Why Home Theatre?

[CubanlB]

Most theater (5.1 and upward) have multiple soundfeilds and output modes. So, you can have a surround sound receiver but tell it to only use your right and left speaker amps by putting it in stereo mode. (Or "Pure Direct" on some higher end receivers)

Multi room audio gets a little more complicated, but the way you want to have it set up is pretty strait forward.

Any stereo receiver (or surround sound receiver) will do. You just need to have a speaker selector to protect your amp from the change in impendence and source all your rooms of audio. Wiring three pairs of most speakers to a common set of terminals will burn out the amp over time and will most certainly overload your receiver if you try to run any reasonable amount of volume.

The speaker selector has an input that is connected to your receiver's left and right front speaker terminals and then you wire the speaker wire that goes to the rest of the home into that.

Since you don?t need a second zone I'd just look into getting a surround sound receiver that has A and B front speaker terminals. You can usually run them independently of each other through the receivers setup menu. I have a pioneer vsx-516 basically doing this now. It's A speaker terminals are running a pair of infinity beta bookshelf?s in my living room and the B terminals feed a speaker selector that run in ceilings in my bedroom, bathroom, and a pair of outdoor speakers on my patio.

Try going to a higher end AV store and talk to a salesperson about what you are trying to do. Yes, they will try to sell you something but if you get a good salesperson they are often great sources of information.

Anyway, goodluck.

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: sdifox
Actually, 5 channel stereo does remix the 2 channel source into surround. So your left surround would have mostly left channel sound with a little right mixed in.

Here is a H/K pdf file talking bout their processing called Logic 7

http://manuals.harman.com/HK/T...s/logic7-TechSheet.pdf

In a way, 5 channel stereo is no different than DPL, except it is specific to music.

I think you're a little confused. There are different algorithms.

Dolby has Dolby Pro Logic.
Harman (and other things) has Logic 7.
DTS has NEO:6.

Those all take a 2-channel source and create a 5.1 sound field off of it. Each of those has a music mode and a cinema/movie mode. Dolby also has a game mode.

All-channel stereo (or 5-channel stereo or 7-channel stereo) is something completely different from either of those three and it works as I described. It simply duplicates the 2-channel stereo to the rear and other channels. I am 100000% sure of this.

I have an HK receiver and it has all 4 processing modes and then some. I've tried the 4.

Here's a description of all the sound modes available on the receiver I have:
surround modes

 

[jeffandrenea]

It sounds like I just need a surround sound receiver (5.1 or 7.1) that has A+B speaker switches. Will I be able to connect the two floor and two surround speakers (and eventually a center and sub) to the receiver on speaker switch A? And the secondary and outside speakers (a pair in each location) will be connected to a separate speaker selector, which is then connected to the receiver on switch B? Multi-zone is needed only if I want to play a movie in surround in the main room and someone else wants to listen to a CD outside?

I'm not sure if I am getting it all correct.

I updated my current situation.

My Situation

 

[pennylane]

I think CubanlB has the best suggestion. Since you don't intend to play different music/movies in different rooms, you don't need a multizone receiver. Just a 5.1 receiver with that A-B capability.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: fanerman91

Originally posted by: sdifox
Actually, 5 channel stereo does remix the 2 channel source into surround. So your left surround would have mostly left channel sound with a little right mixed in.

Here is a H/K pdf file talking bout their processing called Logic 7

http://manuals.harman.com/HK/T...s/logic7-TechSheet.pdf

In a way, 5 channel stereo is no different than DPL, except it is specific to music.

I think you're a little confused. There are different algorithms.

Dolby has Dolby Pro Logic.
Harman (and other things) has Logic 7.
DTS has NEO:6.

Those all take a 2-channel source and create a 5.1 sound field off of it. Each of those has a music mode and a cinema/movie mode. Dolby also has a game mode.

All-channel stereo (or 5-channel stereo or 7-channel stereo) is something completely different from either of those three and it works as I described. It simply duplicates the 2-channel stereo to the rear and other channels. I am 100000% sure of this.

I have an HK receiver and it has all 4 processing modes and then some. I've tried the 4.

Here's a description of all the sound modes available on the receiver I have:
surround modes

Denon was the vendor that introduced 5 channel stereo. Different algorithm just means different people did them, the functions are similar, implementation is proprietary.
The way Denon does it the Left Front and Left Rear get Left channel data. Right Front and Right Rear get Right channel data. Centre is L+R.



I guess the op can just run 5 channel stereo mode for the tv room and assuming the receiver also has pre-out, wire the pre-out to another set of amps to power the speakers in the patio and the other room.

 

[jeffandrenea]

So I should keep the 2 channel receiver for the other two rooms and buy a surround sound receiver for the main room?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: jeffandrenea
So I should keep the 2 channel receiver for the other two rooms and buy a surround sound receiver for the main room?

Well, you definitely need a receiver with multi room mode because you wanted to be able to watch a movie in tv room and listen to cd in another. Since you already have volume control in the other rooms, all you need is really 4 extra channel of amplification.

You could keep the 2 channel receiver if you can't find a stero amp cheaper than it

part list

1 5.1 receiver with multiroom capability

1 Stereo receiver + 1 Stereo amp OR 2 Stereo Amp Or 4-5 channel amp. You don't need a lot of power on the amps

you would wire the polks as mains for the 5.1 receiver, the in walls in the ceiling you would use as surround. Then output of the multiroom (it would be line level) into the other pieces.

So when you are watching a movie, and you want to listen to cd in another room, you would change the secondary rooom source to cd and set appropriate level.

Party mode you would set everthing to CD.

This way, you can also use the tuner on the receiver to feed the in walls in the other rooms if you want to pretend you are at the dentist's office and hear radio everywhere


It may be cheaper for you to just get this, assuming your existing volume control are impedance matching ones.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=182-820

and get a bigger 2 channel amp to drive the 4 speakers.

 

[jeffandrenea]

I unscrewed one of the speaker volume controls and looked up the part number. They are both a Speakercraft VCR60/120. I don't know which it is (60 or 120), but online it says this:

Multiple Room Switch
This front mounted switch allows easy impedance adjustment when multiple speakers are to be connected to a single amplifier. It can be adjusted even after the control is mounted into the wall.

I wonder how I would adjust the impedance?

If I use that connection part from PartsExpress.com, I would not need the 2 channel stereo receiver? I need to have an amplifier for each pair of speakers?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: jeffandrenea
I unscrewed one of the speaker volume controls and looked up the part number. They are both a Speakercraft VCR60/120. I don't know which it is (60 or 120), but online it says this:

Multiple Room Switch
This front mounted switch allows easy impedance adjustment when multiple speakers are to be connected to a single amplifier. It can be adjusted even after the control is mounted into the wall.

I wonder how I would adjust the impedance?

If I use that connection part from PartsExpress.com, I would not need the 2 channel stereo receiver? I need to have an amplifier for each pair of speakers?

You will still need a 5.1 receiver for the tv room. For the other 2 pairs of speakers you can decide either you want that panel or 2 stereo amps.

With the panel, you just need 1 stereo amp. The receiver you have can be used as stereo amp. I think you'll be fine with 100w driving 2 6.5" and 2 0.5". As long as you are not trying to rock the neighbourhood. Try hooking up both pairs of the ceiling speakers in the other rooms to the stereo amps and see if it plays at the volume you want. If so, you just need to add a 5.1 receiver. If not, replace the stereo receiver with a bigger wattage stereo amp.

You can always find the manuals for the volume control online.

Is this it?

http://www.csesolutions.co.uk/...CR120-Installation.pdf

 

[CubanlB]

Yes Jeff, on most receivers (but not all) the B amp/speaker terminals are assignable. For instance my B terminals can be set to the surround backs for a 7.1 setup, or to Bi-amp capable front speakers, or as a 2nd zone without independent audio processing (basically a left and right that you can turn off). The there are other terminals for center, and surrounds.

The higher end receivers are going to have separate B terminals, Surround back terminals, and second zone terminals (with independent analog audio processing). So where I would have to choose what I want those terminals to do, higher end receivers(say a denon 1907 and up since someone was talking about denon) are going to be able to do all of that at once.

I'd most likely get a decent stereo receiver to drive the house audio and just run a line out to a cheaper surround receiver. Mainly because it seems like surround isn't your number one concern and it would give you something to play with to get used to all this stuff we are talking about so if you do decide to drop some cash on a nice surround receiver you can make an informed decision about what you are buying.

 

[jeffandrenea]

So, a CD player would run through the stereo receiver I have and I can run an output from that to an input on a surround receiver (so all speakers in all rooms are playing the CD source)? That would save me from buying a speaker selector because the stereo receiver has A+B? Yes, I want to be cautious with this new surround sound thing, so a cheaper surround sound receiver without multi-zone would work.

sdifox, yes those are the volume controls I have.


This is the receiver I bought for $69.


Here is a surround receiver for $160 - should I get this, too?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: jeffandrenea
So, a CD player would run through the stereo receiver I have and I can run an output from that to an input on a surround receiver (so all speakers in all rooms are playing the CD source)? That would save me from buying a speaker selector because the stereo receiver has A+B? Yes, I want to be cautious with this new surround sound thing, so a cheaper surround sound receiver without multi-zone would work.

sdifox, yes those are the volume controls I have.


This is the receiver I bought for $69.


Here is a surround receiver for $160 - should I get this, too?

The other way around. You connect all your sources to the 5.1 receiver with multi room capability, hook up the 2 channel one to the multi room pre-out section of the 5.1

If you don't want to do multi room from the 5.1, then you really have more flexibility. Speaker selector is only useful if you want to play 1 set of speaker OR another, but not both at the same time.


You can always just keep them separate, so the TV room is one system driven by 5.1 receiver, and the rest of the house with a 2 channel receiver. Just copy the CD



PS, what format is the layout in? Maybe it's something I can edit? don't really want to edit jpg.

 

[jeffandrenea]

Here it is:

Excel Document


I think I am confused again. The 5.1 receiver I linked to (Onkyo) does not have multi-room, so I can't get that one?

Do I need to have a 5.1 with multi-room PLUS a speaker selector (and return the 2 channel receiver)?

I want to be able to play a CD (one source) into all three rooms.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: jeffandrenea
Here it is:

Excel Document


I think I am confused again. The 5.1 receiver I linked to (Onkyo) does not have multi-room, so I can't get that one?

Do I need to have a 5.1 with multi-room PLUS a speaker selector (and return the 2 channel receiver)?

I want to be able to play a CD (one source) into all three rooms.

You definitely need multi-room. Or connect the CD player digital out to the 5.1, and the analogue out to the 2 channel.

are you on gmail? this discussion is getting long and I don't see the point of it being on the forum. PM me if you are interested. I can put the spreadsheet on google doc so we can discuss and edit.