4 speakers, 2 channel amp

ALmarg,I stand corrected,I presumed the four speakers were identical.

Brad34695...that's what I thought. You could wire them in
parallel to either the 8ohm or 4ohm tap. Really doesn't
matter. I would probably use the 8ohm tap. The amp will
see a 4ohm load that way, but Liz is correct also that the
4ohm tap will see the same impedance.

Your MC-2200 has a protection circuit, so you should be safe
either way.

Sorry, Al posted before I finished mine. Al is one of the
most knowledgeable people on here. He is wise, he is good.
Do what he says...

I agree with Mofi and Elizabeth. I would add that putting one speaker on each channel on the 4 ohm tap and the other on the 8 ohm tap will actually draw more current and power from the amp, and be more stressful on the amp, then putting both of them on the 4 ohm tap. The taps are not independent of each other; they just come from different points on the same transformer winding. And the 8 ohm tap will provide a higher output voltage for a given input voltage to the amplifier, causing it to deliver more power into a given speaker impedance if connected to the 8 ohm tap than if connected to the 4 ohm tap.

So I would suggest connecting both speakers on each channel to the 4 ohm tap. It may also be worthwhile comparing sonics with both speakers connected to the 2 ohm tap, because undoubtedly the impedance of the speakers dips down considerably below 8 ohms at some frequencies.

Series connection can sometimes be a viable alternative, as Yogiboy suggested, but I suspect not in this case. Since the two models are not identical, chances are the sonic results would not be very good, because the frequency response of one speaker would be thrown off by differences between its impedance variations as a function of frequency and those of the speaker it is in series with. Also, since the series connected speakers are nominally 8 ohms, you would be connecting a nominal total of 16 ohms to the 8 ohm tap, that being the highest available tap on this amplifier. That would result in the maximum amount of power the amp would be capable of delivering to the two speakers combined being greatly reduced perhaps cut in half.

Regards,
-- Al

Mofimadness - To answer your question, I have a pair of Paradigm Titan Monitor V5s and Monitor 7 V5s. All speakers are rated at 8 ohms.

For Mack it's safe. No worries.

You can try to wire the speakers in series to be safe. That doubles the impedance of your speakers.

Looking at the specs for the MC-2200 I found here:

http://audio-database.com/MCINTOSH/amp/mc2200-e.html

I think you would have no problem. The amp is stable into a
1ohm load, (a 1ohm rating is listed anyway). If the
Paradigm speakers are 8 ohms each, running them in parallel,
the amp would see a 4 ohm per channel load...no problem.

Even if the Paradigms are 4 ohm speakers, the amp would see
a 2 ohm load, still shouldn't be a problem, if the specs are
correct. What model of Paradigm speakers do you have.
Maybe check to see what the actual impedance is.

Also, the wattage really isn't the concern with the amp,
it's the impedance it can handle/drive safely. The MC-2200
seems to be a beefy amp with pretty high current
capabilities. It even has a "power guarding
system" that should protect the amp and speakers.

I wouldn't do it. You will get considerable drops in impedance that could be catastrophic. You can get an impedance matching transformer that will allow for multiple pairs of speakers without jeopardizing the amp.

My opinion-the speakers don't sound better at 4 ohms, you like the sound of the amp better when it is running at 4 ohms.