Advice on Combining Speakers (1 Viewer)

[veggiop]

Dealing with a difficult situation and need some advice... I had to sacrifice my 5.1 Mirage speaker setup for a more lifestyle-friendly environment at the new home. I can use my left, center, right, and subwoofer speakers, but can't use the surrounds. I've just bought a new Yamaha 7.1 AVR (not set up yet) and am wondering if its possible, recommended, or NOT recommended to connect the surround outputs or the back surround outputs from the AVR to the left/right channel speakers as well.... trying to be sure that all of the sound output is driven to a speaker. Or will the AVR know that when I set it all up? On a related note, I've found that the Mirage speakers and Sony 5.1 AVR system hasn't performed that well with movies/TV anyway.... it seems I'm always turning up the volume when its mostly dialog, and turning it down again during action scenes. Is this likely a result of my speakers, my old Sony AVR, or something else? Thanks for the advice!

 

[Al.Anderson]

It is definitely NOT a good idea to connect additional speakers in series (just connecting them to the posts as another speaker), it canovertax the receiver and cause shutdown or damage. It is acceptable to connect them in series (receiver+ to speakerA+, speakerA- to speaker B+, speakerB- to receiver-).


But that's all moot for your need, because as you surmised, when you tell the receiver at setup that there is no speaker in a slot it sends that signal to another speaker.

 

[Ed Moxley]

I agree with what Al said.

In the receiver's setup menus, just disable the speakers you're not going to use. The receiver will do the rest.


Quote:

Originally Posted by veggiop

On a related note, I've found that the Mirage speakers and Sony 5.1 AVR system hasn't performed that well with movies/TV anyway.... it seems I'm always turning up the volume when its mostly dialog, and turning it down again during action scenes. Is this likely a result of my speakers, my old Sony AVR, or something else?

It sounds like the speakers weren't calibrated. Once you get the new stuff setup, run the auto calibration that's built-in to the Yamaha. I think Yamaha calls it YPAO, or something like that. Once it finishes calibrating, some people manually turns up the center channel a db or two, to make sure the action doesn't drown out the voices. Turn it up a little higher if you need to.

Good luck!