Question Parallel vs Serial Speaker Connection

[OhGod]

Hello!

Right to it in the hopes that someone can take the time to explain in a bit of detail ...

I have 1 central and 4 tower speakers that went with a pretty shoddy sub/amp that died. I also now have a pretty low-end (but, surprisingly, nice-sounding) little box speaker, soundbar and sub/amp set. Since I like the look of the tower speakers, I connected them (FR, FL, SR, SL) and the soundbar to the little sub. All is nice, and sounds pretty good ... but the thing is that for a little extra 'kick' I would very much like to ALSO connect the little box speakers. 😊

Well, from what I have read regarding parallel and serial connections I think I know what to do ... except for the fact that while the tower speakers have the little input holes that the positive and negative wires go in, the little box ones do not. They have an attached single wire coming from the back. THIS is where my brain fizzles and I hit a mental block. I think I can, technically, open the little box ones up, or if worse comes to worse, splice my wires into the wire coming out of the back to achieve what I'd like ... but I just can't picture exactly what I need to do. It's weird.

Back of tower speakers

Back of little box speakers

(Pls. excuse the dust bunnies in the images).

If someone could detail it for me for one speaker, I think it'll click!

Thanks so much, in advance.

 

[Darkbreeze]

For home systems, IMO, they should always be parallel. Series speaker installations should, again, IMO, be reserved for car audio unless you are highly knowledgeable and know exactly what your amp and speakers can handle OR in certain situations where you need to increase or decrease the resistance to adhere more closely to the Ohm requirement for a specific speaker or amp.

What you are not telling us is, what are the Ohm specifications for the speakers and what are the Ohm specifications for the amp. But generally, for home systems, you should adhere to the written spec and run everything in parallel unless the specs for a specific enclosure suggest otherwise OR you know what you are doing and are willing to go outside the box in which case you would not be asking. Also, might not be the best place to ask this. An audio forum would likely net you people far more willing to go into in depth detail. Although, I'll help as time allows if you really want to look more closely.

And I mean, even with two sets of speakers per channel, different boxes etc. you should STILL split your speaker wire and run each set in parallel. In series will drop the Ohms and can burn out speakers or amps easily.

 

[OhGod]

Yes, thank you. I would like to connect them using the parallel configuration. I looked for the Ohms on each, even going as far as opening up the bad sub, but couldn't find anything. The tower speakers are pretty low budget Goldwood speakers, but again, I like the way they look . Seeing that they were very inexpensive, I'd imagine they are 6 or 8 Ohm (I can probably phone Goldwood and ask). I think the parallel configuration would take care of that in any case since the total load would be divided (vs serial). The problem is that for some reason, I am drawing a blank on how to exactly do it being that the box speaker wires are hard-connected to the little speakers. I just don't know how to divvy up the negative and positive. I'm thinking of opening one up and seeing how they are connected inside and maybe going from there? I'll do that and post an image.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think you are misunderstanding. Parallel means, use the inputs on the box rather than wiring speaker to speaker throughout the entire series. If you can wait until later, since I'm just writing you during breaks while working in the shop, I will diagram it for you. Sending models of each speaker would be helpful. I can get better info that way.

 

[OhGod]

I genuinely appreciate the help! I will edit this reply with an image of the back of the little sub as well.

As for the models, I'm almost embarrassed to say. : )

The tower speakers are Goldwood speakers from their:
"AAT1003 Bluetooth Tower 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System with 8" Powered Subwoofer" set.

The little set is a gifted:
"iLive Electronics 5.1 Home Theater System with Bluetooth Model IHTB159B"

iLive Sub

 

[Darkbreeze]

Works.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sorry man. Have a serious health issue, my elbow, been in pain. I will look at this tonight and see if I have advice and if anybody else does, please feel free to chime in.

 

[OhGod]

Sorry man. Have a serious health issue, my elbow, been in pain. I will look at this tonight and see if I have advice and if anybody else does, please feel free to chime in.

Awww, I'm so sorry to hear that! Please don't worry then on my account. I hope you feel better soon 🌞!

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's lateral epicondylitis, which is tennis elbow. But never played tennis. Wrenching on cars and swinging a hammer are the likely causes. But shout back so I get a notice and I'll try to look at this this evening if I can. I'd like to help. Again though, might be better on one of the audio forums and I participate on a couple of them but I'm a soldier, not an expert, so, long as you understand that. I worked at this years ago. Now it's more like a hobby.

 

[OhGod]

Wrenching on cars sounds like more fun than tennis, anyway. Foreign or domestic just in case ... ? 😉

No biggie, and thank you. I just have itchy fingers and I don't want to blow my home's only source of relatively good sound for now. Ha.

 

[BFG-9000]

In series is safe for any amp but will halve the power output of said amp, though with the benefit of doubling the amplifier damping factor at the same time. This reduces ultimate volume but the bass will sound tighter.

Parallel can be dangerous as that's what drops the resistance, and any amp will attempt to output more watts but may be unable to do so, or overheat when trying to. It's the car stereo sub amps that are more typically available in extremely low ohm capability if they are high quality enough. You can recognize these because on the spec sheet dropping from 8ohms to 4 doubles the rated power output and 2ohms quadruples it. The higher SPL of more power this way can come at the price of floppier and more uncontrolled sounding bass.

Those speakers are designed to go with the amp they came with so can have any ohm rating. Note the ohms are expressed as a dynamic value (i.e. impedance) so if you simply measure across the terminals with a multimeter for the DC resistance value it will be less--typically an 8ohm speaker will measure 5-7ohms using a multimeter this way. If one set has markedly lower ohms than the other, then if you parallel them the lower ohm one will be louder than the other.

Actual home stereo speakers have an efficiency value of something like 90dB/w and while these smaller drivers may be somewhat lower, most people who value their hearing aren't going to use more than 2-3w on full-range speakers so halving amplifier power isn't as bad as it sounds. It's the sub that can use as much power as you can throw at it.

 

[OhGod]

In series is safe for any amp but will halve the power output of said amp, though with the benefit of doubling the amplifier damping factor at the same time. This reduces ultimate volume but the bass will sound tighter.

Parallel can be dangerous as that's what drops the resistance ...

Thank you for the reply, but now I am super confused. Everything I have read and also watched on YT says 'go with a parallel configuration'. I am upgrading my TV (picking it up on the 9th) and would love to have optimum sound for my music, not to mention for when I watch Breaking Bad and the Aliens franchise for the 876th time. 😆

The Goldwood sub was trash. It never worked well, then finally died in that it gets warm in the back and now you can hardly hear anything from the speakers connected to it. Connecting the Goldwood speakers to the little iLive sub is SO much better, but I REALLY wanted more "umph" - without breaking the bank. Still, now I'm wondering if I should just leave it as is for now or f* it and just try either configuration on the gamble that the little sub will burn out. 🤔