I recently got a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 7.2 speakers. Apparently they are bi-amp speakers. This is the closest picture I could find on the net of how they look on the back:



The only difference being, mine have a thin metal bar running vertical between the two speaker hookups.

Anyway, I want to hook these up to my Onkyo receiver (TX-SR500) which has the standard post type speaker hookup. How do I go about doing this? I'm assuming bi-amping isn't possible, but which connections do I use on the back of the speakers? And what are the metal bars for?

Thanks

The metal bars are connecting the two sections of speakers that can be bi-amped so you can run both sections with one connection. If you hook the wires from the receiver up to one positive and one negative on the speaker all the speakers will be driven.

You need to check the impedance of the speakers in this non bi-amped mode to make sure your receiver is appropriate for it. You could also remove the bars between the two speaker sections (assuming you have a separate sub-woofer) and just attach the receiver to the non bass-section poles.

Thanks for the info.

I don't have the manual for the speakers, but everything I find online seems to say they are 8 ohms which is fine for that receiver - I haven't found a different reading for non-bi amped mode, so is it safe to assume its the same impedance?

Also, I won't be using a subwoofer (this is going in a fairly small extra bedroom with just a turntable hooked up to it), so I'd just hook the speaker wire into the top hookup with the bar running through both? I might have to get thinner wire, because that seems like it would be a tight fit with what I have now.

I would assume the 8 ohms refers to the speakers with the straps attached. That is non bi-amped mode.

Yes, just hook them up at the top (or at the bottom). The strap will connect the two sets of terminals.

You don't want thinner wire. I don't know what you have, but thinner is NOT the answer.