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Additional Home Theater Spearker

post #1 of 6
8/9/09 at 2:15pm
Thread Starter 
Hi My name is Fred,

I'm planning to replace an old stereo system with a Home Theater System.  I currently have the room wired for surround sound but have two other sets of speakers; one in the living room and one in a bedroom.  I was looking at a Onkyo 5.1 Home Theater in a Box but it doesn't have independent outputs to drive the other speakers (believe they are both 8 ohm speakers).

If I buy a 5.1 + 2 HTIB can I drive those speakers with the extra output or is this additional output coded for only a portion of the sound?  Do I need to go buy an A/V Receiver with enough outputs to drive a 5.1 surrounded sound and two sets of additional stereo speakers?

I plan to replace my DVR and CD player and replace my projection TV with a 50+ inch LCD TV (strong ambient light) in the near future as well.

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post #2 of 6
8/9/09 at 3:03pm
Separate receiver would be best.  Most of the newer 7.1 receivers allow you to run 5.1 in the main room, with 2 channels being dedicated to "zone 2".  With 2 other rooms involved you'd have to route those through a speaker selector switch, can't really do both simultaneously & independently without another amp.  You might want to keep the amp from your old stereo to handle one of the rooms.
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post #3 of 6
8/9/09 at 4:15pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks Stephan,

It would be nice to find a system with a zone 2 that will drive both sets of outlying speakers in parallel.  However, that's unlikely since would have to drive the 4 ohm impedance.  So it looks like I will end up getting a a separate receiver with sufficient capability to do the entire job.
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post #4 of 6
8/9/09 at 4:26pm
If you are OK with both living room & bedroom getting the same music (while the main room gets something else), and don't need really, really loud output, you can get an impedance-matching speaker selector (or alternatively, impedance-matching volume controls) to safely divide the output.  Then you don't need a second receiver.

http://www.smartbuyspeakers.com/multiple_speakertech
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post #5 of 6
8/9/09 at 9:35pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks again for the followup.  I had something like that a while back with some potentiometers that someone rigged up for me for the purpose.  It worked okay.  Is that something that is available off-the-shelf with the names you used?  if so, would someplace like Fry's have them?
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post #6 of 6
8/9/09 at 9:46pm
Sure Fry's or a Best Buy ought to have them.
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