How do I…

Wire speakers as pairs

Pair passive speakers Left and Right in a zone or a surround, swap or undo a pair, wire a zone one speaker at a time, and move a speaker into its volume control's zone.

Where to find it: select a speaker › Properties › Cabling › Pairs: As pairs or Each speaker

A new zone of passive speakers is wired as pairs.

1. Chain-place speakers: place the first, then Cmd/Ctrl-click where each next one goes. Or connect them into a zone one by one. Every two that join become a pair — SP-1L and SP-1R, then SP-2L and SP-2R — and a fifth shows no pair.
2. Select a paired speaker. Its Cabling shows its Pair: the pair's name, its side and partner, and under it how the cable runs, such as one 16/4 from the rack through SP-1L to SP-1R. Point at the pair to outline both speakers; Select both, in the row's ⋯, selects them.
3. Swap L/R, in the same ⋯, swaps which speaker is Left. Where the cable enters and its Cable ID do not change.
4. Unpair ends the pair; the two speakers are numbered on their own again. Each of these is one undo step.
5. To wire a zone one speaker at a time, choose Each speaker in Pairs. Its pairs rest; As pairs brings them back and pairs any speaker left waiting.

A pair rests while a speaker is stereo, powered, 70V or a subwoofer, while its surround roles are not partners, while its speakers are in different zones, or while they go to different places. Disconnecting a speaker from its zone, or deleting a subwoofer chained between the two, ends its pair. A locked speaker is never paired.

Zones on a drawing from before cabling start as Each speaker, so nothing is renumbered until you switch one. Where you can only view, Pairs reads Wire as pairs or Wire each speaker.

If two people pair the same speaker at once, the earlier pair counts and the other shows Check: unpair it.

Pairs in a surround

In a surround, a left role pairs with its right one: FL with FR, FWL with FWR, SL with SR, SBL with SBR, TFL with TFR, TML with TMR and TRL with TRR, each on one four-conductor cable that enters the speaker nearer the rack. The centre and the subwoofers keep a cable of their own. The speakers still show their roles, and the shared cable takes the entry's Cable ID, such as S1-FL.1. There is no Swap L/R: the roles say which side is Left.

A surround placed from a preset tile, or from the surround builder, starts As pairs; a 5.2.4 goes from 15 cables to 11. The builder's Wiring step can place it with each speaker on its own instead. A surround drawn before pairs existed shows Each speaker and keeps a cable on every speaker until you choose As pairs. Either way is one undo step. The choice stays with the surround: chosen before a speaker's partner is there, the partner pairs when you add it, and deleting a partner keeps it.

A speaker wired to a volume control in another zone

A volume control is one zone. When a speaker from another zone is wired to it, its Cables show a warning with a button to move it into the volume control's zone. Its pair ends, and it joins the nearest speaker of that zone. When a speaker goes somewhere other than the rest of its zone, the button sends it there instead. See change an icon's cables.