Can you wire 4 height speakers in parallel on an 5.1.2 receiver? (1 Viewer)

[steve91755]

Lets say you have a 7.2 AVR that does 5.1.2

What keeps you from piggybacking an extra speaker on each channel on height speakers if you were to install them in the ceiling?

Is there a difference than using a 9.2 AVR for a 5.1.4 system? Aside from the impedance and extra stress on the amp?

Like some sort of time shift or phase issues?

 

[JohnRice]

There is a difference, since what you're proposing would make the front and back Atmos speakers the same. In an actual 4 channel Atmos setup, sounds move between front and back back, rather then being in both at the same time.

So, downsides are that you can't adjust the levels of the front and back channels individually, and there's always the danger of damaging your receiver because of the low impedance. the damage that causes isn't usually immediately apparent, unless the receiver shuts down. Instead, it will shorten its life, which you don't know about until it's too late. If you want to try it, you might wire them in series rather than parallel, especially if their impedance is below 8 Ohm.

If I were to speculate, I'd suspect that doing this would actually diminish the impact of the effect, since it would produce a large smear of sound over your head, rather than distinct movement of sound, like Atmos is supposed to.