Yamaha XMV8280/XMV8140/XMV8280-D/XMV8140-D Owner's Manual

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Appendix
XMV8280/XMV8140/XMV8280-D/XMV8140-D Owner’s Manual
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For a high-impedance connection a speaker transformer that 
raises the impedance to several hundred or thousand ohms is 
added to the speaker system. This allows the speaker system to 
be effectively driven with much lower current than is required 
for a low-impedance system. That, in turn, makes it possible to 
connect a larger number of speaker systems to each power 
amplifier output. High-impedance speaker connections work at 
a specific maximum voltage—usually 70 or 100 volts—and are 
therefore also referred to as “constant voltage” speaker systems 
(the label “constant voltage” is somewhat misleading: the actual 
output voltage fluctuates according to the input signal).
For a low-impedance speaker connection, the power amplifier is 
directly connected to a speaker system that has an inherent 
impedance of 4–16Ω.
The difference between these types of connection are outlined 
below.
Multiple Speaker System Drive Capability
High impedance
As long as the total nominal power input rating for all 
speakers is within the power output capability of the 
amplifier, any number of speaker systems can be con-
nected in parallel. In a high-impedance installation, the 
power input rating is determined by the speaker trans-
formers used.
If the 280W output XMV8280 is used with a speaker sys-
tem having speaker transformers that make the rated 
input 10W, you can connect a speaker system with a max-
imum of 24 speakers per channel based on the calculation 
(*), giving you a total of up to 192 speakers for the eight 
channels. In a high-impedance installation it is also possi-
ble to simultaneously drive speaker systems that have dif-
ferent input power ratings.
(*) Yamaha recommends that you allow a 20% margin to 
this number, considering variations in the trans-
former’s primary impedance, possible tap changes in 
the future, and the addition of speakers.
Low impedance
Normally only one speaker system is connected to each 
amplifier channel, as shown in the diagram.
This means that the number of speaker system that can be 
connected to an XMV is limited to eight.
However, even with low impedance connections, there is 
a way by which multiple speaker systems can be con-
nected to one channel.
When multiple speakers systems having the same imped-
ance are connected in parallel, the total impedance 
becomes the individual speaker system impedance 
divided by the number of systems connected. This means 
that if the XMV is set to 4Ω, up to two 8Ω speaker sys-
tems can be connected to one channel.
The second method is series connection. In this case the 
total impedance is simply the sum of the impedances of 
the speaker systems connected. But as you can see in the 
series connection wiring diagram, if one speaker system 
fails the second speaker system will be affected as well.
High-impedance and Low-impedance 
Connections
10W
10W
10W
10W
10W
70V/100V
Speaker transformer
Total impedance = 4Ω
Cannot be 
connected
Interruption
Total impedance 
= 8Ω
Failure
No sound