A comment was made on a different thread on this board about not running your receiver/ amplifier without a load (speaker). It is my strong opinion that any "good" audio amplifier should be designed with both short circuit and open circuit protection just as a matter of fact. Operation without a load (speaker) should cause no problem, period. Of course, we all know that there are well designed receivers/ amplifiers and then there are others that are not so well designed. So, maybe, the comment errs on the side of safety.

Anyhow, it made me wonder what you folks with 7 channel receivers/ amplifiers do with the unused channels if you are only using 5 speakers???

1. Has anyone tried to turn off the 2 unused channels? Can you even do it?

2. Has anyone tried to terminate the output in some sort of load?

3. For those of you who eventually went to 7 speakers, did the two unused channels work when you hooked up the speakers?

What say the tribe?

The Rat. M80s, VP-150, QS8s, SVS PC 20-39+, OPPO, Onkyo 703s, Harmony 880 Sony 60" SXRD HDTV