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Stacked Ar-2ax and AR-4x


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Here is the setup in my wifes craft room. I stacked the 4x's on the 2ax's to get them out of the way of some work in another room. Now the wife won't let me have them back. The 4's seem to compliment the 2's and the wife likes how they sound together. Oh well, she lets me have my hobby and if it keeps her happy...

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest daveshel

Just yesterday I tried a pair of Polk 4.6 Monitors atop my AR-4xs. Ever since I discovered the synergy of stacked Advents I have been trying various combinations. This has been the best sounding (except for the Advents of course).

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  • 2 years later...

How do you hook those up? Do you just connect the "stacked" speakers in paralell, or do you have stacked amps? Interesting combo...I just happen to have AR-2ax & AR-4x arranged in a stack, myself and would like to try this out.

I guess that I could just try it....seems like this would only be limited to my amp's output, right?

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How do you hook those up? Do you just connect the "stacked" speakers in paralell, or do you have stacked amps? Interesting combo...I just happen to have AR-2ax & AR-4x arranged in a stack, myself and would like to try this out.

I guess that I could just try it....seems like this would only be limited to my amp's output, right?

The Yamaha R-9 has A & B speaker outputs which makes it easy. I am running a Dynaco A10/A25 stack off my little Dynaco ST-120 amp so I did have to hook that up in parallel. Make sure your amp is rated down to 4 ohms be fore you do. Debating now whether to run my newest 2ax/4x stack through my Dyna 400 or the Fisher 800B. Sounds good with both but much warmer with the tubed 800B. Have fun.

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The Yamaha R-9 has A & B speaker outputs which makes it easy. I am running a Dynaco A10/A25 stack off my little Dynaco ST-120 amp so I did have to hook that up in parallel. Make sure your amp is rated down to 4 ohms be fore you do. Debating now whether to run my newest 2ax/4x stack through my Dyna 400 or the Fisher 800B. Sounds good with both but much warmer with the tubed 800B. Have fun.

I just tried the stacked 2ax/4x combo...connected in parallel to channel A on newer Sony A/V Receiver rated for 95W/ channel @ 8 ohms. All I can say is: WOW...sounds awesome. I have another pair of 4x's used as rear surrounds, and added AR-7's in front & rear center. It really does'nt take much volume to fill up the room with great sound.

Thanks for the idea about the stacking.

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I just tried the stacked 2ax/4x combo...connected in parallel to channel A on newer Sony A/V Receiver rated for 95W/ channel @ 8 ohms. All I can say is: WOW...sounds awesome. I have another pair of 4x's used as rear surrounds, and added AR-7's in front & rear center. It really does'nt take much volume to fill up the room with great sound.

Thanks for the idea about the stacking.

Glad you like the sound, but if you have hooked them up in parallel and are running a 4 ohm load on an amp rated for 8 ohms, not good. Here is a good read on the subject:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60386

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Glad you like the sound, but if you have hooked them up in parallel and are running a 4 ohm load on an amp rated for 8 ohms, not good. Here is a good read on the subject:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60386

Thanks for advice...but now I'm confused.

According to this 1970 brochure: both the AR-4x & the Ar-2ax are listed as 8 ohms impedance. Were there some earlier AR-4x made for 4 ohms? Would I be able to measure them without disconnecting the drivers from the rear terminals?

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Ahh...after some quick research, I found this:

Series Connection:

We described series speaker connections on a previous page. This page will explain how the impedance changes when speakers are connected in series. In a series connection you simply connect the positive terminal of speaker 'A' to positive terminal of the amplifier. Then you connect the negative terminal of spkr 'A' to the positive terminal of speaker 'B'. Lastly connect the negative terminal of speaker 'B' to the negative terminal of the amplifier. If both of the speakers have an impedance of 4 ohms, the total impedance will be 8 ohms. In a series connection, you simply add the individual impedances. If there were three 4 ohm speakers in series, the total impedance will be 12 ohms.

Parallel Connection:

The impedance change with a parallel speaker connection is only slightly more complicated than the series connection. When speakers are connected in parallel, the impedance is reduced. This means that, given the same output voltage, the current demand on the amplifier will be increased. If all speakers have the same impedance, the total impedance is the impedance of a single speaker divided by the total number of speakers. If you have two 4 ohm speakers connected in parallel, the total impedance is 4/2 or 2 ohms. As you can see in the diagram below, all of the positive speaker connections are connected and then connected to the positive terminal of the amplifier. The same is done with all of the negative connections. You must be careful when paralleling speakers onto an amplifier. The impedance can quickly fall below safe levels. This is especially true when connecting speakers in parallel onto a bridged amplifier.

So, if I connect 2 8 ohm loads in series, I'll end up with 16 ohms....if I connect another 16 ohms in parallel, that should bring me back to 8 ohms?

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A good solution might be to use a quality speaker selector switch, such as those available from Niles, Adcom, Russound etc. I have an old one that I use to run multiple speakers off a vintage AR amp. Works fine.

Kent

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A good solution might be to use a quality speaker selector switch, such as those available from Niles, Adcom, Russound etc. I have an old one that I use to run multiple speakers off a vintage AR amp. Works fine.

Kent

Kent,

That is an awesome suggestion. I looked at the Russound SS-4 which seems like it will be perfect for my situation. I was thinking about setting some other speakers around the house and wondered how it could be done. My present hookup does'nt seem to hurting my amp (operating at conservative levels) since it is a solid-state model, I wonder if it is compensating for the lower impedance. The amp does have A/B connections but the options are A/B/OFF, not A/B/BOTH. That is why I tried the parallel hookup.

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