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Combining Audio Zones


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Our kitchen/breakfast room is one long(ish) room with two pairs of speakers (towards either end).  Right now, they are set up as separate rooms in C4, and each is its own output on the audio matrix (Triad AMS-24) and its own zone on the amp (Triad TS-PAMP8-100).

We've decided that we will never need to operate the zones independently and that we would like for them to just function as one.  Additionally, the speakers are the only thing in the breakfast room in C4 (all of the lights, door sensors, etc. for that area are in the kitchen), so we would rather just not have it cluttering up Navigator.

I put in some programming so that the breakfast room follows any time the kitchen changes, current device, volume, or on/off status, and I hid the breakfast room in Navigator.  

It seems to be working perfectly, but my question is:

Was this the best way to do it, or should we wire the speakers in parallel and have it run at 4 ohms (then have my dealer delete the breakfast room altogether).

Thanks.

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Depends if you need the additional amp and or matrix outputs. I would just use y adapters and feed both amp inputs off the same audio matrix zone but if you could utilize the additional amp zone for something then adding both pairs in parallel at 4ohm won't hurt anything

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Thanks much.  We've got plenty of matrix outputs.  All of the amp outputs are currently in use, but we don't have plans to add any more zones, so I don't think we benefit by freeing this one up.

I'll just leave it as two zones on the amp, and if we ever need another, I'll know where to get it.

You prefer Y adapters to programming that has one matrix output following another? Just for the sake of not taking up an extra output zone, or to save the controller from processing the commands?

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3 hours ago, ichbinbose said:

I would put both speakers on one output of the amp and delete the unneeded zone


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Not sure that would be the best approach from a sound quality perspective.

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3 minutes ago, ichbinbose said:


I’m positive that it would never effect the sound quality


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Just so I understand. You do not think driving two speaker units from one channel will impact the performance of the speakers or perform any different than if both speakers were driven from two separate channels?

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Wiring them parallel so the impedance at the amplifier is seen as 4 ohm will not have any sound quality issues.

The only differences are obviously the lower impedance at the amp and the other would be a perceived louder overall sound.  That’s it.

Also, doesn’t matter what speakers they are.  This is just basic audio science.

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  • 4 months later...

Picking this thread up as I am interested in running two sets of speakers in parallel.  It seems like this isn't an issue - it will just lower the impedance of the load to 4 ohms, which (given Ohm's law I=V/R and V remaining constant) will double the current required.  What do you have to be careful about for when you do this?  Wire with too low of an AWG that now has twice the current?

In addition is 4 ohms the typical minimum impedance for a C4 amp, or any regular amp like an AVR?

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