Yamaha Rx-A1000 presence speaker set up? (1 Viewer)

[Tomn8r]

Hello to all, this is my first post. After living with my trusty Yamaha 2092 for so long now, i decided to buy a Rx-A1000 to take advantage of the new Blue Ray player i bought a couple weeks ago. The 2092 has "front effect" speakers. I'm wondering if i will be able to use them as front "presence" speakers. I already have 4 speakers at the rear with an extra amp, but if i use the 2 front presence will i lose the use of the 2 rear center speakers? What i will probably try is powering the 2 center rear with the extra amp & the 2 presence speakers with the Rx-A1000. Has anyone tried this? The info on Yamaha's site can be confusing, it does'nt give much info! Thanks for any help. Tom

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Hi Tom, first, welcome to HTF!
As far as I know, the front effects speakers are just that...for effects. You should not lose the rear channel speakers if you use the front effects. On my old Yamaha DSP-A1 receiver, I tried front effects for a while but did not go forward with them when I moved from one house to another...the effect was not that good, probably because of my speaker choice.

 

[Al.Anderson]

My take was that some receivers, and Yamaha is one of them, allow you to place 9 speakers and swap which 2 are not used. The idea is you use the rears for theater applications and the fronts presence for music applications. But if you have the extra amp capability you can do both.

 

[Tomn8r]

Well it worked just as i thought it would. I think i could've used the back surround & presence from the receivers speaker outputs, but also don't think it hurts to take some load off the receiver. So i am powering the rear surrounds with the separate amp. The auto speaker setup is pretty nice, just set the mic & let the receiver do the work. The thing that was really pissing me off was the receiver did not want to recognize DTS at first. I checked my settings, then got my old Sony DVD player out because it has DTS pass through & when i put a disc in with DTS sound on i would get no sound. I spent some hours in frustration & eventually called it a night, then all of a sudden in the morning it worked. What a relief! The receiver is "B stock", but is otherwise new (looks new/sealed box/all contents,ect). The Rx-A1000 is rated @105wpc, but IMHO my 2092 sounded more dynamic, & the fact that the Rx-A1000 only weighs 32lbs & the 2092 weighs 44lbs seems to support this. I did have the (DRC) Dynamic Range Control on most of the time though. Overall it's a happy tradeoff. The Rx-A1000 has enough power & more features & does not degrade the video signal, plus i can now use my Laser Disc again which has S-video out & my TV does'nt have S-video in so i now pass it through the Rx-A1000 to HDMI to the TV. Thanks for the replies. Tom

 

[ashiq73]

Hello Sir Came across your post and had a question. Since you are using an external amp now for the surround back speakers! Are you able to achieve 9.1 or does the receiver only let you use either surround back or presence speaker one at a time? Seems like from the manual you can only do it either or, cant utilize all speakers at the same time. I have the same receiver and was wondering if this would be possible. Please let me know if you get a moment. Would really appreciate your feedback, thanks.

 

[Tomn8r]

I checked the manual, you can use either the 'front presence" or "zone 2", but not both! You can use 4 rear speakers (7.1) & front effect speakers. Using the front presence will not give you 9.1! It just "enhances" the 2 front channels so it sounds more "theater like". I just use an extra amp to take the load off the receiver, even though sometimes when watching a concert i noticed that i will only get sound from the 2 outside rear channels (maybe if it's an older DVD!). On the 2092 i was using 2 extra amps, 1 for the front effects since the 2092 only has 25wpc for front effects, & the other for the extra center surrounds even though it was 5.1. I am thinking of...maybe powering the 2 front speakers with the 2 extra amps which are bridgeable to 200wpc so that when i reset sound levels the receiver will see the extra volume & set the other speakers louder accordingly. And 1 more thing. Since i use tube amps for stereo i use the zone 2 pre-outs to send the signal to the tube amps. Hope this helps.

 

[ashiq73]

Hello Tom Thanks for your reply and input. But I just want to clarify...so your saying that with your external amp you are able to use and get sound from all 9 speakers at the same time? Meaing, your 3 front speakers, surrounds and surround back and your front presence? Thanks

 

[Tomn8r]

But I just want to clarify...so your saying that with your external amp you are able to use and get sound from all 9 speakers at the same time? Meaing, your 3 front speakers, surrounds and surround back and your front presence? Thanks

Actually what i wrote & the way i see it in the manual is, you will be able to get sound from all 9 speakers (using the extra/second zone for the "front presence"). The only reason i use the extra amp is to "take the load off" the receiver, since it is not only lighter but also taller than my 2092 & i cannot put my muffin fan on top of it like i did the 2092! If you have an extra amp you want to put in the mix i highly suggest it, since it will take some load off the rx-a1000. Hope this helped.