Expert: Wayne Tapia - 1/1/2010

Question
i am searching for a tuner or stereo for my office.  We have already installed "in wall" speakers and wire.  We have 7 speakers total that we would like to hook up.  I would like the option of using my ipod, radio, or cd.  What is the best system for me?

Answer
Hi Mike,

I lot of it depends heavily on how the speakers & the associated wiring is configured. Some offices I've seen have all of the speakers tied into a single mono source, so that every speaker is playing the same content. Some were set up for stereo so you'd have separate left & right channels from the speakers. Also - the amp selection relies on the output impedance of the speakers involved. Having a mismatch is not good for amps or speakers, and in some cases can make things go "poof" pretty quickly. I'm pretty sure that you're trying to avoid that scenario...

Before I can make any specific recommendations, I'll need to know the speaker / wiring configuration. Do you have this? Is it possible to find this out from the installers?