How to connect 4 speakers with a Stereo Amplifier.

[Hifi_Noob]

Hi Guys,

Sorry I am newbie and need some help with the connection.

I have recently bought Cambridge audio cxa81 mk2 and want to connect four "Elac Debut Reference 3" speakers with it. All 4 will run together.

Amp has A+B channel. But I don't think connecting 4 speakers to A+B will work. A+B seems to be a parallel connection. And both speakers are at 4 ohm.

After surfing the internet I understood that I may need to buy a separate power amp. Connect 2 speakers with Stereo Amplifier and from Pre out need to connect 2 to power amp.

Please help me understand how I can run all 4 speakers together. What is the best way to connect them.

Also, If I do need a power amp. Kindly suggest a good power Amp around 300-400 USD. If there is anything cheaper I will be more than happy to buy that.

Thanks guys. Please help.

 

[reubensm]

A+B is a parallel arrangement per channel and hence it works if both your speaker sets have impedances of 8 ohms or 16 ohms each. You are right about the power amp for driving the additional 2 speakers. If you are going to use both pairs of speakers in a stacked arrangement or in the same room in an arrangement of your liking, it would be quite useful if you have a similar-sounding power amp (which sounds like your CXA81 Mk2). If each pair of speakers are to be used in separate rooms, then this is not really something to worry about.

If you use a series arrangement, you can use 2 speakers per channel with the same amplifier (on either A or B) but you will have to contend with the resulting drop in performance.

 

[Hifi_Noob]

A+B is a parallel arrangement per channel and hence it works if both your speaker sets have impedances of 8 ohms or 16 ohms each. You are right about the power amp for driving the additional 2 speakers. If you are going to use both pairs of speakers in a stacked arrangement or in the same room in an arrangement of your liking, it would be quite useful if you have a similar-sounding power amp (which sounds like your CXA81 Mk2). If each pair of speakers are to be used in separate rooms, then this is not really something to worry about.

If you use a series arrangement, you can use 2 speakers per channel with the same amplifier (on either A or B) but you will have to contend with the resulting drop in performance.

Thanks! Any recommendations for the power Amps please.

 

[ckn]

Hi, I dont know about whether 4 speakers can be played simultaneously. But I have a Splitter that I had once got made from Torvin Electronics in Chennai that you can connect 2 pairs of speakers and 1 amp. This checks sound of two different amps thru one speaker. You then get to choose to play speaker pair A or B. You can also connect two amps and one pair of speakers if you wish to check sound of amps.
I dont use it anymore as I have moved to all separates. If you want to check this out, let me know

 

[ronthedon]

The Cambridge audio cxa81 mk2 outputs per channel 80W RMS in 8ohms and 120W RMS in 4ohms
So if your Elac speakers are 4 ohms each, then you can use all 4 of them together by connecting each channel to a pair serially to add up to 8ohms per channel.
About connecting a amp to the pre out, you can do so with any commercially available amp accepting line-level inputs that match your speaker impedance if you are not bothered about its sound signature, since pre-out is ideally line level output.

 

[Hifi_Noob]

Hi, I dont know about whether 4 speakers can be played simultaneously. But I have a Splitter that I had once got made from Torvin Electronics in Chennai that you can connect 2 pairs of speakers and 1 amp. This checks sound of two different amps thru one speaker. You then get to choose to play speaker pair A or B. You can also connect two amps and one pair of speakers if you wish to check sound of amps.
I dont use it anymore as I have moved to all separates. If you want to check this out, let me know

Kind of you. Thanks!

 

[Hifi_Noob]

The Cambridge audio cxa81 mk2 outputs per channel 80W RMS in 8ohms and 120W RMS in 4ohms
So if your Elac speakers are 4 ohms each, then you can use all 4 of them together by connecting each channel to a pair serially to add up to 8ohms per channel.
About connecting a amp to the pre out, you can do so with any commercially available amp accepting line-level inputs that match your speaker impedance if you are not bothered about its sound signature, since pre-out is ideally line level output.

Thanks. Will look for some Amps.

 

[Phew]

@Hifi_Noob Any particular reason/expectations to have 4 speakers in the same room?

 

[DilipPune]

Cambridge cxa81 has speakers A and B connections. Can select speaker A for one pair of speakers and B for another pair. If you want to play both pairs can choose A + B I do that on my denon pms 900 hne

 

[DB1989]

@Hifi_Noob Any particular reason/expectations to have 4 speakers in the same room?

One use case scenario i've used it in to great effect is during parties. The mids and highs often get drowned out in the presence of too many bodies, especially if those bodies are close to or blocking the spread of the speaker. I use the Multi-stereo option on my AVR in conjunction with my stereo amp (as power for fronts) to drive all 7 speakers, even though it sounds like crap otherwise.