Denon 4800 Surround EX (1 Viewer)

[Pete_Jr]

I know you need an additional amp for the 2 surround backs but can you use an old receiver to do the job? Or do you have to buy an amp like the Denon POA-5200?
If you can use an old receiver(Sony 110Watt Dolby Surround)How would I hook it up?
Also without the back surrounds hooked up do you still play DVD's with EX on the Surround EX setting or just the Home THX? Will there be a difference?
Thanks
Pete

 

[Myram]

I would assume that an old receiver would work fine. All you would do is decide which speakers you are going to power with the receiver, run a pair of interconnects out from the 4800's outputs for those speakers to an input of the other receiver, then run speaker wire to the speakers from the other receiver. Then you have to go into your setup menu and go to the power amp assingment menu and tell the 4800 which speakers it is going to be powering.
I use the POA-5200 with my AVR-4800 and it is great. The two together work very well, the 4800 automatically turns on the 5200, and they look very good together. They both are THX Ultra certified, and the 5200 is a very powerful and clean amp.
If you don't have the rear center speakers hooked up, and you use Surround EX you will not hear a difference. The Surround EX is a blended rear center....that is it takes a little from the right rear and a little from the left rear and makes a "matrix" rear center channel.
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Home Theater Page

 

[Henry W]

I used an old Onkyo receiver to power two speakers with a 4800 to acheive 7 channel sound. It worked fine.
Best regards-Henry
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[MatthewJ S]

GO ONE STEP FURTHER : RUN THREE OFF THE OLD PRO-LOGIC FRONT STAGE!!!HA-HA

 

[Pete_Jr]

I hooked it up using my old receiver and I can't really notice a huge difference.
The 2 back speakers I have are pretty crappy seeing how they are the Toshiba surrounds I got with me TV. But still not a big difference. If anything my surrounds sound a bit more quiet on EX mode than the regular THX mode.
I have my Denon plugged into the CD jacks on my old receiver. The 2 speakers on hooked up to the front left and right on the old receiver also.
Well those are my thoughts on the EX Surround.
Pete

 

[Henry W]

It depends on source material. With the right movies on DVD the effects are stunning. Other material is strctly front loaded.
Best regards-Henry
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[Pete_Jr]

I tried it with Phantom Menace but like I said pretty crappy speakers. Plus My couch is right against the back wall, so they are right above me.
Pete