ES & EX Speaker hook-up? (1 Viewer)

[Paul Pacey]

Can anyone please tell me how to connect the speaker for the rear centre channel in 6.1 EX and ES modes? I just bought a Yamaha RXV-800 with Polk Audio Speakers all round (RT25i fronts, CS175 centre, R10 surrounds, PSW250 sub) and would like to hear the difference of 6.1 to 5.1.
I would think it would be some combination of the right and left surround connections but I'm not sure.
Thanks in advance,
Paul

 

[Arthur Legardo]

You may be able to connect a rear center speaker in parallel with the surrounds, but natively, the RX-V800 doesn't support a true rear center speaker, just a "phantom" rear center.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

If that's true, then I'd send it back and get a receiver with true DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 decoding, 6.1 matrix for DD EX, and built in amps for the back surround speaker(s).
In Australia are there versions of the Denon 3802 and 2802 available? They have all that and ProLogic II.
Welcome aboard!
Dan
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[Edited last by Dan Hitchman on September 25, 2001 at 06:32 PM]

 

[Paul Pacey]

Hey thanks for the info, and for the welcome.
I think I'll have to stick with the phantom channel for now. I think the next receiver I buy will probably be a Lexicon and that'll be second-hand, and a few years down the track.
Thanks again,
Paul

 

[Duane M Davis]

There have been many posts on how to do a "home brew" type of Surround EX. You can do a search on the site for more info, but a simple way to do it is:
Your DVD player must have Pre-outs (that is, must have the Dolby Digital or DTS decoder "on board" the player itself and have the left/right/center/left-surround/right-surround/left-surround/subwoofer outputs on the back of the DVD player.) The trick is to run RCA cables from the L/R surround outputs on your player into an old Pro-Logic receiver (the one in the closet you thought you had replaced). I have mine going to the CD input. Then run another set of RCA cables from the Pro-Logic receiver outs (I have mine on the VCR out jacks) to the L/R Surround inputs on your Yamaha. Now, wire your surround EX speaker to the Center channel speaker terminal of the pro-logic receiver (I have 2 running in series. I may be doing that wrong. If so, I'm sure someone will correct me). Tune the Pro-Logic receiver to Pro-logic (preferably the 3 channel pro-logic setting without the surrounds) and now you have a home-brewed surround EX system. You will have to control the volume on this speaker separately from the main volume, since this is a second amp. This set-up works because the technology behind the (matrix) ex/es surround formats is the same as pro-logic's center channel. There is a discrete 6th channel format, but only a couple DVDs even have it and they are backwards compatible with this set-up, anyway. The receivers with 6.1/7.1 capability do this automatically, but this is an inexpensive way to get the same effect. Oh, yeah, the interesting thing about this is the DVD doesn't necessarily even have to be ex encoded. If there is phantom imaging between the surrounds, this speaker will grab it.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Your DVD player must have Pre-outs (that is, must have the Dolby Digital or DTS decoder "on board" the player itself and have the left/right/center/left-surround/right-surround/left-surround/subwoofer outputs on the back of the DVD player.)

Not true.
That way will work, but a better way is to use the pre outs on your Dolby Digital/DTS receiver/preamp-processor (if they are there). This way, you get the typically better bass management/DSP processing in the receiver/pre-pro instead of the DVD player.
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[derek]

See my faq for more info.
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Derek
Surround EX FAQ: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/P...urroundex.html

 

[Duane M Davis]

My receiver unfortunately doesn't have preouts. Plus, I was trying to make it as simple as possible. Thanks, though, I was hoping someone else could take up the cause with a little more specific info on his system.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

If your receiver *doesn't* have pre outs, you can still do it. You just need a gadget that converts from speaker level to line level.
Feed the L + R rear speaker lines into the "gadget", then feed the resulting L + R line level lines into the DPL receiver/processor, and voila, you get the rear center channel.
www.mcmelectronics.com has that gadget. Pretty cheap, maybe $15 if I remember.
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[Duane M Davis]

Oh good. I was looking for such an item. Looking on the site, I saw one for $45. http://www.mcmelectronics.com/Search...equestid=75408 . Usually I see them for $90.
I didn't see one for $15. I have seen such things for around that price, but they tend to be for car stereos and cannot handle a 100 watt input. I have a stand alone DD decoder I got 1st generation, so I use it for Dolby Digital, but have to run my DTS directly into my receiver via the digital. I'd love to get DTS ES since I adore DD EX.

 

[Duane M Davis]

Ok, two months later, I finally did it. I got the speaker to line-level converter. What I got was a Car Stereo Line-Out Converter from my local Radio Shack. Since this is intended for car stereos, it can't handle a 100 watt signal so I took a soldering iron and removed the resistors and replaced them on left and right with a 33K-Ohm resistor on the Speaker input Postive side and a 1K-Ohm resistor on the Speaker input Negative side. I connect it to my surround speaker outs. This reduces the surround speaker leads to line-level which goes into a regular pro-logic receiver (via RCA cables) which has the surround Left, Right and Center speakers wired to it. Works great. I recently upgraded to a DPL2 reciever that didn't have the 6.1 pre-outs, so this is a nice fix for now and only cost me $20 plus $1.25 for the resistors. For info on how to do it check this http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/speaker_to_line.html
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[Kevin C Brown]

Duane- That really is a "do it yourself" 6.1 set up. Congrats!
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