A/B Speakers

lilditty

Active Member
Hi Everyone,

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I wasn't around in the heydey of most of the stuff discussed on this site :music:

It seems that the vast majority of receivers I have looked at have 2 sets of speaker outputs. I was curious of the reasoning. Was it common place to hook 2 different sets of speakers up for different listening types, or 4 of the same speaker and crank all 4 or what. Just curious what the main use was for this.

Thanks!
 
Hi Everyone,

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I wasn't around in the heydey of most of the stuff discussed on this site :music:

It seems that the vast majority of receivers I have looked at have 2 sets of speaker outputs. I was curious of the reasoning. Was it common place to hook 2 different sets of speakers up for different listening types, or 4 of the same speaker and crank all 4 or what. Just curious what the main use was for this.

Thanks!

You answered your own question! plus you can have speakers in another room also. It basically gives you options.:thmbsp:
 
Some old receivers even had A/B/C three sets.
Or Quadraphonic 4 speakers for A and 4 more on B
With quad it would be like a Car System L/R Front, L/R Rear
 
I used the "B Speakers" on my Realistic Reciever to feed a Pair of Minimus 7 Speakers I had set up in the kitchen with an L-pad to controll the Volume.
 
An important thing to keep in mind is that the A/B switch can alter the load on your amp. If you had two 8 Ohm speakers the new load could be either 4 or 16 Ohms depending on how the A/B switch is wired.

This is something you have to keep an eye out for so you don't smoke your amp if you decide to use two sets of speakers at the same time. :nono:
 
Interesting. Surround sound before surround sound!

Ha ha ha you must be young. Yes you are sort of right except that Quadraphonic is the predecessor of the various "Surround Sounds" that came afterwards. Qaud was nice but the industry never settled on a standard "Media" to play on it. So the consumer was lost or had to decide on witch one they would invest there money in. Kind of like Bata vs VCR.

Look at all the speaker terminals on this quad unit.

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Just so no one gets misled...

4 speakers does not equal surround sound. For some reason, a lot of people think this, and even insist that they have quad because they have a separate set of speakers in the same room. Quad (and surround) sends a different signal to the rear speakers. Otherwise all you have is "all speaker stereo".
 
Just so no one gets misled...

4 speakers does not equal surround sound. For some reason, a lot of people think this, and even insist that they have quad because they have a separate set of speakers in the same room. Quad (and surround) sends a different signal to the rear speakers. Otherwise all you have is "all speaker stereo".

Who said that just 4 speakers is Quad or Surround sound within this thread?
 
And yet, at least as early as 1971, folks were using the "Hafler Hook-up" for rear channel ambience retrieval, which is easily done with speaker wire, or with the Dynaco Quadaptor. In 1953, some R2R tape decks in Europe incorporated a discrete 4-channel system. "Surround" has been around and dabbled with longer than many folks realize. Dolby based his initial movie surround on a matrixed signal similar to the principal behind the Hafler circuit. How one connects an extra pair of speakers determines whether it is a surround-type approach.


From Wiki: "The first medium for 4-channel sound was the quadraphonic reel-to-reel tape, standard in European electronic-music studios by 1953 and introduced to the American market by the Vanguard Recording Society in June 1969."
 
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We are talking speaker layout! look at OP question. I do not feel the need to confuse the op with all the technicalities of a Quad system. I said pertaining to speaker layout that that Quad is LIKE a cars Speakers system L/R front And L/R Rear. And after stating that, it was helpful for the op to understand "Speaker Layout" & Quadraphonic.:scratch2:

If you would like to discuss Quad systems, all the Media, demodulators and components needed. Why don't you start your own thread:thmbsp:
 
We are talking speaker layout! look at OP question. I do not feel the need to confuse the op with all the technicalities of a Quad system. I said pertaining to speaker layout that that Quad is LIKE a cars Speakers system L/R front And L/R Rear. And after stating that, it was helpful for the op to understand "Speaker Layout" & Quadraphonic.:scratch2:

If you would like to discuss Quad systems, all the Media, demodulators and components needed. Why don't you start your own thread:thmbsp:

I, for one, got your point the first time around about comparison with a car's fader/balance control.

However, since you yourself made comments about quad and posted a huge picture of the back of a cool, old model, it seems a bit hypocritical to tell others to take their quad comments elsewhere... no offense, just sayin'...

As for the OP's question... many of us believe that two speakers are better than four in the same room, with the possible exception of a 'party mode' type of approach, maybe. For more accurate reproduction, it is generally felt that imaging suffers with the use of four stereo speakers.
 
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And yet, at least as early as 1971, folks were using the "Hafler Hook-up" for rear channel ambience retrieval, which is easily done with speaker wire, or with the Dynaco Quadaptor. In 1953, some R2R tape decks in Europe incorporated a discrete 4-channel system. "Surround" has been around and dabbled with longer than many folks realize. Dolby based his initial movie surround on a matrixed signal similar to the principal behind the Hafler circuit. How one connects an extra pair of speakers determines whether it is a surround-type approach.

And, to add a bit of unsolicited trivia to this. Polk's "SDA" system, was in affect a four speaker stereo.

Using Hafler's circuit for "ambiance recovery", and placing the pairs of speakers in single cabinets. His "SDA" speakers used twice as many drivers per cabinet, in affect two speakers per side, with the "extra" drivers wired as Hafler suggested back in the '60s. The same thing can be done with anybody's speakers, as long as you want to set up four!
 
I believe the SDA effect and speakers were designed to correct for interaural crosstalk. This is why SDA series speakers have dual tweeter assemblies and a special cable connecting the speakers.

A time delayed and phase reversed signal is fed to the opposite secondary tweeter assembly to help cancel the right channel signal at the left ear and vice versa. This increases the stereo effect, imaging and apparent depth. This is exactly what the Carver Sonic Holograph did electronically. The original headroom circuit was based on the same sort of thinking.

The Hafler effect is designed to extract ambience signals.
 
I, for one, got your point the first time around about comparison with a car's fader/balance control.

However, since you yourself made comments about quad and posted a huge picture of the back of a cool, old model, it seems a bit hypocritical to tell others to take their quad comments elsewhere... no offense, just sayin'...

As for the OP's question... many of us believe that two speakers are better than four in the same room, with the possible exception of a 'party mode' type of approach, maybe. For more accurate reproduction, it is generally felt that imaging suffers with the use of four stereo speakers.

Ya I know you do musichal just trying to show speaker channels in the photo. Op sounds like new and young so I was just trying to keep it simple. I have a fine Sansui quad system set up working as it should. Didn't need a side buster jumping in basically calling me a idiot without knowing me. I like the party sound too and have a setup like that as well. However my high end system is all stereo. So that's three system I have in my house.
Thanks
 
Jeez Louise. I don't recall inferring anyone was an idiot, just trying to clarify a potentially misleading statement. Don't get your knickers in a twist.

Now, where's that "ignore" button...:screwy:
 
Interesting. Surround sound before surround sound!

Right. With a sub I had "home theater" years before there were AV surround receivers. Sadly, I still have that, no avr.

Before that we always bed room, living room sets on the same source.
I have carelessly run two sets pretty much my whole life and have been lucky. I have two integrated amps now with A/B: the Rotel 1070 and a big monster HK HK 6950R.
 
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