tryin' to learn about 6.1 (1 Viewer)

[Dave Getson]

I've read a few threads about whether to use 1 rear centre or 2 rears. I've come to the conclusion that the overwhelming majority of you fine people say to go with 2. Logically, this makes more sense......more sound is better.
This is where I'm trying to learn a bit more. I've just started playing HT a few months ago. I bought my stuff, set it up, and I've pretty much let it sit there. Nothing fancy yet - just running everything off a Yamaha RX-V1000 receiver. It has 6.1 capabilities. Could I splice 2 rear speakers together and put them into the receiver to get the 6.1? This is where I'm trying to learn a bit more. I understand that I need an external amp. (that's something else I know nothing about, but I'll save that for another post).
Any help on how to set this whole thang up would be awesome. I'm actually hoping to use my current surround speakers and stands as the rear speakers, and get wall mounted surrounds in their place. Sorry about the long post.
Dave.

 

[Rich Malloy]

I use a single speaker in my 6.1 setup, and like it quite a bit. I believe the preference is for two speakers - that's the THX standard, at any rate.

I could hook up two speakers, if I choose, but I've never tried. Doing so, I would need to change my receiver from the 8-ohm to the 4-ohm setting in order to avoid... well... minor damage? Massive damage? Or just poorer performance?

I'm not sure, so I'm just running the one speaker for my rear center. I find it to be very effective, and a good blend with my side-mounted dipole surrounds. The rear soundstage is much more seamless than in a 5.1 setup.

 

[John Garcia]

If you have 4 surrounds, two di/bipoles along side the listeners, then two rears should not be a problem, especially in a larger room. If you have monopole surrounds, near the rear of the room or no room behind the listening position, then a single rear center is all that should be needed, IMO.

I run three identical monopoles in the rear, and I am very happy with this setup. I'm very impressed with the sound from EX/ES material.

Understand also that there are not many EX/ES titles available at this time, so you have to ask yourself if it is really worth it to have the extra speakers right now.

 

[Dave Getson]

Understand also that there are not many EX/ES titles available at this time, so you have to ask yourself if it is really worth it to have the extra speakers right now.

I know, John. It's more a look into the somewhat distant future. Although there isn't a lot of EX/ES material out there yet, I do have a few (Gladiator, The Haunting, Terminator 1 n' 2, the evil dead, and maybe a couple others, I don't remember...hehe)

Am I correct is saying that when using 2 rears, they would be spliced together? Or is there another way of setting them up?

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

2 rears would mean splitting the channel using something like a Y adapter. I have never had much success with quality from Y adapters but since it's just a rear it should sound fine.
Then when you upgrade to a 7.1 your speakers will be ready and waiting

 

[Angelo_Petralba]

I can understand that there are limited amount of EX/ES material out there but some Receivers actually do a REALLY GOOD JOB with the Matrix Processing of pretty much ANY 5.1 material. My Sony 5ES is a great example of this.

I only use 1 channel for my back surrounds (for now) because I dont have an external amp and it sounds considerably better than 5.1 (albeit its Matrixed).

Just my .02 cents

 

[jerry quintana]

? if your building a room from scratch wouldnt it make sence to set up the room for 8.1? I am building a room right now and am about to wire it before the drywall. should i run the wall outputs for three rear two bipols on the side walls, center and two front and sub? at least the wire for this and buy the speakers when i can afford the reciver? will using 8.1 with 5.1 movies affect the sound quality?

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

Wiring for 8.1 doesn't seem like a bad idea since it's cheap to do so and well worth it if 8.1 comes out.

I would not wire 3 back and 2 surrounds when using 5.1.

With that many speakers playing the same thing you start to lose a sense of stage in surround. The noise might sound like it's coming from all directions rather than sounding discrete in a 360 degree stage.

The back channel sound quality will probably not be an issue but the results might be.

 

[Dave Getson]

I'd have to agree with Chris. I wouldn't use 3 rear speakers. That middle one might cause havok with the way the split sounds were intended to be heard.

 

[Ted Lee]

i'm not so sure about splicing two speakers into the rear-center speaker terminal?

wouldn't that affect the amp or something? sorry i'm not more technical.

again...i'm just guessing here...

 

[derek]

Check my faq it's a bit outdated but includes the basics of setting up 6.1.

 

[SanfordL]

Dave, the question at hand though was how to set the whole thing up, right? If you splice 2 channels from one of the existing speaker level outputs, you are not going to do any favors to your receiver, and not going to get the 6.1 sound (you'll just have quad surround, which, well, doesn't help much.) I don't know, but I would imagine that an imbalanced load with 8 ohms for FR, FL, C, and then 4 ohms for the surrounds might be a little taxing on that built in amplifier. Also, you might check and make sure your Yamaha can handle a load like that. Those things are normally built like tanks, so it should be able to do it, but if you don't need to, why do it?
I don't know anything about the Yammy you have (other than what I've just read on their site,) but it sounds like it has 5 amplified channels, right? If so, then you will need to get a basic stereo amplifier to handle the rear center channel(s). So, if you look at the back of your current receiver, you should have something that states, Pre-amp rear center or something like that. So, you conect from the pre-out on your RX-V1000 into the input on your stereo amplifier via the stereo amps pre-in (if it doesn't have it, don't buy it.) The output from the stereo amplifier would drive the 1 or 2 rear channels.
Regarding the amplifier for the rear, just look for one that has close to the same THD as your Yamaha (around 0.04%THD I believe) although the THD is not that critical as you can not hear anything less than 1% THD (McNtosh's findings, not mine, so don't crucify the messenger). Just look for an amp that cranks out about 100 watts, and you'll be in there. Then you just set your levels, sit back, and enjoy. Oh, and don't worry, you'll probably change the whole thing once you get it set up. The more you know, the more you tweak.