7.1 speaker setup. Please help!

tortfsr24
tortfsr24 Posts: 79
edited March 2002 in Technical/Setup
The folllowing is a reply I just posted but wanted the entire lists input:

Presidan:

Finally someone with a Denon AVR-3802 so I can ask questions!

Here's the deal, I currently have a Denon AVR-3300 which only allows for 5.1 but will play 2 pairs of surrounds at once.

Currently my system consists of: (front) a CS 350 Ls center, two 15" Cerwin Vega subs and a pair of RT12s with upgraded tri-lam tweeters, (rear) a pair of LS/FXs set on dipole on the sides and another pair of RT12s with upgraded tri-lam tweeters behind the listening position.

I love being able to switch the surround speaker settings to listen to the rear RT12s for music and the LS/FXs for movies. (Sometimes I play all of them at once:D)

I want to upgrade to 6.1/7.1 and was considering the Denon AVR-3802. However, I really don't want to give up my rear RT12s for the rear center channels and don't want to move them from the back corners of the room to the center. I was thinking of buying 35is for the rear center channels. Will the 3802 accommodate this such that if I wanted to it would drive all 9 speakers at once? I was thinking I might be able to use the "multi" channel output to pull this off.

All in all, being able to play all 9 at once isn't the biggest issue. I just need to know if the 3802 is "smart" enough or has enough outputs to allow me to play the RT12s in the rear for 5 channel stereo or DVD-audio and also play the 35is and the LS/FX for DD 6.1/7.1. I don't want to have to climb behind my stereo rack and change speaker connections each time I switch between music and movies.

Hopefully I haven't confused everyone too bad.

I'm going to repost this reply in the forum for additional input.

Thanks in advance for your advice,

Brent

Other suggestions to completing this setup are welcomed!
Post edited by tortfsr24 on

Comments

  • mhetman
    mhetman Posts: 25
    edited March 2002
    Not sure how to address all your concerns but I can tell you how I have my system setup. I have 0ne Cerwin Vega 15" sub with the Polk CS-350 as my center channel. I have two AR HO12's for my front mains and two Polk RT-800i's as my side surrounds. I then have two Polk RT-35's as my rear back channels to complete my 7.1 system. My receiver is a Denon 3801 which just preceded your proposed 3802. When I play a DVD Audio source, I use a y-cable and combine my rear output with my my side surrounds and this really adds to my rear sound field. The 3801 has no trouble at all supporting this setup and has 5 watts less per channel then the newer 3802. I have never tried the extra side surrounds so I am not sure how much it would effect it. However, if you do bring your system up to the full 9 speakers, the impedence of the speakers is very important and shouldn't be less then 8 ohms with the two sets of side surrounds.
  • tortfsr24
    tortfsr24 Posts: 79
    edited March 2002
    Yeah, I may need to have a fire extinguisher handy!
  • goingganzo
    goingganzo Posts: 2,793
    edited March 2002
    i got one it is under the bar witch is in the other room dont everyonr have fire extinguisher
  • gene stangel
    gene stangel Posts: 35
    edited March 2002
    I have an Onkyo 787 with 7.1 and run my setup as follows:
    I have four ab-800 polk in-walls for surrounds with the rear pair doing the 7.1 for movies. I put a y-splitter on the surround output on my dvd-audio player and run the same signal in to both sets of surrounds from the multichannel output. It works great because when the source for dvd is set to multichannel it feeds the dvd audio signal to all four surrounds really filling in the room and yet the surround effect is great. When the dvd input is set to optical input, the receiver decodes any 7.1 signal and sends a different signal to the rear set of surrounds. I think your setup is essentially similar and hopefully this helps.