Denon, multi-zone, and outdoor speakers? (1 Viewer)

[craig_curtis]

I have a Denon 1804, and want to try to hook up a second zone for outdoor speakers. I have tried just about everything to get it to work, and so far the only way is to have the outdoor speakers hooked up as the "surround back." Problem is, it will only work on generic stereo sources like tape or phono where I can set it to 5 channel, and then I also can't turn off the main speakers.

Question is, does anyone know how to get it to act as a generic B speaker like on far simpler receivers? Or do I need to get a different component to run the outdoor speakers? Would that be an amp (so that I can use the source coming from the Denon)?

I'd like to know what everyone else has done who has outdoor speakers running off of their main receiver.

The home theater room is at the end of the house, and has a door leading to the deck, which is where the outdoor speakers are.

Thanks!
Craig

 

[craig_curtis]

surely I'm not the only one here with a second set of speakers???

 

[Loosenut]

Craig - what was your end solution to this issue? I am considering getting a cheap 5.1 surround sound home theater and want to hook up a pair of speakers outside. Let me know what you discovered! thanks!!

 

[craig_curtis]

well, I never did get the denon to work. I mean, it SAYS it can output to a second set of speakers, but their instruction manual is so horrible, I could never get it to work (and I'm a pretty techie guy usually). So I just hooked it up to an old receiver. I can't even get the denon to send out a signal to another receiver though, so I just have to play outside music from another source. bummer. With having 2 kids though, I don't have much spare time to tinker, though, unfortunately! So there may yet be another solution...

oh, so if you want to hook something like that up, make sure it can play both A AND B, not A OR B like my other Amp. currently it isn't an issue though, but certainly is a nuisance. The spare receiver is the cheapest yamaha they had at best buy. So a little more expensive one might do the trick. Good thing to do is talk to someone at a specialty stereo store, and not a best by (they almost never seem to actually know anything!)

 

[Jeff Whitford]

It is a setup issue. In the receivers manual page 28 it shows that you have to set the surround back amp setup to zone 2. All your sources also need to be hooked up analog for them to work with zone 2. You can do digital too but for zone 2 they have to be analog as well. Take the other receiver back and buy some movies,CDs or just save the money. You also need to have the zone 2 button pressed on the front of the receiver. If zone 2 is on it will say it on the display of the receiver