Using a Sherwood S-5000 as a mono, one speaker amp -safe?

C

calectro

New Member
I'm curious about trying my Sherwood S-5000 (7189 version) as a one speaker mono amp, by wiring both leads of just one Klipsch Quartet to the left and right channel 8 ohm taps. According to the source below, this would double the wattage to the one speaker.

Is this safe? Can I damage the amp or speaker by doing this? I have a Sherwood S-1000II mono amp as well and I'd like to experiment using the S-5000 for one channel and the S-1000 for the other channel.

"The S-5000 could also be used as a mono power amp, giving 72 continuous watts. This was done by connecting the two speaker leads to the same figure (4.8 or 16) at each output channel at the rear. By using the "phase" switch at the front both amps would drive the same speaker - with double power. Two pieces of S-5000's would then give you stereo 2x72 watts! However, in this instance it would be important to connect the same way at both amps - otherwise the stereo signals would be out of phase." http://www.romeroy4u.com/Pictures.html
 
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Hmm, an interesting thought. Conceptually it makes sense, I would be curious to see the effect on distortion (you're basically adding another PP stage). I think you'd want to connect to the half-impedance taps (i.e. an 8-ohm speaker should be connected across the 4-ohm taps).

I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I'd certainly start with a test speaker and a scope to check for instability.
 
Do you really need to double the wattage to a Klipsch speaker? They're already a high efficiency speaker and you're probably getting an honest 20+ watts out of that Sherwood.
 
Its good for 3db of volume. Not sure its really enough to bother. The different amps side to side might be a bigger issue, depending on the specifics. I think the S-1000II is a 7868 amp? If so, different transformers and the tone circuits may well be different too. Not sure if the S-1000 series ran the S-5000 or S-5500 tone control circuits. They are different.

The power figures are pretty inflated on these. If its a 7591 or 7868 model, about 25 watts per pair is reasonable, so ~50 out of a paralleled amp. If its the earlier 7189 model, thats probably good for more like 18 per channel, so ~36 paralleled.

Shouldn't hurt anything though. Dyna ST-70's were designed to allow this in stock form. Simply throw the mono switch and wire the speaker outputs together in the correct way. On those, you strap the 16 ohm terminals together and connect it to an 8 ohm speaker.
 
Thanks for the input everyone! I gave it a try and it seems to work fine, although doesn't seem like a good idea to pair it with the S-1000ii. Anyway, I'm mostly just bored and experimenting as I can't leave the house these days :) Hope everyone is doing well!
 
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