Update: The Man cave is nice and clean now; I can breathe again! I threw away about four bags of garbage from cleaning out my man cave. It feels good to purge all that junk. I also have a couple cardboard boxes full of stuff I want to sell. Maybe I'll post a few things here on the forum and see if I find anyone interested in receivers and other A/V gear.
I've made pretty good progress setting up my stereo the way I want it. I'm going for the full-fledge DTS 7.1 setup with HDMI and Blu-Ray everything on one end of the room plus a late 1970s / early 1980s hi-fi chrome-plated stereo with the record player, the cassette decks, the faux wood grain and the big shiny knobs on the other end of the room.
I'm looking for feedback on one thing. I think I have this figured out. I just want to get some confirmation from the forum because I trust y'all's opinions. Here's where I am...
I'm using a fancy-schmancy SONY reciever with DTS, Dolby, and every other digital codec under the sun. It powers my left, right, center, surrounds, and rear-surrounds just fine. My only gripe is that the subwoofer "low frequency effects" channel is not powered; it's just a line out. The manual prescribes a powered subwoofer for this. I don't own a powered subwoofer, but I do own a couple of passive subwoofers and another amplifier. I'm using a SONY stereo amplifier to power the "lfe" subwoofer like this...
SONY 7.1 --> low frequency effects output --> mono input --> SONY stereo--> subwoofer
I tested this setup with a regular old speaker that I had laying around. So far so good. Then I grab one of my big ol' bass subwoofers, and I notice a detail that gives me pause: The subwoofer is rated at only four Ohms (nominal) unlike all my other speakers which are rated at eight Ohms (nominal). I grab my other big ol' bass subwoofer. This one is also rated at four Ohms (nominal). Now the gears in my head start turning... I don't want to overheat my old stereo amplifier... What if I connect both subwoofers inline to create an eight ohm circuit? Imagine it like this...
SONY stereo output (8 Ohms) positive + terminal --> positive + terminal 1st subwoofer (4 Ohms) negative - terminal --> positive + terminal 2nd subwoofer (4 Ohms) negative - terminal --> back to the negative - terminal on the SONY stereo
What do you guys think? I've never blown an amplifier yet, and I don't plan to start. So, I'm trying to think this through and be careful. Does my logic make sense to y'all?