A/B switch - How to get sound from B speakers only??? (1 Viewer)

[Jack Pike]

Hello everyone.

I'm finally a member...SWEEEEET.

Anyway, I have a Yamaha 5240 receiver with an A/B switch. I just recently wired some 125 watt JBL outdoor speakers outside by my pool. I thought that if I hooked those 2 speakers to the "B" section of the receiver that I could push the "B" button and get sound out of those speakers only. Well, I was wrong. I need to find a way to maintain my surround sound speakers inside the house the way they are, but get the outside speakers to play without any of the indoor speakers playing also.

Can anyone help???

Thanks for any help.

Jack Pike

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Welcome. I don't have a Yamaha but I have a Pioneer, and they work like this. You didn't say what kind of sound you were trying to get out of them, but I'm going to assume that you're talking about CD's.

If you connected your CD player to your receiver with an optical cable, then it will not work because optical is a digital connector, and your receiver is forced into your 'A' speaker set.

The way to fix this is to run an audio pair (left/right) into the CD in on your receiver, and switch over to CD. Then you should be able to use just the 'B' set.

Glenn

 

[Ted Lee]

I need to find a way to maintain my surround sound speakers inside the house the way they are, but get the outside speakers to play without any of the indoor speakers playing also.

if i understand you correctly, what you're asking to do isn't possible.

you can't play just the surround speakers inside and the outdoor speakers off your "B" connection.

your surround speakers kick in when you're running your receiver in a surround mode (dd/dts/pro-logic). this requires all 5 speakers (including the ones hooked to your A connections). your B speakers are "independent" of the rest of the system.

ted

 

[Yee-Ming]

From what I remember of fiddling with a Yamaha receiver in a showroom, there are "A" and "B" switches on the front. When you engage the "B", you still have to disengage the "A" as well to silence them, it's not automatic.

 

[Mark Shannon]

I have a Panny SAHE100...

that too has both A and B speaker selections... similar to what Yee-Ming said, if I want to use ONLY the speakers that are hooked up to the B connection, I simply push "B" button to enable B speakers, and push "A" button to disable A speakers...

 

[Jack Pike]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I wish it was as simple as pushing the "B" button and depressing the "A" button, but it is not. I too have an "A" and "B" button right next to each other on the front of the receiver and after depressing the "A" and pushing the "B" buttons I still get sound from both the outside "B" speakers and the rear surround speakers from my 5.1 surround sound setup (which are inside the house ofcourse).

But...I think Glenn is onto something with his "digital connection" theory. When I was swimming in the pool last night my kids were watching the Emperor's New Groove on DVD which ofcourse has 5.1 surround sound. I decided to push the "B" button and depress the "A" button on the receiver to see what I would hear. While the DVD was playing the surround sound speakers in the house were working perfectly normal, even with the "A" button depressed and the "B" button pressed. The outside B speakers were acting like another set of surrounds because all I was hearing from them was just normal surround sound type of sounds...birds chirping, wind blowing, rain fall, etc... So, like Glenn said, with a digital connection the DVD player (which is my CD player) automatically uses the A speaker setup even with the "A" button depressed. So, maybe if I go home and use some RCA audio cables from my DVD player to my receiver (and keep my digital connection connected) when I play a CD and switch it to CD on the receiver it will play only the "B" set of speakers.

Worth a try.

Thanks guys. Any further help would be great.

Jack.