7.1 receiver with 6 speakers (1 Viewer)

[Shannon S.]

Hi everyone,
I am looking into new receivers and have realized that most of the quality receivers out there now are 7.1. Unfortunately, I only have a 6.1 speaker set up and am not looking to buy any more speakers for a while. Are most or at least some 7.1 receivers set up to deliver 6.1 audio?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Yes, they should do it just fine, you should be able to tell your receiver via menus that you only have 6 speakers hooked up, you will have to read the manual to see which one to hook it up to though.

 

[Blaine_M]

You have 6.1, or do you have 5.1? If you do have 6.1, you will want something that supports 6.1 EX/ES for Dolby D and DTS. If not it won't matter, and everything new is backwards compatable to 5.1. My receiver is 6.1, but I have 5.1, I just told the menu I didn't have a rear center speaker. My stereo does have a virtual 6.1 mode which is nice.

 

[John Garcia]

7.1 does not exist as a format, only 6.1, so all "7.1" receivers are compatible with 6.1. In the speaker setup, there should be a configuration that will let you select one or two rear centers (that's how mine is).

 

[ChrisWiggles]

There is one caveat that I forgot:

Logic 7, AFAIK, does not support a 6-speaker setup, only 5 or 7. If you are intending to use a processor with Logic 7, take this into account. If not, then shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Scott Sabin]

I believe the Pro Logic IIx also "decodes" 7 discrete channels from 2 or 5 channel sources. Don't know for certain whether it does 6.1 if you only have 6 speakers or not.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Scott, close, but your terminology is incorrect. It is not decoding discrete channels, such as DD 5.1, but using processing to create matrix channels from 5.1 material, and stereo material.

 

[John Garcia]

All Dolby is backwards compatible, so PLIIx will give you correct separation depending on how many speakers you have configured. It is not specific to 7 channels, AFAIK.