Center Channel set up question

flr057

This may be a dumb question but.........

Could I take two RT 35's, split the signal (or wires) and use the two as a good center channel speaker(s)?

pblanc

Maybe. You would have to wire the speakers either in series or in parallel. In series, the positive wire coming off your receiver or amp goes to the postive (red) binding post of speaker #1. The wire coming off the negative (black) binding post of speaker #1 goes to the postive post of speaker #2, and the wire coming off the negative post of speaker #2 goes back to the negative terminal of your amp or receiver. When wired in parallel, 2 sets of wires come off the postive and negative terminals of your center channel amp and each wire from the positive terminal of the amp goes to each positive post on your speaker pair, the wires coming off the negative terminal of your amp go to the negative posts on your speakers.

Problem is, if wired in series you double the nominal impedance of the load on your center channel amp. Resistance therefore goes from 8 ohms to 16 ohms. That won't hurt your amp, but it might reduce the volume of your center channel speakers to the extent that they might be difficult to balance with your mains. If you wire in parallel, you reduce the impedance load on your center channel amp to 4 ohms. If your center channel amp is not capable of handling a 4 ohm load, you could fry it, or cause it to go into protection mode.

I use two speakers for the center channel, LSi9s, but they are driven by separate amps. They are 4 ohm nominal speakers. If wired in parallel the impedance load on a single amp would be only 2 ohms, which most amps and virtually all receivers can't handle well

Eric W

You can, however I'd be more worried about comb filtering when using 2 center channels at once.

scottvamp

Thats a totally insane idea but it may just work...................;)

flr057

Can you explain what you mean by comb filtering?

Willow

too lazy to write about it :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comb_filter

Early B.

flr057 wrote:

This may be a dumb question but.........

Could I take two RT 35's, split the signal (or wires) and use the two as a good center channel speaker(s)?

Yeah, I use a pair of bookshelf speakers. Works great.

louthewiz

http://colomar.com/Shavano/speaker.html