Need help how to connect my speakers

[arazs5]

I have 4 speakers I removed from a job, now I'm wanting to install them in the ceiling of my basement. They have a 8 ohm bypass switch, I want to hook them up to the stereo receiver I have, I also have 1 loudspeaker that I would like to still use too, what is the best way to connect them to get the best output and not strain my receiver?? It is an older onkyo receiver and the ceiling speakers are atlas fap42t, the loudspeaker is a dcm with 12" woofer, a mid, and tweeter, my receiver says minimum of 6 ohms per channel, that's all the info I have, can anyone help???

[gootee]

I'm not sure how you would want to hook them up, if you're using the amplifier in stereo mode. But, if you connect two 8-Ohm resistances in series, you get a 16 Ohm resistance. If you connect two more 8-Ohm resistances in series, you have another 16-Ohm resistance. If you then connect those two 16-Ohm resistances in parallel with each other, the parallel assembly would be an 8-Ohm resistance. I'm not sure how it would work, if it were four 8-Ohm speakers. But it shouldn't hurt the amplifier, unless one of those speakers would hurt it. Speaker impedance varies with frequency. The "8 Ohms" is just a nominal rating. An 8-Ohm speaker can dip to much lower impedances, sometimes. But if they are arranged as described above, i.e. with two sets of two-in-series per set, with the two sets in parallel, then the impedance of the whole assembly won't dip below that of the individual speakers, if they all behave identically. For example, if they all dipped to four Ohms, then the impedance of the whole assembly of four of them would dip to four Ohms, since two in series would then dip from 16 to 8 Ohms, and two of those in parallel would dip to 4 Ohms.

Parallelling R1 and R2 gives Rparallel = (R1*R2)/(R1+R2).
R1 and R2 is series give Rseries = R1 + R2.

Series is when you lay them end-to-end and connect then together in the middle.
Parallel is when you lay them side-by-side and connect the corresponding ends together, at both ends.

Here is a diagram of how four 8-Ohm speakers would be connected in order to still look like an 8-Ohm speaker, to the amplifier:

http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/4spkr.gif

Here is more about wiring speakers together:

Shavano Music Online - Basics of wiring Speakers