Two pairs of speakers to McIntosh 2200 ?
Hi there, everyone. I have a McIntosh 2200 amp arriving soon. I would like to connect two pairs of speakers to this amp in parallel, at least temporarily. One pair is 4 ohms and the other 8 ohms.
The 2200 has the autoformer, so there's separate connections for each set of impedances - 1, 2, 4, 8 - and you get 200 watts per side regardless of the impedance.
Should I connect one pair of speakers to the 8 ohm terminals and the other to the 4, or should I connect everything to just one set of terminals, like the 2 ohm set (the combined impedance is 2.6, correct?)
Please help me out. Thanks.
I'd connect them BOTH in parallel to the same terminal.
I'd probably go with either the 2 or 4 ohm position. Actually, I would call Mac and see what they recommend here.
The math, for those who don't know, to determine the impedance of two speakers in parallel is as follows:
Where S1 = impedance of speaker 1 and S2 = impedance of speaker 2
(S1 TIMES S2) over (S1 PLUS S2), or
((8 * 4) / (8 + 4)), or
(32 / 12), or 2.667 ohms.
P.S... the math for connecting two speakers in series is simply S1 PLUS S2, or 12 here.