Speaker Selectors and Misc Questions

[L.J.]

I purchased 2 Rockustic outdoor planter speakers at GG. I was gonna power them using a old JVC AVR I got laying around. I also wanted to use the same AVR to power some speakers in the garage, since the AVR has A/B front speaker selection. Here comes the problems though. My wife liked the planters so much, she sent me back for 2 more. So now I have 4 planters for outside and I still want some tunes in the garage. Another problem is that the planters are 4 ohm and the speakers in my garage are 8 ohm. The planters produce 360 degrees of sound, so 2 of the planters will sit by itself.

To clear this up, 2 of the planters will be used in my side yard. 1 will be in a different section of the backyard(I would like to play this one by itself) and 1 will be on the front porch(I would like to play this one by itself). I would also like to try and power some speakers in the garage separately as well.

Question:

Does anyone have any suggestion on hooking this stuff up? I'm assuming I could use a speaker selector, but does having 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers cause a problem?

Side questions: My AVR has a switch in back that goes to either 4 or 8 ohm. What happens when this is switched to one or the other?

Also, what happens when both sets of fronts are played at the same time, on an AVR that has A/B front selection?

[GMichael]

I purchased 2 Rockustic outdoor planter speakers at GG. I was gonna power them using a old JVC AVR I got laying around. I also wanted to use the same AVR to power some speakers in the garage, since the AVR has A/B front speaker selection. Here comes the problems though. My wife liked the planters so much, she sent me back for 2 more. So now I have 4 planters for outside and I still want some tunes in the garage. Another problem is that the planters are 4 ohm and the speakers in my garage are 8 ohm. The planters produce 360 degrees of sound, so 2 of the planters will sit by itself.

To clear this up, 2 of the planters will be used in my side yard. 1 will be in a different section of the backyard(I would like to play this one by itself) and 1 will be on the front porch(I would like to play this one by itself). I would also like to try and power some speakers in the garage separately as well.

Question:

Does anyone have any suggestion on hooking this stuff up? I'm assuming I could use a speaker selector, but does having 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers cause a problem?

Side questions: My AVR has a switch in back that goes to either 4 or 8 ohm. What happens when this is switched to one or the other?

Also, what happens when both sets of fronts are played at the same time, on an AVR that has A/B front selection?

Can you hook up two planter speakers in series for the right channel? And then the other two in series for the left? This would give you 8 ohms per channel. That leaves you B for your garage.

[L.J.]

Can you hook up two planter speakers in series for the right channel? And then the other two in series for the left? This would give you 8 ohms per channel. That leaves you B for your garage.

I wanted to be able to play 2 of the planter separately. I have another AVR(pro logic) I could use, if needed for the garage speakers. I was thinking of connecting the digital out of my CDP to the JVC AVR and the analog out to the pro logic AVR. I have a 2nd CDP also. I'm trying to avoid putting 2 AVR's and 2 CDP in the garage. It's messy enough all ready.

[Woochifer]

I purchased 2 Rockustic outdoor planter speakers at GG. I was gonna power them using a old JVC AVR I got laying around. I also wanted to use the same AVR to power some speakers in the garage, since the AVR has A/B front speaker selection. Here comes the problems though. My wife liked the planters so much, she sent me back for 2 more. So now I have 4 planters for outside and I still want some tunes in the garage. Another problem is that the planters are 4 ohm and the speakers in my garage are 8 ohm. The planters produce 360 degrees of sound, so 2 of the planters will sit by itself.

To clear this up, 2 of the planters will be used in my side yard. 1 will be in a different section of the backyard(I would like to play this one by itself) and 1 will be on the front porch(I would like to play this one by itself). I would also like to try and power some speakers in the garage separately as well.

Does the receiver have any zone outputs, or are you planning to have four speakers going with the five-channel stereo function, and two more tagging along on the B switch?


Does anyone have any suggestion on hooking this stuff up? I'm assuming I could use a speaker selector, but does having 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers cause a problem?

The bigger problem would be if you have all of the speakers at 4 ohms. Most receiver manufacturers don't recommend hooking up more than two low impedance speakers to a low to midlevel AVR. Since you're using four 4-ohm planter speakers, you should not put them all on the main A/B speaker outputs. If the receiver has a five-channel stereo DSP, use that and attach two of the planter speakers to the surround outputs.


Side questions: My AVR has a switch in back that goes to either 4 or 8 ohm. What happens when this is switched to one or the other?

The impedance switch in the 4 ohm position will cut the voltage available to the power supply as an extra protection measure when using low impedance speakers, which can more easily overwork and overload the power supply. In your situation, definitely go with the 4-ohm impedance position.


Also, what happens when both sets of fronts are played at the same time, on an AVR that has A/B front selection?

That would depend on the design of the receiver. Most of them share the output circuits for the A/B speakers, which means that with the impedance selector in the 4 ohm position you can only attach one pair of 4 ohm speakers or two pairs of 8 ohm speakers.

[L.J.]

Does the receiver have any zone outputs, or are you planning to have four speakers going with the five-channel stereo function, and two more tagging along on the B switch?.

No zone outputs. I was wondering if I could use a 4 pair speaker selector switch with the A front output on the JVC. The #1 output on the switch would be used to power a pair of planters in my side yard, the #2 output would be used to power 1 planter in the back yard and the #3 would be used to power 1 planter on the front porch. The B front output on the JVC would be used for a pair of speakers in the garage, except the speakers are 8 ohm. Do you see any problems with this?