortable with doing that. How does that sound?


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## soup3184 (Nov 7, 2010)

I was thinking that this would have been a great opportunity to buy another receiver.LOL


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