adding left and right center speakers

[mrbill]

My system consists of 3 identical A7s for L C R
I have to more that I am considering adding as leftcenter and rightcenter. (Yes I know this may be overkill since they would be close together and there is not a hole to fill but I am dieing to see how it would sound.) Anyway my question is what is the best way to hook these together? My amp is HK 325 with 50w per channel. The existing speakers are all 16 ohm but the ones I would be adding are 8 ohm. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[thevott]

I am, personally, very conservative about adding speakers to my systems because of the acoustic and phase distortions that come with added sound sources. Though I have finally started adding a center channel speaker for certain applications (with favorable results) I am proceeding into the world of multi-speaker systems very carefully. At the same time I do not wish to become entrenched in convention and overlook the fun and reward that comes from experimentation (as sound and musical artist this is paramount).

One thing that I do find helpful when adding additional speakers is to power them with dedicated amplifiers so they can be easily processed independently.

Also, if you have never toyed with ambience channels (or stereo-differential channels) it can be a lot of fun. There are a number of different ambience configurations out there but the simplest one is to add a rear speaker that utilizes the right and left positive speaker output terminals to activate the extra loudspeaker (ignoring the 'negative' terminals). This does not really answer your question but the thought of all those A7s laying around gets me exited! Have fun with it!

MP

[mrbill]

Originally posted by thevott:
I am, personally, very conservative about adding speakers to my systems because of the acoustic and phase distortions that come with added sound sources. Though I have finally started adding a center channel speaker for certain applications (with favorable results) I am proceeding into the world of multi-speaker systems very carefully. At the same time I do not wish to become entrenched in convention and overlook the fun and reward that comes from experimentation (as sound and musical artist this is paramount).

One thing that I do find helpful when adding additional speakers is to power them with dedicated amplifiers so they can be easily processed independently.

Also, if you have never toyed with ambience channels (or stereo-differential channels) it can be a lot of fun. There are a number of different ambience configurations out there but the simplest one is to add a rear speaker that utilizes the right and left positive speaker output terminals to activate the extra loudspeaker (ignoring the 'negative' terminals). This does not really answer your question but the thought of all those A7s laying around gets me exited! Have fun with it!

MP

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[mrbill]

Thanks for your thoughts MP. I am truly blessed with A7s. I got them when we closed a 10 screen theater that I work for. Also have some JBLs. Even have some random loose speakers and parts but that's another story. You are correct about the amps, I would definetly amp them seperatly. I guess I just hate to see them sitting in my garage and not being used and I can't bring myself to sell them. I already have side and rear surrounds which are all full range. The system sounds great but I just continue to have this vision of a wall of A7s in front of me. Again, thanks for your help.
Bill

[GM]

>My system consists of 3 identical A7s for L C R

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Cool!

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>I have to more that I am considering adding as leftcenter and rightcenter. (Yes I know this may be overkill since they would be close together and there is not a hole to fill but I am dieing to see how it would sound.)

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Since I learned most of what I know about audio, racing, whatever, by doing, I say 'just do it'.

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>Anyway my question is what is the best way to hook these together? My amp is HK 325 with 50w per channel. The existing speakers are all 16 ohm but the ones I would be adding are 8 ohm. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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Hmm, this is only going to work ~properly if you're feeding them a discrete five channel signal off a 7.1 system, which of course requires a separate amp/chnl. If your HK is only 5.1, then all you can do is wire two A7s in parallel (one 16 and one 8ohm) for each of the L/R channels and attenuate them to match the center's efficiency, though if there's room I would add a second A7 to the CC. Six A7s arrayed across the front of the room would be quite a 'converstion piece'.

The L/R 'twins' need to be toe'd in towards each other to focus their on axis response at the listening position. Adding foam horn extensions to further limit their off axis response will improve channel separation, though SAF is inversely proportional to amount used. ;(

HTH,

GM