OK, I'll admit I'm a bit of a novice but I'd like to think I'm not a total moron.
I have an Onkyo TX-SR674 receiver and I hooked up the Zone 2 speakers to a Phoenix Gold ISM-8 speaker selector so I could route sound to various speakers throughout my house. I turned on the receiver, routed a CD to Zone 2 and turned on two speakers. I turned up the volume on Zone 2 fairly high. Within a few minutes my speaker selector got very hot and starting smoking. Smoke was heavily rolling out of the speaker selector and I could smell burnt plastic.
Laugh all you want but someone tell me what I did wrong. The speaker selector says it can handle 140 Watts RMS/Channel. My receiver is 95 Watts/Channel so I just assumed the speaker selector could easily handle it.
RMS power ratings on speakers and switches are fanciful items that have no real basis in life. More than likely the speakers, or the wiring to them, drew excessive current through the switch box. There may have been a defective part in the switch box but I would call the manufacturer of the unit and ask for assistance before making any further connections to those speakers.