Four-way speaker switches are a fantastic way to wire your home for audio. A four-way speaker switch accepts the output from your receiver/amplifier and splits it, allowing up to four pairs of speakers to be connected. Once connected, you will be able to turn them on and off independently, allowing you to play the music in one, two, three or all four rooms all from the one source.
This switch allows four pairs of speakers to be run from an amplifier with only one set of outputs, or four pairs of speakers from the one speaker cable. The spring clip terminals accept speaker cable up to 16 AWG.
Impedance is the measurement of amplifier-to-speaker voltage in ohms. Although amplifiers are designed to manage various different speaker ratings, usually from four to 16 ohms, the use of multiple sets of speakers wired in standard stereo parallel can bring the ohm rating to very low levels, which can be harmful to your amp. Speaker selectors with impedance protection such as this unit include output transformers and electronics, which help balance impedance loads, and protect equipment.
Impedance switching built into the unit ensures the minimum impedance seen by the amp is 4 Ohm (if using 8 Ohm speakers), no matter how many of the pairs of speakers are switched on. See chart below.
Impedance Chart
Switches on (impedance):
- 1/2/3/4 (8 Ohm)
- 1+2 (16 Ohm)
- 1+3 (4 Ohm)
- 1+4 (4 Ohm)
- 2+3 (4 Ohm)
- 2+4 (4 Ohm)
- 3+4 (16 Ohm)
- 1+2+3 (5.3 Ohm)
- 1+2+4 (5.3 Ohm)
- 1+3+4 (5.3 Ohm)
- 2+3+4 (5.3 Ohm)
- 1+2+3+4 (8 Ohm)
