4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

I bought one of these to control 4 sets of stereo speakers. Set up took 15 minutes. It lasted the summer and then began to fail - some areas no longer produced sound at all. As they are only $50 or so, I went to the Shack and bought another exactly the same. 6 months later, same thing - no sound from some selections.

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

I have speakers on both of my patios and in two rooms inside. This product was exactly what I needed to switch on and off in each place. When you run several speakers the volume does get lower but it isn't anything I didnt expect considering the ohms

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

I was a bit leery after reading the other reviews, but I took the plunge and bought this splitter to direct music to my patio. I can hardly put a CD in the right way, but this was easy to hook up, simple to use and works just fine for my simple needs. A little more expensive than I expected, but hey, it's not 1977 anymore!

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

This is a poor quality product that is behind the times in technology, flimsy construction, no impedance protection for amps, very poor quality wire connectors, the one I bought didn't work at all.
Spend the extra money and get a good one.

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

I got one of these splitters originally to add extra speaker pairs for my kitchen and dining room.
I discovered that this splitter keeps impedances (ohm ratings) under control by connecting certain speaker pairs in series (old christmas lights circuit) therefore it did not suit my application because the kitchen and dining room speakers had their own volume knobs on the wall in the room, so if i turned down the kitchen, the dining room would get even quieter.

I swapped this splitter for one i had elsewhere which had a extra switch for setting the impedance (ohm rating) and no longer had this problem.

bottom line: if your speakers you are hooking up to this splitter are all controlled only by the volume control of your receiver / amp than this splitter will work fine.

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

These work fine without power/volume reduction on a 2 speaker zone. I only needed this for 2 of the 4 outputs. I want to comment on those people who complained about the drop in volume when the 2nd set of speakers is turned on. This can be explained by looking at the impedance chart. The power delivered to the speakers is going to be the volume (squared) divided by the resistance (assume resistance equal impedance). If you connect 8 ohm speakers to A+B and have them both on then according to the impedance chart the impedance is 16 ohms. That means the power output of the amp will be just half that of just one set of speakers at the same volume setting. And on top of the 2 sets have to share that half output, so only 1/4 of the power is delivered to each set. Looking further at the impedance chart you can see that A+C creates a 4 ohm load on the amp. That means that the power output of the amp will be twice that of the one set of speakers. Now that 2x power output is shared between A and C so each speaker gets the same as if there were only one set hooked up, meaning no volume change.

Now, I've made a mistake or two in my life, so please correct my analysis if you think I made a mistake.

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

This speaker switch works like a champ. Easy to set up and I get great sound out of both sets of speakers. A, B, or A+B, all combinations work well.

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

I am also a professional installer and I have been using this device with no issues for years now. When properly connected it works great. I probablly have 25 installed in several applications. I even have one on my home system with no crosstalk between speaker chanels.

I have a feeling the folks that are having issues have their wires crossed, which would account for crosstalk, and poor quality.

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

Sounds bleeds across different speakers, so some are ever "off" as long as one is on.

Comments about RadioShack 4-Way Stereo Speaker Selector:

pay attention here, this is the real deal review....it technically works but not like it should. As others have noted, big time drop off in volume and range when multiple speakers run at the same time. So bottom line is that it is not worth the money.