Combining speakers. Possibilities/Pitfalls/Perspectives?

[vasishta.sushant]

I bought this Boston Acoustics Soundware XS system, primarily for movie watching. The system works reasonably good (although I had to tune the center channel a bit to get clearer vocals) but I wanted a little better heft in the center channel. While I understand that these tiny speakers can't compare to bigger counterparts, I still wanted to see if there is possibility in combining two or three satellites - for a rather meaty center channel.

What are your thoughts? I have two satellite speakers unused and I am somewhat inclined towards this idea - combine all three for one center channel.

Need your opinion on the parallel/series arrangement, impedance constraints, anything else? Has anyone done anything similar to this before?

 

[koushik]

You will need to connect them in parallel to get the benefit you are looking for. Go ahead, but carefully, connect them at low volume and see how it goes. It should not be of any issue, it will just tax the center amp a bit more than other channels, that's it.

Have fun. No need to worry.

 

[spirovious]

The impedance may change if you do like that.

 

[Santy]

The impedance will drop if you connect three 8ohm speakers in parallel.
Two identical speakers of 8ohm will result in 4ohm effective load and 3 will result in 2.67 ohms. They will draw more current from the AVR which would get heated up. It can eventually damage the AVR. Do not do this.

If you add in series, then the impedance multiplies, so you would get only half the power for each speaker. This means the AVR will struggle more to drive the speakers due to increased resistance. Not sure if any SQ improvement is possible at all.

Better forget the idea and get a bigger better centre channel if possible.

 

[Alok012098]

The impedance will drop if you connect three 8ohm speakers in parallel.
Two identical speakers of 8ohm will result in 4ohm effective load and 3 will result in 2.67 ohms. They will draw more current from the AVR which would get heated up. It can eventually damage the AVR. Do not do this.

If you add in series, then the impedance multiplies, so you would get only half the power for each speaker. This means the AVR will struggle more to drive the speakers due to increased resistance. Not sure if any SQ improvement is possible at all.

Better forget the idea and get a bigger better centre channel if possible.

+1 ...

Get a better center channel speaker .. if budget is constrained .. then wait ...