Need Help Trying to Boost Audio Sound in Rear of Stereo System Layout (1 Viewer)

[treed99]

Hi, first time poster here and a novice at technically understanding how to properly set up a stereo. I pulled out my 20-year old home stereo system out of storage and set it up in my basement. I have a Sony STR DE975 receiver, JBL 310 L&R speakers , JBL S-Center speaker and Rockville sub-woofer up in front. I have a Sony TV connected to it and the TV and music sounds pretty good at the front and middle of the room. I do have two JBL N24 bookshelf speakers connected in the rear of the room wired to the surround speaker terminals on the receiver. When playing music, the music coming out the N24s is lower than I want. If possible, I want to have the best of both worlds - I want to walk around the room and feel the power of the music I hear in the front and middle of the room to be in the rear of the room. I also want to use the rear speakers for surround sound when watching movies.
Is that achievable? Is the solution to get bigger tower speakers put them in the rear (in place of the N24s)? or is the limitation because the N24s are wired to the Surround sound terminals of the receiver and are limited to whatever the receiver is pumping out on those terminals? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Here is a link to the manual. Look for provisions to turn up the volume on the rear speakers. After that, look for a setting that runs all speakers during 2-channel (stereo) operation. If that option is not available, you will need to upgrade to a newer receiver, as that is a common option for music playback these days.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W001/W0010634M.pdf

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[treed99]

Hi Wayne, thank you for your reply. I will try that first thing in the morning and let you know. I appreciate the response.

Regards,

Tim

 

[JohnRice]

All-channel stereo mode, which might have a different name on your receiver, is the best way to achieve this. Call it "Party Mode" for music, to have music fully throughout the room, rather than focused from the front.

 

[treed99]

Here is a link to the manual. Look for provisions to turn up the volume on the rear speakers. After that, look for a setting that runs all speakers during 2-channel (stereo) operation. If that option is not available, you will need to upgrade to a newer receiver, as that is a common option for music playback these days.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W001/W0010634M.pdf

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Hi Wayne, I have fiddled around with the speaker settings on my Sony AV receiver with not much improvement. The rear "Surround" speakers were set to "Small" and I was able to change the setting to "Large" (like the front speakers). The sound was louder, but not to the extent I was hoping. Obviously there is a big difference in having JBL S310s in front and JBL N24 as the rear surround. Is it silly to assume that putting a larger pair of speakers (like JBL S310s) in the rear would bring the desired sound? If not, is there a different excellent receiver model you would recommend that would have that feature to allow the same degree of loudness from both front and rear speakers? It does not have to be a new model.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[1MoreFord]

I couldn't get Wayne's chrome extension link to work for me using firefox so here's the link I found that worked for me.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W001/W0010634M.pdf

Start at page 19.
Setting your speakers to large will negate the use of your sub. See pg 20
Set the speakers to small and the sub will take effect according to your cross over settings.
Once set to small go about setting your speaker distances. pg 21

Your cross over settings are on pg 23 Along with the Speaker Level Settings. The level settings are the ones that you need to look for most. They change the volume of the speakers relative to each other.

Changing speakers Or receivers would require you to go thru essentially the same drill to get equal volume from all speakers.