I've got a "home theater" receiver/amp with an A-B speaker switch. The
"A" speakers are in my listening room, the "B" speakers are on the patio
in the backyard. When I have them both switched on, the B speakers are
much louder than the A speakers. If I want to listen to music in the
house at a moderately loud level, my wife runs in from outside and tells
me to turn it down before the neighbors complain.

So I bought an L-pad for the B speakers, thinking that would enable me
to turn them down...

(Here's where it gets weird...)

When I turn down the L-pad, the B speakers go down in volume, BUT SO DO
THE A SPEAKERS!

I'm totally confused. Does this mean the A speakers and the B speakers
are connected in parallel or something?

Do I need to put an L-pad on the A speakers as well? Will that get them
working independently?

Further complication: This is a "home theater" amp, with separate
outputs for a subwoofer, center channel, and two rear channel speakers.
Will putting an L-pad in the A speakers (which also serve as the front
channel speakers for the home theater setup) screw up the balance of my
home theater system?

I thought I had a pretty good handle on all this stuff until today!

TIA for any help!

Chip

In article ,
BOB URZ wrote:
I've got a "home theater" receiver/amp with an A-B speaker switch. The
"A" speakers are in my listening room, the "B" speakers are on the patio
in the backyard. When I have them both switched on, the B speakers are
much louder than the A speakers. If I want to listen to music in the
house at a moderately loud level, my wife runs in from outside and tells
me to turn it down before the neighbors complain.

So I bought an L-pad for the B speakers, thinking that would enable me
to turn them down...

(Here's where it gets weird...)

When I turn down the L-pad, the B speakers go down in volume, BUT SO DO
THE A SPEAKERS!

I'm totally confused. Does this mean the A speakers and the B speakers
are connected in parallel or something?
What you need are autoformers and not L pads.

Sounds more likely to me that one of two things are happening:

1. The A/B speaker switch on the amplifier is connecting
the A and B speakers in series, leading to strange behavior
of the L-pad control

2. The L-Pad and/pr speakers arenm't connected right.

Autoformers will not load down the amps output
which is what hour problem is now.

Actually, they WILL load down the amplifier. The input impedance
to the transformer will look just like the speaker impedance
hooked to it, change only by the impedance ratio of the
transformer. The load will still be there.

I would confirm the wiring is correct before going further.

--
| Dick Pierce |
| Professional Audio Development |
| 1-781/826-4953 Voice and FAX |
| |

It sounds like your receiver combines the A and B speakers with a serial
connection. If this is the case, neither the L-pad or autoformer will work
properly. You could purchase a separate speaker selector with impedance
protection, and connect it to the A outputs only. However, with only one
pair of extra speakers, you could replace the L-pad with an autoformer with
impedance mulitpliers, then combine your two pairs of speakers in parallel
at the A outputs. Your volume control would then be the switch for the
second pair, and the impedance could be set to maintain proper loading on
your amp.

"Hogarth" wrote in message
...
I've got a "home theater" receiver/amp with an A-B speaker switch. The
"A" speakers are in my listening room, the "B" speakers are on the patio
in the backyard. When I have them both switched on, the B speakers are
much louder than the A speakers. If I want to listen to music in the
house at a moderately loud level, my wife runs in from outside and tells
me to turn it down before the neighbors complain.

So I bought an L-pad for the B speakers, thinking that would enable me
to turn them down...

(Here's where it gets weird...)

When I turn down the L-pad, the B speakers go down in volume, BUT SO DO
THE A SPEAKERS!

I'm totally confused. Does this mean the A speakers and the B speakers
are connected in parallel or something?

Do I need to put an L-pad on the A speakers as well? Will that get them
working independently?

Further complication: This is a "home theater" amp, with separate
outputs for a subwoofer, center channel, and two rear channel speakers.
Will putting an L-pad in the A speakers (which also serve as the front
channel speakers for the home theater setup) screw up the balance of my
home theater system?

I thought I had a pretty good handle on all this stuff until today!

TIA for any help!

Chip

In , on 06/29/03
at 05:41 PM, Hogarth said:

I've got a "home theater" receiver/amp with an A-B speaker switch. The
"A" speakers are in my listening room, the "B" speakers are on the
patio in the backyard. When I have them both switched on, the B
speakers are much louder than the A speakers. If I want to listen to
music in the house at a moderately loud level, my wife runs in from
outside and tells me to turn it down before the neighbors complain.

So I bought an L-pad for the B speakers, thinking that would enable me
to turn them down...

(Here's where it gets weird...)

When I turn down the L-pad, the B speakers go down in volume, BUT SO
DO THE A SPEAKERS!

Make sure you actually have an L-pad and that it is wired correctly.
You may have mixed-up "in" and "out".

I'm totally confused. Does this mean the A speakers and the B speakers
are connected in parallel or something?

They are probably connected in series or you have mixed "in" and "out".

Do I need to put an L-pad on the A speakers as well? Will that get
them working independently?

Further complication: This is a "home theater" amp, with separate
outputs for a subwoofer, center channel, and two rear channel
speakers. Will putting an L-pad in the A speakers (which also serve
as the front channel speakers for the home theater setup) screw up
the balance of my home theater system?

If your receiver uses a series connection for "A" and "B", then the
output will be lower when running "A" and "B" than when running "A" or
"B". This will upset the front to rear balance every time you switch a
pair of speakers on or off. This is only an annoyance unless your
receiver channel balance adjustment range is too short.

Using an autotransformer speaker volume control for each pair of
speakers (including the main), all connected to "A" or "B", will solve
your problem and result in an easy to use system. (but you still may
have a balance adjustment range problem)

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