Description
Distribute your music to every room in your home with this 4 Channel speaker selector from Monoprice. This 4 Channel speaker selector allows you to distribute your audio signals to up to four different speaker zones. An optional impedance protection circuit ensures that impedance seen by your amplifier remains constant no matter how many speakers are in use. This switch can support up to 70 watts per channel with the protection circuit enabled or up to 140 watts per channel without the protection circuit in place.
From the manufacturer
Monoprice 4-Channel Speaker Selector – Black Up to 140W Per Ch. Distribute Speakers, Perfect for Home Theater Audio
Distribute your music to every room in your home with this 4-Channel Speaker Selector from Monoprice!
This 4-channel speaker selector allows you to distribute your audio signals to up to four different speaker “zones”. An optional impedance protection circuit ensures that impedance seen by your amplifier remains constant, no matter how many speakers are in use. This switch can support up to 70 watts per channel with the protection circuit enabled or up to 140 watts per channel without the protection circuit in place.
James R. –
Seems well-made, works wellThis unit works as advertised, and it’s solidly made. Sound pass through is as expected, and the whole thing has a quality look and feel to it, especially the buttons and connectors. The wire connectors took 14 gauge wire, and were easy to use, and seem to hold well. I’m completely happy with this unit. I like that the impedance protection for your amp is on by default, and you have to actively override it by pressing a button IF you are going to just use one channel and want max volume. Now that I’ve seen the quality, I am wishing I’d spent the extra $ for the model with individual volume controls.
Mark Urquhart –
Seems to work fine – not sure about when “protection” is engagedBought this to replace old radio shack that had failed. Steel and seems well made with venting although seems to emit almost no heat in use. My older speaker system I devised is odd (4 ohm subwoofer/capacitor in line with front mains – total 12 ohm–other is long speaker runs other room 10 ohm).Unit says to depress protection switch when only one set of speakers. I assume impedance balancing should not be needed for one speaker set. But unit shows depressed button means “engaged” and not “off”. Does this mean protection circuit is ON (70 watts/channel)I am guessing that when running multiple that “balancing” would be used with the switch NOT PRESSED. But product info is not clear seems to say opposite that it engages circuit. I have no fear that running either of my 12 ohm or 10 ohm speaker “channel” sets alone is safe for my 100 watt amp with no protection (impedance balancing) needed. But unit says to depress with only one speaker pair. Does this mean that “protection” circuit is on. If I engage both speaker sets if they are in parallel the 12 and 10 overall impedance amp sees would be would be 5.5 ohms. Should I depress switch to gain protection (does switch add 5 ohms)?If someone can clear this up for me I’d appreciate it since some other answers seemed to differ.
ctakim –
Good build quality except for the spring loaded terminal connectorsThis is a solid metal box with metal construction and front buttons that solidly click into place. The criticisms I have though are the back side speaker wire connectors which are cheap spring loaded bare wire connectors. These are poorly construced and the plastic pieces easily dislodge and send your spring flying. If you can find the pieces you can generally get them back into place, but it really the weak link here. The front impedance control is a bit confusing as engaging the button disengages the impedance protection but if you take the instruction literally and only engage when you have one pair of speakers, you will probably be fine. But aside from the above two issues, the unit works well and I use it for A vs. B two channel speaker comparisons. With the above caveats, I am satisfied with my purchase!
Hilton V. –
Quality of terminals is Poor.I got lucky. This unit has four outputs for 4 pair of speakers. Luckily for me I only had 3 pair of speakers to power up because three of the spring loaded terminals BROKE. I was extremely careful with them. All I did was depress the lever to allow a wire to be inserted into the hole, but as soon as i press the lever, the terminal breaks. Although the unit ended up working for me, It would not have been possible had I needed all four pairs of speakers working
Peter M –
Works with Sonos AmpI was looking for a way to control two sets of speakers powered by a Sonos amp and this product did the trick. I can now play one set at a time or both. Perfect inexpensive solution. Only downside is that you cannot independently control the volume, but I was aware of that before purchasing.
Douglas W. Schmale –
Works well. Using for two channels. Resistances are fine. Check your amp.There’s some confusion regarding the protection circuit. There is a 10-ohm resistor wired in parallel with all the circuits when selected. If you bypass it, in “Single pair direct” mode, it just wires the connected speakers in parallel. For example: I have 8ohm and 6ohm speakers on mine (only using two channels) the 6 ohm speakers measure 4.7 ohms on their own or direct through this box. With the protection circuit enabled, the amp “sees” almost 8 ohms (passive resistance). Selecting both pair directly shows a 3 ohm passive load (the 8 ohm pair measured about 6 passively). There is a noticeable but not particularly significant drop in sound level if you compare the protection circuit on/off while live.Anyway, it works and it’s inexpensive but seems well built. It was able to accommodate good 14 gauge wiring, though I’d much prefer banana plugs to the dinky spring clamps, I can’t knock it for performance. If you have three or four pair of speakers or are running 4 ohm pairs, the protection circuit will come in handy. My amp handles the 3.5 ohm impedance of both fine so I don’t bother with it. It just complicates things for my wife and adds an unnecessary circuit, for my purposes.
Q-fever –
Does the jobI have a yamaha RX-V675 with a powered zone 2. My house has speaker pairs in 4 locations (deck. kitchen, living room, and dining room) in addition to the main zone (family room). I’m not an audiophile so I had to research how to get the music to those locations. This type of device seems to be the only way. Hooking it up was very easy and the build quality is better than I thought it would be. Based on the price, I thought it would be cheap plastic but the outer casing is actually metal. I also like that it comes with little stickers so you can label the buttons. The only thing I noticed is that there can be some crossover or bleed through to a speaker pair even if it is not selected on the device. Now it could be how it’s hooked up but I did double check the connections. It’s not bad though. The bleed through sound is very quiet and I can eliminate it by turning the volume control knob (preinstalled when I bought the house) to that speaker pair all the way down. Again, I suppose this could be unique to my system or how it’s hooked up. That being said, I would still buy this item again. Works well and does the job it’s supposed to.
Stefen von Horten II –
Insane valueI know a lot of people get all technical, but I have a twenty year old receiver in my garage running two sets of outdoor speakers. I can get all into those details but i just wanted three sets of speakers. I purchased a third set for the driveway area for those days we play basketball but I didn’t have three outs so I bought this and now I have four. 🙂 The sound quality is far superior than I anticipated and frankly, the Single Pair Direct button makes things really sound clear. I can’t recommend this more. I have those $30 Dual brand outdoor speakers and honestly they sound just as good as my stereo inside. A+
Dr. Jekyll –
Almost 5 stars!Almost 5 stars! I use this to turn on and off my outside speakers tapped into my amp directly that’s also driving my hi-end stereo inside the house. The amp can handle the load and I still have the integrity of a straight unbroken path from amp to speakers inside. Because my amp can handle the direct load of two pair of speakers I leave the single pair direct button depressed and and use the input A button to turn on and off the speakers outside. The unit is heavy enough that it doesn’t slide when you push the buttons , it feels solid and well built with a metal housing not plastic and has good rubber or rubberized feet not hard plastic scratch your furniture stuff. My only complaint is the cheap spring loaded terminals. I have had speakers in the past where the springs have sprung and even corroded. If not for that this would be a 5 star item.
Troy D. Martin –
Works great if you know how to use it.I bought this to control a outside speaker and it works great. I have Denon reciever that is 7.2 capable and hooked it up to my surround speakers so I dont have to do Zone 2 control. I have it set to split my rear speakers to an outside speaker and works great.