Speaker selector switches...

I found the Niles hdl4 and hdl6 which handle 4 and 6 speaker pairs, but it says that your amplifier must be able to handle a 4 ohm load. Isn't that going to make the amp work harder, hotter that sort of thing? What do people do that have big 3 or 400 watt amps? Just not do it? Am I missing somthing?

I have been thinking of feeding a dedicated "house" amp (bridged mono) into a "passive resistance network" that will allow me to have all the speakers powered at once. Then I plan to have volume controls (or on/off controls) by each speaker.

While this is not super hi-fi, I expect it to be good enough for kitchen, office, and the like.

Just thought you might want to consider this as an alternative to a speaker selector switch.

I haven't actually done this, but many people in our area have (except in stereo, not mono).

- Eric

I had the same concerns about wattage when I wired my remote speakers. Initially I found the Niles HDL6. This is only a switch (no volume control), so I picked up a Creek OB-8 passive preamp to handle volume control. This worked ok but the volume was the same on all the remote speakers because the Creek was in-line with the switch. Now I'm using a Russound SDB-4.1. It's rated at 200w/channel RMS and 600w/channel peak. It supports dual source inputs and has 4 outputs with separate volume control for each output. Each output channel can be set to 2, 4 or 8 ohms using jumpers inside the case. I've had a pair of these for more than a year without any problem. I got them at www.hifi.com for $299.00 each. One caution -Russound makes a SDB-2.1 (2 outputs at 100 watts RMS) and a SDB-6.1 model (6 outputs at 150 watts RMS). The SDB-4.1 has better power handling than both of those. Good luck with the hunt.
David