Emotiva UPA-5 Manual

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ParallelConnections

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Aparallelcircuitisestablishedwhenvoicecoilsareconnectedinawaythattherearemultiplepathsforaudiosignalstoflow

“in”andmultiplepathsforaudiosignalstoflow“out”.Whenspeakersareconnectedinparallel,thetotalresistanceatthe

amplifierisproportionallydividedbasedonthevalueofeachindividualvoicecoilresistance.Theterm“divided”simply

meansallofthevaluestogetherinparallelareaSMALLERvaluethaneachallbyitself.Forexample,ifyouweretoparallel

connecttwospeakerstothefrontrightchanneloftheamplifier:

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Thepositiveoutputterminaloftherightchannelconnectstothepositiveinputpostofthefirstspeakerandtothepositive

postofthesecondspeaker.

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AnexampleofaPARALLELconnectionbetweentwospeakers.

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Thenegativeoutputterminaloftherightchannelconnectstothenegativeinputpostofthefirstspeakerandtothenegative

postofthesecondspeaker.

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Thetotalimpedanceofequalspeakersinparallelisfoundbydividingtheimpedanceofonespeakerbythenumberof

speakers.Forexample;two,eight‐ohmspeakersinparallelisafour‐ohmload(eightohmsdividedbytwo),foureight‐ohm

speakersinparallelisatwo‐ohmload(eightohmsdividedbyfour).Two‐ohmsinglechannelloadsareNOTRECOMMENDED!

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Runningyouramplifierbelowrecommendedimpedancelevelcancauseexcessiveheatandwilleventuallydrivethe

amplifierintoprotectmode(blinkingredLED’sonthefrontoftheunit).

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Parallelconnectionsareharderontheamplifierthanseriesconnection,asthetotalimpedanceislowercomparedtodriving

asinglespeaker,andtheamplifiermustproducemorecurrenttodrivethem.Ideally,thetotalaverageimpedanceshouldbe

nolessthan4ohmsperchannel.Youmustmakesurethatthelowerimpedancedoesnotcausetheamplifiertooverheat,

shutdown,ortripyourcircuitbreaker.Ifthishappens,youshouldreducethenumberofspeakerswiredinparallel,rewire

theminseries,orusemorethanonepoweramplifier.

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TechnicalNoteaboutMultipleSpeakerConnections

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Althoughtherearetwopossibleconnectiontypesdiscussedinthismanual,itisimperativethatwitheitherconnectiontype

thatyouuseloudspeakersofthesametypeandnominalimpedancefortheseconnections.Indoingso,youhavethemost

predictableoutcomeforyourinstallation.Whenspeakersofdifferentnominalimpedancesand/ordifferentbandwidthsare

used,therearemanyotheracousticproblemsthatcomeintoplayinadditiontocompleximpedanceattheamplifier’s

speakeroutputterminals.Ifyoumustusemultiplespeakersonanyindividualamplifierchannel,pleaseusespeakersasclose

toidenticalaspossible.

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