Emotiva UPA-5 Stereo Amplifier User Manual


 
ParallelConnections
Aparallelcircuitisestablishedwhenvoicecoilsareconnectedinawaythattherearemultiplepathsforaudiosignalstoflow
“in”andmultiplepathsforaudiosignalstoflow“out”.Whenspeakersareconnectedinparallel,thetotalresistanceatthe
amplifierisproportionallydividedbasedonthevalueofeachindividualvoicecoilresistance.Theterm“divided”simply
meansallofthevaluestogetherinparallelareaSMALLERvaluethaneachallbyitself.Forexample,ifyouweretoparallel
connecttwospeakerstothefrontrightchanneloftheamplifier:
Thepositiveoutputterminaloftherightchannelconnectstothepositiveinputpostofthefirstspeakerandtothepositive
postofthesecondspeaker.
AnexampleofaPARALLELconnectionbetweentwospeakers.
Thenegativeoutputterminaloftherightchannelconnectstothenegativeinputpostofthefirstspeakerandtothenegative
postofthesecondspeaker.
Thetotalimpedanceofequalspeakersinparallelisfoundbydividingtheimpedanceofonespeakerbythenumberof
speakers.Forexample;two,eightohmspeakersinparallelisafourohmload(eightohmsdividedbytwo),foureightohm
speakersinparallelisatwoohmload(eightohmsdividedbyfour).TwoohmsinglechannelloadsareNOTRECOMMENDED!
Runningyouramplifierbelowrecommendedimpedancelevelcancauseexcessiveheatandwilleventuallydrivethe
amplifierintoprotectmode(blinkingredLED’sonthefrontoftheunit).
Parallelconnectionsareharderontheamplifierthanseriesconnection,asthetotalimpedanceislowercomparedtodriving
asinglespeaker,andtheamplifiermustproducemorecurrenttodrivethem.Ideally,thetotalaverageimpedanceshouldbe
nolessthan4ohmsperchannel.Youmustmakesurethatthelowerimpedancedoesnotcausetheamplifiertooverheat,
shutdown,ortripyourcircuitbreaker.Ifthishappens,youshouldreducethenumberofspeakerswiredinparallel,rewire
theminseries,orusemorethanonepoweramplifier.
TechnicalNoteaboutMultipleSpeakerConnections
Althoughtherearetwopossibleconnectiontypesdiscussedinthismanual,itisimperativethatwitheitherconnectiontype
thatyouuseloudspeakersofthesametypeandnominalimpedancefortheseconnections.Indoingso,youhavethemost
predictableoutcomeforyourinstallation.Whenspeakersofdifferentnominalimpedancesand/ordifferentbandwidthsare
used,therearemanyotheracousticproblemsthatcomeintoplayinadditiontocompleximpedanceattheamplifier’s
speakeroutputterminals.Ifyoumustusemultiplespeakersonanyindividualamplifierchannel,pleaseusespeakersasclose
toidenticalaspossible.
26