Architect
Model 110-Model 210-Model 210ES
Installer’s Guide
™
Installation: The
Long Version
11
Speaker Hook-up
The same rule applies to the speaker wires as the RCA con-
nections. Establish a standard connection color code and stick
with it. One conductor of the speaker wire is normally marked
by a different color (silver versus copper) or there is a ribbing
on one side. Typically this marked conductor is used for the
positive (+) speaker leads. Of course the really good wire has
Positive and Negative printed right onto the wire jacket.
The Architect Model 110, Model 210 and Model 210SE
are designed with lots of speakers in mind. To make this type
of speaker connection simpler, there are two separate output
connector blocks. These outputs are paralleled internally so
remember to calculate your speaker impedances accordingly.
Your choice of speaker wire gauge and the length of the
runs also affects the speaker impedance load presented to
the amplifiers. As you can see in this table, even fairly short
speaker runs can have a very significant resistance if you use a
smaller wire gauge. This can be a benefit if you paralleling lots
of speakers. The wire itself acts as an impedance limiter, since
the amplifier cannot see a speaker load lower than the resis-
tance of the wire. The downside of this resistance in the wire
is that you waste the total power available to the speakers. All
that resistance in the speaker wire will turn some of your amp
power into heat.
Speaker Wire Resistance
See the appendix for information about bridging the Archi
-
tect into mono operation.
25’ 50’ 100’ 250’ 500’
24 GA
1.3
Ω
2.6
Ω
5.1
Ω
12.8
Ω
25.7
Ω
22 GA
0.8
Ω
1.6
Ω
3.24
Ω
8.1
Ω
16.0
Ω
20 GA
0.5
Ω
1.0
Ω
2.0
Ω
5.0
Ω
10.1
Ω
18 GA
0.3
Ω
0.6
Ω
1.28
Ω
3.2
Ω
6.4
Ω
16 GA
0.2
Ω
.4
Ω
0.8
Ω
2.0
Ω
4.0
Ω
14 GA
0.1
Ω
.25
Ω
0.5
Ω
1.26
Ω
2.5
Ω
12 GA
0.08
Ω
.16
Ω
0.32
Ω
0.8
Ω
1.6
Ω
Speaker Wire Resistance
Wire Gauge versus Run Length
Congratulations! You’re done with the hook up. Now for
the details of operation...
Calculating Impedance
For three 8 ohm speakers wired in
parallel (pluses connected to pluses)
the impedance is
1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 = 3/8
Then take the inverse or
8/3 = 2.66 ohms
