blowing speakers using 4 fronts

I notice that my speakers distort and seem very unefficient when I use all 4 on front (a+b) at somewhat loud volumes, while when using only one pair on front they sound better and are more efficient and I've never heard them distort. One speaker blew and I think it's because I was pushing them using four fronts at the time. Is using four fronts at louder volumes taxing the reciever to where it distorts and then is blowing, distorting, and damaging my speakers? Thanks

Could be the amp is being overdriven. Could be the speakers didn't like the distorted sound the amp was feeding them. It doesn't matter. Something was pissed.

Rule # 1 of this hobby is that if it statrs to sound distorted, turn it down quickly.

Then, start saving for upgrades.

If you're using a regular stereo receiver and you're powering 4 fronts rather than the two it wants to power, there's your problem. If you're powering to main speakers on each side with nominal impediances of 8 ohms, that's just like driving them in parallel so the receiver is seeing 4 ohms on each side. And if you're blasting them, that's very hard for the receiver/amplifier. The classic stereo setup is One speaker on each side, not two. I'm sure the frequency response is all over the place, especially so with having two speakers on each side playing the same thing. Use just one speaker on each side.

if you're going to use more than 1 speaker per terminal, and your receiver isnt rated for 4 ohms, you have to hook them up in series so your receiver will see them as 16 ohms. Im doing this for my surrounds (until i get a 7.1 receiver) and it works great, but i would never do it for my front mains, since they do 90% of the work.

You're right it's the distortion, I'm glad I found this out now, I read not to put 4 fronts before, don't know why I chose not to heed to good advice because damaging speakers is not my goal, probably selective thinking, and I didn't realize how tough that is for the amp, even a quite powerful one. Glad because I can fix this now and not later when the whole system might undergo irreprible damage.