connecting lots of speakers to an amplifier

[dpopiz]

let's just say I get an "AV receiver" that has just 1 stereo output (2 channels) and I want to connect 4 sets of stereo speakers. Is it ok to just solder all the pairs of wires together or will that damage the speakers?

if it's not ok, is there an extra piece of audio hardware I can hook up to make it work?

 

[EvilYoda]

There are plenty of speaker selectors/switches out there, with Niles being an oft-used manufacturer.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Here's one

If you just wire them all in directly you'll kill your amp.

 

[NogginBoink]

If you have four sets of speakers and you wire them in parallel, the impedance of the speakers is likely to be lower than any consumer grade amp can handle and you'll, at best, trip a breaker in the amp.

If you must do this, I'd advocate wiring them in two parallel sets, each set wired in series.

Even then, if you don't know the impedance of the speakers and the resulting total impedance you could be risking your amp's health.