Speaker hook up

[supertruck]

New to the forum. I have a decent indoor system but have a problem with my garage setup. I had an older JVC CD/Radio setup into a pair of Athena speakers. The CD stopped working so I found an older Sony setup (MHC-GX99) that I hoped to use with the Athenas, which I love. Here's the issue. The Sony has 4 speaker outputs for each speaker - plus and minus for the high frequency and plus and minus for the low frequency. Since the Athenas only have the standard two wire setup, I figured I could solder the two plus wires together and the two minus wires together from each speaker connection and tie them to my Athenas. No can do. The unit turns on but as soon as I push the CD button, I hear a click and the power indicator light begins flashing and nothing else works. I have to unplug the unit to reset it. Works fine with the speakers that came with it, but they have the 4-wire hookup. Did connecting the two separate plus and minus wires somehow overload the system? Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Integralista]

Hi, It looks like you have activated short circuit protection after you have winded amp outputs for bass and treble together. I recomment to use only amp outputs for "bass" and power with them your Athenas speakers. It could work. My old Panasonic system was also "4 amp, 4 speaker" system and output just from bass amp was including whole frequency spectrum. BR.

 

[PieterG]

I think the soldering is the problem here. You need to make both the HF and LF connect to the same speaker binding post, but their signals cannot "touch" each other as that will create a short circuit between the two amplifiers.
As a practical solution, you could try to twist the HF and LF wires together and insert them into the speaker post. If you need a cleaner connection, create some kind of Y-cable where each side connects to the HF and LF wire respectively, and the single-ended side of the Y-cable goes into the speaker post.

If you're lucky, Integralista's solution works. But i'm afraid you won't get the full signal from the LF outputs. I suspect the outputs fully separate the signal, and the speakers included with the player then recombine the signal from the separate inputs, to produce sound with the correct crossover between low and high frequencies.

If you look at the speaker wire you created, is your soldering close to the amplifiers or close to the speakers? If you bring the HF and LF wires together very near the speakers i suspect it does work.

Edit: forget the above...
Whenever you combine two wires with signal from the amplifier they cannot be joined together when they are disconnected from the speaker. Two wires tied to the speaker post should be ok because the speaker is passive. If you pull the wires out and they separate, you're ok. A soldered joint is not ok.

 

[supertruck]

Thanks to both of you for the replies! I'll try attaching the wires separately to the speaker terminals first and see how that works. I'll let you know how it goes. Appreciate the help.

 

[Gray]

Did connecting the two separate plus and minus wires somehow overload the system?

Yes - for the reasons explained by the others above.
I've got my brother's old Technics stack system here, which works in the same way as your Sony - effectively bi-amping the speakers.
As you've found, you can't just connect the HF and LF outputs to the same two terminals of 'normal' speakers.

If you really wanted to use the Athena speakers that you love, with the 4-wire Sony....where there's a will, there's a way - but it would mean internally modifying the Athenas and fitting two extra terminals.

 

[PieterG]

As you've found, you can't just connect the HF and LF outputs to the same two terminals of 'normal' speakers.

I still think it's worth trying to connect the HF and LF wires together to the speaker terminals (2 pairs left, 2 pairs right, and obviously paired correctly). If you make sure the speaker connections are in place before you turn on the amplifier, and make sure to turn off the amplifier before removing the wires from the speakers, then i don't think a short circuit occurs.
If it doesn't work, it won't be more harmful than what already happened during the first attempt